Mar del Plata Recap

Got back from Mar del Plata last night and it was amazing. We nearly didn't catch our bus because there was a Madonna concert right when we were leaving so every single taxi was full of people. I stood on the side walk for a solid 20 minutes without seeing a single taxi that was "libre." In the end to get the taxi, I had to run across the road with my luggage and flag down a taxi on the opposite side. We got to Mar del Plata at 8 a.m., took a morning siesta, and were at the beach by noon. The beach was freaking packed with people, and there was a bunch of beach venders selling hot dogs (panchos), ice cream, fruit salads, umbrellas, beach mats, ankle bracelets, and other beach related items. The beach was full of tourists but they were all Argentine tourists as I didn't hear one word of English the whole time I was there outside of our group. One of the guys in our group who was from Holland for some reason thought that his skin had adjusted to the sun even though he is paler than me. He put on very little sun screen the first day and proceeded to fall asleep in the sun. That night he was somewhere between the color of a lobster and a tomato, he couldn't sit still, and his ankles were swollen. It was bad. Also, when we went to the beach the second and third day we walked into a fenced off hotel zone that had chairs and umbrellas and pretended that we were guests of the hotel. I guess sometimes there are perks to looking foreign. Anyway, that was Mar del Plata in a nutshell. Also, randomly there was an annual book fair so I picked up El Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges (apparently he is Argentina's most famous author), and Cien años de soledad by Gabriel Garcia Márquez. Both purchases cost me $38 pesos. Here are some photos.

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