Once thriving spa, Epecuen drawing tourists to ghostly ruins

By ALMUDENA CALATRAVA
Associated Press

EPECUEN, Argentina (AP) — The Argentine spa town of Villa Epecuen was a mecca of tourism for much of the 20th century, until the adjoining lake poured through a broken embankment in 1985 and destroyed hotels, restaurants and other buildings. Today, it is drawing a new stream of tourists, who visit to walk through the apocalyptic landscape of ruined structures, rusted vehicles, the skeleton of the old slaughterhouse and petrified trees. “It’s a scene you can’t see anywhere else,” as one young visitor said during a recent holiday weekend.