Roaming South America

Two neighboring towns that are completely different

July 20, 2026

Residencia, AR

Residencia, Argentina, is a small city near the corner of Argentina and Paraguay. The population is probably around 300,000. The city was founded in 1878 which means there's no really interesting old architecture. But, what the city does have is a lot of parks and greenspace. It has a long pedestrian-only avenue. Also, throughout the city, especially the city center, you'll find sculptures along the sidewalks. According to the wiki page there are around 500 sculptures throughout the city. I don't doubt that, at all. There are also a lot of murals done in releaf throughout the city, and I have pics in the photo album of many of them. Since 1988, the city has held the Biennial International Sculptures Contest, which is a big enough deal that it is sponsored by UNESCO. When the contest finishes, the sculptures remain in the city along the sidewalks, which explains why there are so many of them.

This part of Argentina gets much warmer than most of the country. The daily average high is 28° C (82° F) across the year. The average low is 16° C (60° F) across the year. It also gets quite windy. And worse of all - the humidity - above 70% pretty much all year round.

The city also has an international airport and a modern bus terminal. The Rio Negro runs alongside the city but it's nothing to get excited about. It flows into the Rio Paraná. There's a big events area near it, as well.

Corrientes, AR

Across the Rio Paraná is the city of Corrientes. It's a bit bigger with about 350,000 people. It's also much older, founded in 1588 as San Juan de Vera de las Siete Corrientes ("Saint John of Vera of the Seven Currents"). That rather long name was later shortened to Corrientes. The "seven currents" refer to the seven peninsulas along the shore of the river near Corrientes, which create wild currents that made navigation difficult through this part of the river. And being so old, you will find a lot of colonial architecture here, making for a much more interesting visit if you like architecture. This city doesn't have the sculptures like its neighbor, nor does it have as much pedestrian-only roads, nor does it have the wide sidewalks, but considering its age - all of that should be expected.

Corrientes has a very well developed riverfront that stretches for kilometers, with several man-made sand beaches. There's also a port for container ships and a port for private boats. And at that port is a floating maritime museum. The climate here is the same as Residencia. A ways downstream is the Yaciretá dam, which is one of the largest hydroelectric power generators in the world.

There are a couple things I have difficulty with in Argentina, one is the dinner hour and the afternoons - according to their culture, dinner is 8 p.m. and later. If you're like me and your stomach is telling you it's dinnertime at 6 p.m. good luck finding a restaurant with its kitchen open. There's usually at least one in each city, but finding it requires a lot of traipsing around asking if they're serving dinner or just meriendas (snacks, sandwiches, empanadas, maybe pizza by the slice). The think I don't like is pretty much everything closes at 1 or 2 p.m. and doesn't reopen until 4 at the earliest, many at 5, and many restaurants much later. That is similar to the culture of Spain. The other countries of South America will close for 2 hours, rare 3 hours or more. Also, in AR, they do not have any coins, and if a store wants to give you a 10,000 peso bill try not to take it, it's worthless. A 20,000 peso bill might be usable, but many stores won't accept them. Only 50,000 and higher are always accepted. So, if you visit Argentina are either of these small cities must-visit locations? No, but if you are particularly interested in colonial architecture you might find Corrientes an interesting place to visit. Just try to aim for May - August (winter in the Southern Hemisphere) and the temp should be in the 20-25° C range (70-75° F).