Roaming South America

Villa De Merlo, Argentina

December 3, 2024

Villa de Merlo is a town of about 40,000 people. It is a destination vacation town for Argentinos. It's quite a nice little town sitting at the foot of the Sierras de los Comechingones (the Comechingones Mountains). The climate is mild and for this weekend, wet. The average daytime high for summer, right now, is in the mid-to-upper 70s, though today it is only 22° C (72° F). Merlo is known for having its own microclimate.

On the north side of the town is a nature reserve, and in that reserve is a big boulder that is mostly white. That area became known as Piedra Blanca (White Rock). In 1794, Juan de Videla visited Piedra Blanca and saw that the area would be good for a town. On October 1, 1796, the town was given the name of Villa de Melo (Town of Melo), given in honor of Pedro Melo of Portugal.

The formal foundation took place on January 1, 1797. The ceremony took place in front of the chapel, beside an image of the Virgin of the Rosary. The name the town was founded with was Villa de Merlo (notice the slight change to the name). In Marqués de Sobremonte square, plaques commemorate the ceremonial founding of the town, and you can also see the old communal well and the chapel of Nuestra Señora del Rosario, which was built in 1795.

The town is small but I did see at least three supermarkets, and I found one cash machine which is, of course, in front of the casino. The main road through town east/west, Av. Del Sol, is the tourist area, the main downtown area is around the Plaza Sobremonte about four blocks north of Av. Del Sol. There are camping and hiking trails throughout the area around the town, and lots, and I mean LOTS, of hotels, hostels, and cabañas (cabins) availble. There's even a good chance you'll come across someone who speaks English here. In a restaurant, the waiter started speaking to me in English, he simply assumed that I could also speak it. At a small coffee shop near a nature reserve there was a teenage girl there working with the old man, and she also could speak English. She was shy about using it, but with my urging her to practice, she became comfortable within minutes.