On the Beach: Mar del Plata

Well, after our pleasant five-hour coach ride we arrived at Mar del Plata and fairly quickly found a good apart-hotel to rent.  We had expected a smallish seaside resort town, so were quite surprized at the size of the town. We found out later that the population is 700,000 year round, but it swells to 3 million during the December to March season.  Mar del Plata is the home town of Astor Piazziola, the famed Argentenian composer.  It has a large middle class, and some gorgeous larger homes, somewhat like Shaughessy in size and style, and very interesting architecture.  We hadn't seen much single family homes in Argentina - and this town seemed like a great place to live.

The town has about 25 miles of waterfront! They have done a magnificent job of creating wonderful walkways for miles up and down the beach.  We walked about two hours in one direction one day, and later that evening explored the other end and some of the older neighbourhoods.  Mar del Plata also has lovely plaza and parks along the waterside. We brought our bathing suits and hoped to spend a couple of days sunning and enjoying beach life.

Unfortunately, what they forgot to mention is that the winds from Antartica blow in for most of the year, and it was cold! The first day was pretty good weather-wise.  Our city tour the next day focused on the fish wharves, the Grotto of Lourdes, and the seaviews, but the weather proceeded to rain. The forecast predicted more of the same, for several days, which meant that our planned bird watching was out,  So we quickly went to plan B.  Why suffer in the rain?  Within a half-hour we checked out and were on the coach back to B.A. Mar del Plata is a great place, but only in the summer.  Next time!Again, maazing buildings now being lovingly restored.