BUENOS AIRES – More than 700 tourists arrived this weekend in El Calafate, a southern town that is the only site in Argentina where on Sunday the first total solar eclipse of the 21st century will be able to be viewed.

The best places from where to be able to see the celestial phenomenon are the Huyliche and Frias hills, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from El Calafate, a tourist town in Patagonia where the presidential couple have a vacation home, the Rio Grande Astronomy Station said.

The total eclipse will be visible at 5:48 p.m. (2048 GMT) and will last two minutes.

As a preliminary activity, Argentine and international experts participated on Saturday in a seminar in El Calafate to discuss the phenomenon and explain to the public how best to view it.

The rest of the country will see a partial eclipse lasting from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (2000 to 2100 GMT).

In the nation’s capital, the eclipse will be visible very low in the sky and the moment of maximum eclipse will occur just at sundown, a few minutes before 6:00 p.m. (2100 GMT), when the Moon will cover 42 percent of the solar disk.

The phenomenon will be visible along a slender geographical track running across part of the southern Pacific Ocean, Easter Island and a small portion of southern Argentina and Chile.