San Martin de los Andes is a mountain town in the southwest of the province of Neuquén nestled in the Andes Mountains, Argentina, on the east coast of Lake Lácar, and the resort is more important in the province.

It was officially founded on February 4, 1898 by Colonel George John Rhode, in an attempt to erect concrete and advanced of sovereignty.

San Martin de los Andes is the head of the department Lácar, is at 640 m and 1575 km from Buenos Aires. It had 22,432 inhabitants (INDEC, 2001), representing an increase of 51.1% compared with 14,842 inhabitants (INDEC, 1991) of the previous census, in mid-2005 was estimated resident population exceeds 25,000, is of rapid population growth not only in season, but because this city will live many families, mainly from the cities of Buenos Aires and Cordoba among others.

It is one of the major tourist spots in the province of Neuquén and Patagonia. Accessed by National Route 234 and has an airport 22 miles from downtown.

WEATHER

Strong geographical differences between the steppe and the Andes are the cause of these strong climatic differences from east to west that determine the forest to the west and the desert to the east. While the climate is temperate-cold mountains, moderated by the influence of the Pacific Ocean, the Patagonian steppe is cold, with temperatures down to -15 ° C in winter. In summer ranges between 9 and 25 ° C (mean values??) and in winter 1-8 ° C, with temperatures below 0 ° C.

Summer days are warm, sunny and cool nights. The daytime temperature ranges between 9 and 27 ° C, allowing full enjoyment of outdoor activities including beach on the lake mirrors. Scarce dominant southwest winds and few rainy days. For its latitude, daylight in summer lasts until about 22.00.

Autumn: the days are cool-temperate with cold nights, the daytime temperature is between 4 and 13 ° C. This season has the highest amount of rainfall, low pollution usually at night. Winter: cold days with snowfalls in the surrounding mountains, which do not affect vehicle traffic in the area. The temperatures during the day between 1 and 10 ° C.
Spring: continue the cool days and cold nights, the days begin to lengthen and temperatures rise gradually to reach the end of the season records between 7 and 20 ° C during the day.

RAIN

In San Martin de los Andes , the rainy season ranges from March to December, with a dry season in summer.

The precipitation of around 1,500 mm annually. The gradient goes from west to 4,000 mm annually, to the east, with about 600 mm in the steppe. This is because downloading rains in the mountains. Precipitation is like rain in autumn and spring, and may be as snow in the winter, depending on the height.

ARCHITECTURE

The city has a unique architecture, as various municipal ordinances regulating the height of buildings and facades.
There are three periods: the first settlers, National Parks and recent.

From the first settlers stand constructions with tin roofs and wooden walls as well as brick buildings.
With the creation of the national park, the architect Alejandro Bustillo used and recommended that the facades of the constructions were covered by stones that were available by blasting explosions product made ??for the construction of roads. Besides the roofs were gabled walls and had a wooden cover.

In the 1970s it was built, in the viewpoint of myrtle, a hotel (Hotel del Sol) did not respect the trend and had flat roofs, inadequate for an area with frequent snowfall. It also had a front in wood and construction was visible from most of the city.
This generated a population awareness about what happen Pudia future construction in the city, and generated a series of rules and ordinances specifying height and building facades.

At that time, in the late 1970's, the maximum height allowed for building was 18 meters. In early 2003 the height was reduced to 12.5 meters.