A holiday retreat for the rich folk from BA
Trip Start
Aug 26, 2005
1
25
126
Trip End
May 26, 2008
Mar Del Plata,
Argentina
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Mar del Plata is a weekend / Holiday retreat for Porteņos (people from Buenos Aires). Its loaded with great beaches and some fantastic restaurants, a huge green plaza and one of the nicest, biggest churches I have seen so far.
It is however, a little cold and windy this time of year, unfortunately scaring the bikini clad argentinians from the beaches and blowing sand all over the place. Summer would be great, but it looks like i have missed the boat.
I hired a bike, and rode to the port, where there is a Sea Lion colony, 800 of them! You can get super close, close enough for them to spit on you. A little too close if you ask me. I was forced to pay 30 pesos in Puerto Madryn to get no closer than a few hundred metres, I could have come here for free. But for me, Sea Lions are best admired from afar. They really are pretty foul. Covered in wounds and cuts, and they absolutely stink. On the side of the colony was a big fat bloated dead and decaying sea lion, which was emitting the most horrendous odor!
I didnt stay long and rode 3km out to sea along the sea wall, where there was yet another christ statue, welcoming back the fishing boats which were so small with tiny motors, they were all battling against the wind to make it back in the harbour.
While walking along the main pedestrian street i encountered some punk kids break dancing. I sat with them and was instantly offered all kinds of exotic substances. After denying them, the punks demonstrated some amazing break dancing and told me their story of trying to be a famous hip hip, group. They busted out some rhymes, none of which I could understand but yeah they werent all that bad. They seemed pretty dodgy, all crowding around me, but it was a busy pedestrian street, so i felt ok, but nonetheless, i didnt stay too long.
That night I bumped into some guys from Rosario, (a place just north of buenos aires) I met in the South. Pretty random but we organised to meet up later for some food and drinks.
They picked me up in their swanky car and we went to an all you can eat restaurant for 8 aussie bucks! Including a bottle of vino! I was completely full and drunk by the end and before I knew it, we were in the middle of some dance floor just outside of town. They played some very traditional Agentinian music which the locals knew evey step to. We admired from afar and I made it home just as the sun was coming up.
I spent a week in Mar del Plata, checking out the surfing beaches and hanging with more locals i met from the streets. Then i was on my way back to Buenos Aires.
