Desaguadero is a village and municipality in

San Luis Province San Luis () is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country (on the 32° South parallel). Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja Province (Argentina), La Rioja, Córdo ...

, straddling the province's border with

Mendoza Province Mendoza (), officially the Province of Mendoza, is a province of Argentina, in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders San Juan to the north, La Pampa and Neuquén to the south, San Luis to the east, and the r ...

in central

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

History

Desaguadero was one of the posts on the Camino Real del Oeste and through it passed the travelers from

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

heading to San Luis, Mendoza and

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital city, capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's Chilean Central Valley, central valley and is the center ...

. Peter Schmidtmeyer was one of the travelers who visited the town in the first half of the 19th century. In his book Viaje a Chile a través de los Andes (Journey to Chile through the Andes), published in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1824, he refers to his passage through it: “We crossed the desert, which is an ascending terrain with an extension of about fifty miles, without any water except a faint spring, sometimes dry, halfway, and after descending the gentle western slope of this place, we arrived at the post house of Desaguadero: a miserable dwelling, where a wooden grill with a piece of roasted meat and a picturesque resource of the peons made up for the lack of dishes. Near the ranches the river passes with a little water that for the most part is covered with reeds and inhabited by wild ducks, geese and swans ... ” Based on a sketch made on the spot, the Italian painter Agostino Aglio made a lithograph that illustrates this place, in which, in addition to the travelers who arrived at the post, one can see “the troop of horses that are led to the corral, where some will be chosen to cover the next stage; everyone is brought in so that they do not lose the habit of walking together”, as he explains.Susana Pérez Gutiérrez de Sánchez Vacca. ''Las postas del camino real en San Luis: “Relatos de viajeros”''
, 1998, Biblioteca Pública Digital de San Luis; acceso 10.07.2018

Climate

References

Populated places in Mendoza Province Populated places in San Luis Province {{SanLuisAR-geo-stub