A sleepy agricultural town,
TORNQUIST is a possible stopover if you're heading to the sierras from Bahía Blanca. Its regular grid of streets is centred around an attractive wooded central plaza which is notable for being one of the few - possibly the only - squares in Argentina to have its church, the pretty red-tiled
Iglesia Santa Rosa de Lima , at its centre rather than on one of the surrounding streets. The church's simple rough-stone construction and plain Gothic windows give it a Northern European feel - rather appropriately, since the church was built by the town's founder, Ernesto Tornquist, a businessman and landowner of German descent. A somewhat severe-looking statue of Tornquist, who died in 1908, stands at the entrance to the plaza. The other modest attraction here is a small artificial
lake populated by ducks and geese.
All long-distance buses arrive at the La Estrella office on Calle Güemes, where you can also get details of local transport through the sierra region.The municipalidad lies on the northern side of the plaza, on Avenida Sarmiento (tel 0291/4941075); there's no properly designated tourist office but you should be able to pick up a map of the town here. There are only two hotels in town: the Hotel Central , 9 de Julio 242 (tel 0291/494-0035; $30-45, single $20 or less), has a rather dingy entrance, but offers clean, comfortable rooms, with good showers; and the Hotel San José , Güemes 132 (tel & fax 0291/494-0152; $30-45, single $20-30), a more appealing option with prettier rooms, TV and central heating. For pizzerias and parrillas head to Güemes, two blocks south of the plaza - one of the best is the pizzería, Buon Piaccere , on the corner of Güemes and 9 de Julio. There are telephone cabins on the corner of calles Tornquist and Bartolomé Mitre, one block south of the plaza, and a Banco de la Nación with an ATM on its southwestern corner.
