Neuquen HOTELS

 The bustling city of NEUQUEN is sited at the confluence of the rivers Neuquen and Limay, whose waters unite to become the RA­o Negro. With a population of 250,000, this plains metropolis is Patagonia's largest city and functions as the commercial, industrial and financial centre of the surrounding fruit- and oil-producing region. It is not a particularly attractive or touristy place - a place to pass through rather than stay in - but it does have a couple of worthwhile museums and is a useful transport hub. The city is best avoided during December and February when it can get very hot.

The Museo Municipal , Av. San MartA­n 280 (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sun 4-8pm; free; tel 0299/442-5430) has displays of indigenous exhibits, dinosaurs and Pleistocene mammals including parts of a 10,000-year-old megatherium excavated within the city limits. The town's best museum, however, is in the north of town on the university campus. The university is built on top of fossil deposits - some of them 85 million years old - that provide remarkably convenient fieldwork for the paleontology students here, some of whom can be seen at work in the Museo de GeologA­a y PaleontologA­a , Buenos Aires 1400 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun 4-8.30pm; for half-hour guided tours in English, call in advance on 0299/490300; $2.50; guided tours a further $1). A varied collection includes important first examples of new species and the smallest herbivorous dinosaur ever discovered: the sixty-centimetre gasparinisaurus cincosaltensis. Take bus #9 or #10 heading up Avenida Argentina (direction "Universidad"), which drops you three blocks to walk west of the site.

Mapuche ceramics, weavings and woodcarving can be bought at the non-profit co-operative, ArtesanA­as Neuquinas , at Roca 155 (Mon-Fri 8.30am-12.30pm & 4.30-8.30pm, Sat 9.30am-1pm; tel & fax 0299/4423806). Finest-quality woollen ponchos will set you back over $1000, but a delicately carved willow flower is much more accessible at around $2.50.