Roaming South America

San Juan, AR - A City Devistated, yet Survived Stronger

October 30, 2026

San Juan, Argentina, has a population of around 471,000 in the metropolitan area, as of 2010. The town itself has about 110,000. It is located in central-western Argentina, about midway between Mendoza and Salta. It's a very clean town, and there are many trees lining the streets, both in the center and in the suburbs.

The area the town sits in has been inhabited by several indigenous groups long before the age of Columbus. San Juan was founded in 1562 as San Juan de la Frontera. They laid out the town as a rectangle of square blocks around a central plaza, and at the corners of that original rectangle was another plaza or church. This plan followed the traditional Spanish layout for towns. In 1894, there was an earthquake that almost wiped out the entire town. They rebuilt and grew, but were hit by another, bigger earthquake in 1944. That quake registered at 7.8, with the epicenter only 20 kilometers away from the town center. They estimated some 10,000 people were killed, and thousands more were injured. Most of the town was destroyed or heavily damaged. But they rebuilt, and in doing so moved much of the residential area further out, widened the streets, built 5 new major avenues, built 53 new schools, 15 municipal office buildings, 20 police stations, new plazas, and more. There were many historical buildings destroyed. When they widened the streets, that included widening the sidewalks. I paced out a few of them - the narrowest out in the suburbs are about 3 meters wide, the inner-city sidewalks range from 3 to 7 meters wide. That's generally 11 feet to 22 feet wide for sidewalks.

The climate isn't so bad - the yearly average high is about 26° C (79° F) and the yearly average low is about 11° C (52° F). Yearly rainfall is low at about 90mm (3.5 inches). This part of the country is rural, with lots of farming and ranching.

San Juan is a pleasant town to visit. There's not much in the way of tourist attractions, most of which don't attract me, but this town would make a nice break from a long drive.