Sights

Overlooking Plaza Solares, Alta Gracia’s Jesuit monuments are the main reason to visit. Finished only five years before the Jesuits’ expulsion, the Iglesia Parroquial Nuestra Señora de la Merced stands alongside the Museo de la Estancia Jesuítica de Alta Gracia (tel. 03547/42-1303, www.museoliniers.org.ar, US$1.25).

Also known as the Casa del Virrey Liniers because the viceroy resided here for a few months in 1810, it has 17 permanent exhibit rooms on topics ranging from Comechingones ethnology to daily provincial life and customs.

Hours are 9 a.m.–8 p.m. Tuesday–Friday, 9:30 a.m.–8 p.m. weekends and holidays in summer; the rest of the year, it’s open 9 a.m.–1 p.m. and 3–7 p.m. Tuesday–Friday, 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. and 3:30–6:30 p.m. weekends and holidays.

Other Jesuit constructions flank the church and museum: To the south, the workshops known as El Obraje (1643) survive as a public school; to the north, the Tajamar (1659) diked a field to create a reservoir for irrigating their vineyards and orchards. It’s now a city park.

Several blocks northwest, the Guevaras frequented the recently restored Sierras Hotel (Avenida Vélez Sarsfield 198), though their diminished economic standing undercut their social position. Spanish composer Manuel de Falla lived seven years in the house known as Chalet Los Espinillos, now home to Museo Manuel de Falla (Avenida Pellegrini 1011, tel. 03547/42-1592, US$0.50, free Wed.).

It still contains the composer’s Eavestaff mini-piano and other personal items. Summer hours are 9 a.m.–8 p.m. Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–7 p.m. weekends; the rest of the year 9 a.m.–7 p.m. Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. weekends.

Immediately opposite Falla’s house, Che frequented the Club de Golf, acquiring a taste for the game that lasted into his Cuban years.

His family moved from house to rented house, but their principal residence was Villa Nydia (also known as Villa Beatriz), a solid, spacious, middle-class residence—despite financial setbacks, the Guevaras were not poor. Villa Nydia is now home to Museo Ernesto Che Guevara, a memorial to Che’s Alta Gracia period, which gained enormous publicity when Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez made a joint visit in 2006.

While the museum does a good job of reconstructing Che’s boyhood—through a photographic history of Ernesto and his family in Alta Gracia society, his school report cards, and memories by his classmates, cook Rosario González, and others—it doesn’t really place it in any greater context. This may not be the place for a full biography, but from its contents, one would hardly know that Che was a controversial figure, nor have any idea why it was converted into a museum, nor why so many neighbors opposed the conversion—nor even why Castro and Chávez visited in 2006.

Exhibits in the museum include a video of interviews of Che’s neighbors and boyhood friends, with imperfect but useful English subtitles. There are also a bicycle and a motorcycle of the same models that the youthful Che used in his trips around South America.

The museum has recently added a light-and-sound show (US$2.50) at 8:30 p.m. Thursday–Sunday.

In summer, the Museo Ernesto Che Guevara (Avellaneda 501, tel. 03547/42-8579, museochealtagracia [at] hotmail [dot] com, US$1.25, free Wed.) is open 9 a.m.–8 p.m. weekdays, 9:30 a.m.–8 p.m. weekends and holidays. The rest of the year, hours are 9 a.m.–7 p.m. weekdays, 9:30 a.m.–7 p.m. weekends and holidays.

Accommodations and Food

The only one of its kind in town, friendly Alta Gracia Hostel (Paraguay 218, tel. 03547/42-8810, www.altagraciahostel.com.ar, US$10–11 pp dorm, with breakfast) is a cozy, immaculate facility with eighteen bunks and individual lockers in three rooms with private baths. Rates include kitchen access, but towels cost US$1 extra.

Hostería Asturias (Vélez Sarsfield 147, tel. 03547/42-3668, US$21 s, US$29 d, with private bath) occupies a handsome building dating from Argentina’s railroad heyday. More utilitarian in style, Hotel Covadonga (Presidente Quintana 285, tel. 03547/42-3456, hospedaje_covadonga [at] hotmail [dot] com, US$36 d) is comfortable enough.

Immediately west of the plaza, Apart Hotel La Posada (Avenida Padre Viera 95, tel. 03547/42-2809, www.laposadaaparthotel.com.ar, US$55 s or d) has huge comfortable rooms. To live like the Guevaras’s social set, though, you’ll have to stay at the renovated Sierras Hotel Casino (Vélez Sarsfield 198, tel. 03547/43-1200, reservasag [at] cetsa [dot] com [dot] ar, US$130 s or d, with promotional rates for longer stays). Its otherwise stylish restaurant offers a fairly conservative but moderately priced Argentine menu.

On the south side of Plaza Solares, Trattoria Oro (España 18, tel. 03547/42-5619) has a diverse menu focused on regional dishes. In a comfortable colonial-style house with beamed ceilings and porticos, Morena (Avenida Sarmiento 413, tel. 03547/42-6365) serves “contemporary Argentine food” that takes some chances, such as their black ravioli stuffed with a shrimp mousse (US$8). The kitchen is quick, the service attentive, and the bread homemade.

La Merced (Belgrano 45) has fine ice cream.

Getting to Alta Gracia

The new long-distance Terminal de Ómnibus (Butori and Costanera) has direct service to Buenos Aires (11 hours, US$36–57). Opposite Plaza Solares, Sarmiento Diferencial de Pasajeros (Belgrano 71, tel. 03547/42-6001) goes to Córdoba every 15 minutes or so and operates 6–8 buses daily to Villa Carlos Paz.

© Wayne Bernhardson from Moon Argentina, 3rd edition