Gualeguaychú

The Chaná and Charrúa lived along these rivers before the Spanish. From the 17th century the authorities in Santa Fe and Buenos Aires granted land here to ranchers, whose settlements were in constant conflict with the native peoples, who had been decimated by killings and enslavement by the mid-18th century. The name comes from the river; a priest's record of 1715 derives it from a Guaraní expression meaning "big-water river".

A chapel settlement existed in the area by 1770. In 1782 the viceroy sent the officer Tomás de Rocamora to gather the scattered settlers and strengthen the Spanish presence against Portuguese incursions, and on 18 October 1783 he founded San José de Gualeguaychú, moving the town to higher ground opposite Libertad Island and marking out 85 plots. In the civil wars the town was sacked in 1845 by forces under Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Justo José de Urquiza gathered his Ejército Grande on the island before his campaign against Rosas.

A port, cereal mills and a railway station brought growth, and the population reached about 18,000 by 1914. In the 1920s Unzué Park was laid out across the river, a bridge was built and a costanera added along the bank. The Libertador General San Martín Bridge to Fray Bentos opened in 1976. From 2005 residents opposed to a large pulp mill being built near Fray Bentos blocked the bridge, at times for weeks, in a dispute that went to the International Court of Justice; it ruled in 2010 that Uruguay had failed to inform Argentina but had not polluted the river, and the two countries then agreed joint monitoring.

The city's identity is its carnival, which it calls the Carnaval del País, the carnival of the country. Every Saturday in January and February and on the first Saturday of March, the comparsas — troupes belonging to local clubs, such as Marí Marí, Papelitos, O'Bahía, Ará Yeví and Kamarr — parade their floats, costumes and drummers through the corsódromo, opened in 1997. Each spends a large sum preparing for the season, and they compete for a share of the ticket money; the weakest drops out for the next year. Work on costumes and floats goes on for months, and the whole city follows the result.

Entre Ríos is chamamé and carnival country, and the river is the other centre of local life: fishing, rowing and sailing clubs, beaches, and the evening walk on the costanera. The pulp-mill dispute of the 2000s gave the city a national reputation for environmental activism, carried by its Citizens' Environmental Assembly.

The city's people are largely of Spanish, Italian, German, French and Arab immigrant descent, and Gualeguaychú keeps the habits of a provincial riverside town: siestas in summer heat, mate shared in the squares and football at the local clubs.

The 2022 census counted about 95,000 people in Gualeguaychú, making it one of the largest cities in Entre Ríos. In summer the population swells: the city receives up to about 400,000 visitors over the season, most from Buenos Aires and its province, with a growing number from Santa Fe and Córdoba.

The economy combines tourism with farming and industry. The surrounding countryside raises cattle and grain, and the city's industrial park, the largest in the province, holds more than 60 companies. Shops, services and the hospitality trade employ much of the rest, and the carnival itself is a sizeable local business.

Most people live in low houses on a grid spreading out from the centre and along the river. Summer days start early and stop for a long siesta, with life returning in the evening on the costanera and the beaches. The bridge to Uruguay and Route 14, the road from Buenos Aires to Brazil, make the city a crossing point, and questions about the river and the mill across it remain a local concern.

The rivers set the menu. Fish from the Gualeguaychú, the Uruguay and the Paraná — surubí, a large catfish, along with boga and dorado — are grilled whole, fried or cooked in chupín, a fish stew, and riverside restaurants and fishing clubs are the places to try them. Weekend asado, with beef, chorizo and morcilla, is the other ritual, at home and in the parrillas.

Entre Ríos is known for its citrus, and oranges and mandarins from the province are sold everywhere in season. Bakeries sell facturas and medialunas for breakfast and merienda, empanadas are standard, and the ice-cream parlours of the costanera and the centre are busy on summer nights.

Carnival Saturdays shape the eating week in summer, with late dinners in the centre and on the costanera before or after the parade, and restaurants busy well past midnight. Mate accompanies everything, from the squares to the river beaches, and a thermos and gourd are part of every day out at the balnearios and campsites along the river.