The best thing about Santa Fe is its brewery, and the best thing about Cerveceria Schneider is the free cans of lager that it provides at the end of the (free) tour. Apparently Otto Schneider, the German brewmeister, felt that the water in the Rio Parana was just right to make the perfect brew. The guided tour went around his grand house at the heart of the now ultra-modern brewery, which produces Santa Fe (imaginative!) and Schneider Argentine lager as well as the Budweiser and Heineken lines for South American distribution.

Santa Fe is also famous for the 'alfajor' snack, two biscuits stuck together with dulce de leche, invented by Senor Merengo in 1851 and popular nationwide ever since . Served with sweet coffee on our bus trips through Argentina, we agreed with the popular consensus.

The city in general was fairly dull. Plaza 25 de Mayo houses some impressive colonial buildings, and a recently rejuvenated port area has a sleek shopping mall.

Onward bus to Rosario, 2.5 hours.