Resistencia's nickname — la Ciudad de las Esculturas — is not a marketing slogan. The streets are full of more than 700 sculptures, displayed open-air on plazas, sidewalks and traffic islands, and the city's most distinctive single sight, the Fogón de los Arrieros cultural centre, is the engine that started it all. Beyond the art, Resistencia is the gateway to the Chaco — a vast subtropical dry forest with some of the best birdwatching and big-cat habitat in South America — and a useful base for exploring the Argentine north.