🇦🇷 Argentina · Patagonia
In the far northwest of Santa Cruz, on the southern shore of the huge Lago Buenos Aires and a step from the Chilean border, Los Antiguos is a green oasis in the middle of the Patagonian steppe. Sheltered by the lake and by a particular microclimate, this town of farms and poplar windbreaks earned the title of 'National Capital of the Cherry': its fruit, especially its cherries, is famous across the country for quality and sweetness.
Lago Buenos Aires — the second largest lake in South America, shared with Chile, where it is called General Carrera — is the great protagonist of the landscape, with its deep blue water and shores for walking, fishing and relaxing. Around the town, farms of cherries, strawberries, raspberries and other berries paint the valley green and sustain a harvest that culminates every January in the lively Fiesta Nacional de la Cereza.
Los Antiguos is also a strategic base for one of Patagonia's great treasures: the Cueva de las Manos, a Unesco World Heritage Site, with its rock paintings thousands of years old. Quiet, off the busiest circuits and with a simple, genuine charm, this corner of northwestern Santa Cruz combines nature, fruit, lake and archaeology in a setting of pure Patagonia.
The name 'Los Antiguos' has Tehuelche roots: according to tradition, the indigenous peoples called this valley something like 'place of the ancient ones' or 'place of the old people', because its mild climate — sheltered by the lake and the mountains — allowed the elders of the communities to spend their last years there. Before colonization, the region was Tehuelche territory, hunter-gatherers of Patagonia, whose presence over thousands of years was captured, not far away, in the rock paintings of the Cueva de las Manos. The town was founded as a farming colony in July 1921, by national decree, under the name Colonia Leandro N. Alem; in 1941 it recovered the Tehuelche name Los Antiguos and in 1970 it became a municipality, taking advantage of the favorable conditions of the valley on the shore of Lago Buenos Aires. For decades it lived off livestock and farming, but the great change came in the 1970s with the introduction of cherry growing and other berries, which transformed the town's productive profile. In 1991, the eruption of the Chilean volcano Hudson covered the area in ash and hit production hard, but the town managed to recover. The Fiesta Nacional de la Cereza has been held since 1988, and it made Los Antiguos the national capital of this fruit. Today it combines fruit growing, tourism tied to the lake and the farms, and its role as a base for visiting the Cueva de las Manos and traveling northwestern Santa Cruz on Ruta 40. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The immense province of southern Patagonia: Tehuelche land of the Cueva de las Manos, of the endless steppe and the sheep, of the tragic Patagonia Rebelde, of the glaciers of Perito Moreno and Fitz Roy, with El Calafate and El Chaltén as the gateways to a world of ice.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Picture pointing at a valley in the middle of the driest steppe in Patagonia and saying: here, and only here, life is kinder. That is what the Tehuelche did centuries ago with the valley of Los Antiguos, and that gesture was recorded forever in the name of the place. It is no coincidence that a few kilometers away, on the walls of a canyon, those same peoples left hundreds of stenciled hands that still look back at us from nine thousand years ago: this corner of northwestern Santa Cruz was, from remote times, a chosen refuge in the middle of the Patagonian immensity.
Long before the town existed, the valley on the shore of Lago Buenos Aires was Tehuelche territory, the ancient inhabitants of Patagonia, hunter-gatherers who crossed the steppe following the guanacos and using the resources of the lake and the rivers. Human presence in the region goes back thousands of years, as the rock paintings of the Cueva de las Manos, not far away, attest.
The town's name comes from that indigenous root: the Aónikenk Tehuelche called this valley I-Keu-khon (also recorded as i-keu-kenk), an expression translated as 'place of the ancient ones', 'place of the old people' or 'my ancestors'. The most widespread explanation links that name to the climate: the valley, sheltered by the great lake and the mountains, enjoyed a milder microclimate than the surrounding steppe, which allowed the elders of the communities — the 'ancient ones' — to spend their last years there, protected from the harshness of the Patagonian weather.
So the town's name preserves the memory of its first inhabitants and of a feature that still defines it: that special climate, softened by the lake, which would later make it possible to grow cherries and berries in the middle of Patagonia.
The town of Los Antiguos took shape as a farming colony in the early 20th century: in July 1921, a decree of the national executive created the mixed (farming and livestock) colony 'Leandro N. Alem', taking advantage of the favorable conditions of the valley on the shore of Lago Buenos Aires. Only in 1941 did the colony recover the Tehuelche name its residents used — Los Antiguos — and in 1970 it was formally recognized as a municipality.
The first settlers — criollo colonists and immigrants — came to the valley drawn by the chance to farm and raise animals in one of the few green areas of the arid Santa Cruz steppe. Life was hard and isolated, in a remote corner of the country, exposed to the Patagonian wind and far from the main centers, but the lake and the microclimate offered a fertile refuge uncommon in the region.
For decades, the local economy rested on livestock and traditional farming. Los Antiguos grew slowly as a small town of smallholdings, poplar rows and dirt roads, its fate closely tied to the land and to the water of the lake, waiting for the crop that would end up making it famous nationwide.
The great change in the history of Los Antiguos came in the 1970s with the introduction of cherry growing and other berries. Taking advantage of the valley's microclimate, growers began planting cherry trees, strawberries, raspberries and currants, which found ideal conditions in this land. The quality of the fruit — and especially of the cherries — soon became famous across the country.
That new activity completely transformed the town's productive profile, which moved from traditional livestock farming to a thriving fruit industry, with much of the crop destined for export. To celebrate the harvest and promote its fruit, since 1988 Los Antiguos has organized the Fiesta Nacional de la Cereza every January, which became the great summer event and made the town the National Capital of the Cherry.
Not everything was easy: in 1991, the eruption of the Chilean volcano Hudson covered the region in ash and hit production and life in the town hard. Even so, Los Antiguos managed to recover and rebuild its fruit industry. Today it combines the production of cherries and berries, tourism tied to the lake and the farms, and its role as a base for visiting the Cueva de las Manos and traveling northwestern Santa Cruz, balancing farming tradition with tourist appeal.
The hardest blow in the recent history of Los Antiguos came in August 1991, with the great eruption of the Chilean volcano Hudson, in the mountains on the other side of the border. The wind pushed enormous columns of ash eastwards, covering much of Santa Cruz and, above all, the valley of Los Antiguos, in one of the most significant eruptions of the 20th century in South America. The farms were buried under layers of ash several centimeters deep, animals died, production stopped completely and many residents had to be evacuated for weeks. It was a disaster that threatened the very existence of the cherry town, barely a decade after berry growing had begun to take off as an economic activity.
Far from giving up, the people of Los Antiguos took on a slow, stubborn reconstruction, with support from provincial and national bodies that helped clear the ash and recover the damaged crops. Over time the ash — rich in volcanic minerals — even ended up adding nutrients to the soil, and fruit growing flowered again with renewed strength. The town recovered its cherry trees, its poplar rows and, a few years later, relaunched its Fiesta Nacional de la Cereza with more force, turning the tragedy into one more chapter of its story of Patagonian perseverance, a story the growers themselves now tell with pride to the visitors who tour their farms.
In recent decades, Los Antiguos has added growing tourism to its farming profile. The appeal of Lago Buenos Aires, the farms open to visitors, the closeness of the Cueva de las Manos — declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1999 — and its role as a gateway to northwestern Santa Cruz and to the scenic roads off Ruta 40, such as the spectacular Monte Zeballos Scenic Route, have made it an increasingly popular stop on Patagonian circuits. The Fiesta Nacional de la Cereza, whose 35th edition in January 2026 again brought thousands of visitors to the town promenade, is today the best showcase of that combination of productive tradition and tourism that defines Los Antiguos.
Today the town combines its productive essence with quiet, genuine tourism, true to that character of a green oasis in the middle of the steppe that has set it apart since its Tehuelche origins. From 'place of the ancient ones' to farming colony, from farming colony to national capital of the cherry, and from cherry capital to gateway to one of the most important archaeological treasures in the Americas: the story of Los Antiguos is, at bottom, the story of a valley that found, again and again, a way to bloom in the middle of the driest Patagonia.