Two hours' northwest of Buenos Aires, San Antonio de Areco is the centre of Argentina's guacho tradition.

But if you've come here expecting to see rugged men galloping through dusty tumbleweed streets, you should hold your horses cowboy, because these days San Antonio de Areco is more of an upmarket, picturesque tourist town and you're more likely to see locals cruising around on bicycles that horses.

You hear it before you see it. The ferocious thunder of 1800 cubic metres of water per second plunging over a three-kilometre semi-circle of rock into a 70-metre high canyon. And then, the Garganta del Diablo ('the Devil's throat') comes into view, casting circular rainbows in the sunlight and spraying the thousands of tourists who line the barrier to stare into its abyss.

If you've arrived in Salta straight from Bolivia, you'll probably feel like you've landed in the most sophistication city on the planet. Swanky ice-cream parlours, handsome plazas, elegant colonial buildings, grand churches, pedestrianized shopping streets and oodles of boutiques herald your sudden arrival in the First World.

Students rule the roost in Cordoba, a picturesque university town northwest of Buenos Aires.

Argentina's second largest city, Cordoba has some of South America's finest colonial buildings and its striking 18th century cathedral is the oldest in Argentina.

Museums, galleries, park and squares can be found in its compact historic centre, while the silhouettes of hills in the distance hint at the lush mountainous surrounds of the Sierras de Cordoba - a popular destination for adventure tourism. 

Lying on the Parana River, Rosario is a city that seems permanently in the throes of strutting, sunning and smooching.

Sultry and sophisticated, at first glance, Rosario seems like an unlikely hometown for South America's favourite socialist. But sure enough, Che Guevara popped out of the ornate white house (now an insurance business) on the corner of Entre Rios and Urquiza streets.