The Train to Mercedes

Just 30

Unfortunately Once Square is not a beautiful site, maybe because nearly one million people walk about this place in all directions every day. They take a train, a bus, they wait for a taxi.

They are always passing by. However, and going against the tide, this is the starting point for a unique adventure on one of the so many passenger cars heading for the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Once on board, we can travel just like commuters do everyday.

Thirty stations show how the city is left behind and the horizon becomes clear to give way to the countryside.

Once-Caballito-Flores-Floresta-Villa Luro-Liniers-Ciudadela-Ramos Mejía-Haedo-Morón-Castelar-Ituzaingó-San Antonio de Padua-Merlo-Paso del Rey-Moreno-La Reja-Francisco Alvarez-Ing. Marin-Gral. Rodríguez-La Fraternidad- Lezica y Torrezuri-Universidad de Luján-Luján-Jáuregui-Olivera-Gowland-Mercedes.


Reaching Mercedes

After passing by General Rodríguez Station, the stations begin to look completely different. The air is not the same and the freshness of the Argentinian countryside is breathed all around. The sceneries begin to show their unmistakable green shades.

Mercedes is a terminal station that welcomes visitors with its typical unpretentious calm, as if no one had realized that the train part of the locals have been waiting for all day long has just arrived.

As soon as they pull in, visitors can have a proper look at the locomotive and the formation that led them there. This is an old diesel engine that has been traveling along the same rails for years and that the natives of Mercedes love as if it was a part of the town, as if they owned it.

At the station, an old sign reads Welcome to Mercedes and states that this small city represents a Mandatory and Strategic Center of the National Cattle Market and the National Venue of Peach. Though its condition makes everyone doubt whether this is still true or ceased to be true years ago, what turns out to be quite surprising is that whenever visitors and tourists have look at it, they can get a first impression of the city they are about to visit.

Once the station gates are crossed, a feeling of solitude invades us. We have left the train, a friend that shared more than one hour with us, and reached this place completely unknown to our eyes.

We start walking around Mercedes. We will have plenty of time to go back to the platform.