SANTA ROSA promotes itself as the gateway to Patagonia, and indeed the only real reasons to visit La Pampa Province's capital, at the southwestern end of the RN5, are to break a long journey to or from Patagonia, or to use it as a base from which to visit the
Parque Nacional Lihúe Calel , the province's major attraction, dominated by low granite sierras. Parque Luro, 35km to the south, is much less wild than the national park but it offers a few gentle walks and opportunities for bird-watching. Santa Rosa is well connected to Buenos Aires, Neuquén, Bahía Blanca and Bariloche by public transport - but connections to the rest of the province from the town are less frequent and require a bit of planning.
The City
A rather squat modern city of around 80,000 inhabitants, Santa Rosa is sited on the western fringes of the wet pampa. Its predominantly flat and somewhat exposed position means that it receives the full brunt of the pampa's harsh winters and its bakingly hot summers. It's primarily a business and administrative centre - albeit with a friendly, small-town feel - and offers little in the way of conventional sightseeing.
Santa Rosa has two centres, which lie some eight blocks apart. The recently constructed centro cívico , site of the province's governmental offices, lies immediately south of Santa Rosa's busy bus terminal; the surrounding streets are also where you'll find the majority of the town's hotels, and many of its restaurants. Apart from this, though, there's little to keep you in this area. Head west instead, across busy Avenida Luro, the town's main north-south axis, towards Santa Rosa's true town centre, which has a much more relaxed atmosphere. On the corner of Avenida Luro and Avenida General J.A. Roca, and well worth a visit, you'll find the Mercado Artesanal (Mon-Fri 7am-8pm, Sat 8am-noon), a regional crafts outlet run by the provincial government. The market sells leather goods and kitchen utensils carved from the reddish-brown caldén tree - whose distinctive spreading branches can be seen throughout the province. The outlet's most striking products, however, are the hand-woven pampa textiles dyed with vivid aniline dyes. More subtle hues are obtained from natural substances extracted from indigenous shrubs. One of the plants, piquillín, is also used to make syrup ( arrope de piquillín ).
Following Avenida Roca eight blocks west will bring you to Santa Rosa's other centre, around its main square, the Plaza San Martín . The plaza has the customary leaping equestrian statue at its heart; a slightly more unexpected sight is the bizarre Cathedral on its western side. Regarded, no doubt, as a daring piece of modernism when it was inaugurated, the honeycombed concrete facade sadly looks more like a contorted piece of novelty pasta. The plaza's most appealing characteristic is probably the pavement cafés on its northwest corner.
Santa Rosa's extremely modest museums are not worth going out of your way for, but if you're really stuck for something to do the old-fashioned Museo Provincial de Historia Natural at Pellegrini 180 (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm, Sat & Sun 6-9pm; tel 02954/422693), one block northwest of Plaza San Martín, bears a visit, if only to see what elusive species such as the mara or Patagonian hare actually look like; the museum also has a small collection of Indian artefacts as well as dinosaur fossils, discovered when the town centre was redeveloped in 1994. There is also a small art museum, most commonly known as the Museo Verde , at 9 de Julio and Villegas, three blocks west of the Plaza, with temporary exhibitions of local artists.
