Mardel

Most of us only see live penguins in the zoo. A lucky few get to travel to the ends of the earth to see them in their natural habit. Thus, I was quite surprised to run into one while strolling down the beach in a bikini. If I ever encountered a penguin I at least expected to be well bundled and on a glacier. But no, there on the beach of Mar Del Plata was a penguin surrounded by interested children and one very interested, though cowardly, dog. The penguin seemed ready to take the dog despite being the smaller of the two.

I was afforded the opportunity both to run into a penguin and to visit Mar Del Plata thanks to a invitation from a CISV friend to go to her beach house there. So this past Saturday morning i piled in the car with 3 others girls and, after insiting we speak only spanish, we were off. Mar Del Plata is about 5 hours south of Buenos Aires, which to Americans seems normal; but, here going south means going to colder climates hench the pengiun. None the less, the weather was beautiful and warm enough for laying out and beach strolling and, for the adventourous and warm blooded, a fast dash in the ocean.

Mar Del Plata is a popular get away for portenos (BA citizens) and in the summer, january and february that is, can be extremely crowded, so the guide books say. It`s also one of few destinations that is somewhat close to BA. This a perplexing problem because all the cool spots like Cordoba and Bariloche are at least 18 hours away and thus unfit for a weekend get away. And now, after the drive through the pampa, I understand why. The land stretching westward from BA is flat. I have driven through Kansas and I`m pretty sure this is flatter. The only dents on the horizon are scattered clumps of trees indicating a ranch house and cows, lots and lots of cows. The car game where you count all the cows on your side of the road... well pretty much you´d reach numbers you´ve never bothered to count to before. But the vast expanse is quite breathtaking at times.

Once we reached Mardel as it is commonly called, we headed straight to the beach. While the beach is public, you must access it through the many restuarants that line the coast due to the fact that they have the only places to park. Lukcily it´s early in the season and we found parking easily at a lovely place that had a light house like restuarant. If you so desired you could order coffee or ice cream on the beach.

After a few hours in the sun, we went to my friends house which was in a guarded neighborhood complete with a pond, golf ranges, tennis courts, a restaurant, but oddly no pool (why go to a pool when you have the ocean i guess). It was absolutly stunning and I`ve never seen a more inviting hammock then the one hanging in her front yard. We had a lazy night in with reading, dinner, and movie without sound because we couldn´t get it to work properly. Thus, we all fell asleep very quickly.

The next day we had a lovely breakfast, hung around the house, then went to the beach for lunch and a bit more sun before heading back to BA. I was particularly gald to have been out of Moreno for a two full days and to eat good food (though we still had pasta). Anyways now it´s back to life in Moreno only a little bit more tan.