Long weekend get-away: Mar del Plata

For the first time in 35 years, the Argentine governments declared Carnival a national holiday- so Argentines had both Monday and Tuesday off. Now I’ve been in Buenos Aires on 3 day weekends and the city pretty much shuts down: stores are closed, the streets are deserted and Amy and I often felt like we were the lone men standing. I imagined that a 4 day weekend would convert BsAs into a ghost town. Since this was my first weekend without Amy, I was thrilled (and un poco relieved) when my friend, Nora, invited me to go to Mar del Plata with her and two other people for the finde largo.

Mardel, as the locals refer to it, is about 4 hours south of Buenos Airies without traffic, but going to Mardel for Carnival is like going to Southampton for 4th of July- you need to add at least 2 more hours to your travel time to account for traffic. Fortunately, in Argentina you are able to ride in nice comfy reclining seats so it makes enduring traffic a little easier. We left for Mardel at 5:30AM and arrived by 12 noon. We were in our bathing suits and ready for the beach by 12:30.

Sitting along the coast.

Nora and I found a great spot on the coast that had beautiful view of the Atlantic ocean and an infinity pool to enjoy! We spent the day relaxing on lounge chairs and sipping on smoothies, I couldn’t have asked for a better day. That night, we met up with our other two friends for dinner; we of course went for asado. The Argentines of the group seemed to be able to sniff out the best asado restaurant in the city. We found a popular steak house and after a short 2 hour wait, we were seated for a delicious asado at 11pm.

A view of the pool from the first day.

The next day we decided to go a beach outside of the city. The beaches there were beautiful. They reminded me exactly of the beaches in the Hamptons: there were kids building sand castles, people playing paddle ball, surfers; I really felt like I was back on Long Island. I also introduced my friends to my favorite beach activity which is combing for sea glass. For me searching for sea glass is almost instinctual, I can remember combing the beach for hours with my Nanny as a kid and for me it is like searching for a treasure- a true simple pleasure in life. By the time we left, my travel companions were combing the beach for sea glass too; I think I may have turned them on to a new pastime. While walking back to our hostel, we saw a crowd outside a restaurant, we figured in must be good so we decided to see how long the wait would be. It was going to be an hour at least, so we put our names down on the list, went back to the hostel to shower and returned just in time to be seated. We couldn’t have planned better! I thinking I am finally figuring out how to work the waiting system down here.

Pablo, me, Jon at the beach!

Day 3 was rainy so we did what we had to do- we took in a movie. El Cisne Negro starring Natalie Portman, it is one the few Oscar nominated films I have seen. I haven’t really been following the movies this year so I had no idea what to expect. I thought the movie was going to be an uplifting story about a ballet dancer, I was way off, I am still having nightmares.

Nora and I enjoying pizza! (Ame, found others who love Roquefort!)

Our last day we went to another pool on the coast and enjoyed are last plate of rabas (fried calamari), we ate many rabas this weekend (apparently the city is known for them). After that we were on our way home, back to Buenos Aires.

Last moments of soaking up the sun!