Argentina's earthquake-rebuilt wine city — Cuyo sunlight, prehistoric fossils, and Andes stargazing
San Juan sits in the Cuyo region where 320 days of sun a year produce some of Argentina's finest Syrah, Malbec, and Bonarda. It is also the gateway to Ischigualasto (where Eoraptor fossils rewrote dinosaur history) and to Calingasta — a high-altitude valley with an astronomical observatory and night skies among the clearest in the Southern Hemisphere. The city itself was entirely rebuilt after a catastrophic 1944 earthquake that killed 10,000 people; Juan Perón organised the relief campaign where he first met Eva Duarte.
On 15 January 1944, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake levelled San Juan in 35 seconds, killing up to 10,000 people. The disaster prompted Argentina's largest national relief effort; Juan Perón met Eva Duarte (Evita) at the fundraising gala. The rebuilt city is a grid of wide earthquake-resistant boulevards. The earthquake, the wine, and the dinosaurs form the three pillars of San Juan's contemporary identity.