mar del plata
Mar Del Plata is the seaside playground of the middle classes from Buenos Aires, at these least days. Back in the old times, it was the preserve of the upper crust. Some of the grand old buildings testify to it. It gets such attention as it is not too far from Buenos Aires (five hours by road) and it has extensive and beautiful beaches. 20km of them.
The weather was nice enough while we were there but it isn't summer and not very hot. Not really swimming conditions. The multitudes have yet to arrived. That begins in December and during the summer season, it is said, the beaches become so crowded that the sand on them is barely visible. All we really saw was the occasional oddball frollicking about in the cold surf and the industry of youngsters assembling countless, what I can only describe as beach huts.
In line with all other places I have been in Argentina, there is a shrine to the Falklands War. This one honours the score or so who died that were born in Mar Del Plata. I don´t want to show disrespect but it was not exactly Stalingrad in magnitude. I continue to be surprised by the intensity of how the Argentines feel about the war. Aside from the dead and the defeat, I think the Argentines feel most strongly about the nature of their defeat. The speed and thoroughness of it. It was a humiliation really (but what else should one expect when a conscript army takes on a professional army). They are Argentines are proud people (justifiably so, in my estimation) and what happened on those dreary, windswept islands hurt their national psyche rather deeply.
Anyway, onto less profound ground, Mar Del Plata is home to a jolly bunch of 800 large, tremendously smelly, loud and sometimes irritable sea lions. They stink. Phew! The colony is natural. They occupy a side of the main harbour and lounge about barking at each other most of the time. When the trawlers return to port they go crazy. The benevolent fishermen throw the unusable catch plus entrails to them. That´s their main activity other than slobbering about, rolling over each other and basking in the sun. They take absoltutely no notice of the numerous humans standing only a matter of feet away. Gawking from behind the safety of a metal fence I should add. Despite the whiff, it is a interesting spectacle.
It reminds me of another thing about the Argentines. They are not out to commercialise everything like some in Europe. If this sea lion colony existed in say, London, then the local counsel would sell of the site to some investor on the grounds that they are better qualified to efficiently handle the ecology and preservation of the colony. Yeah, yeah. The colony manages itself well enough. The local authorities here provide for the little old lady with the lolly pop stick who waves on the traffic to prevent conjestion. If locals want to see them, then just pop down.
A quick walk along the beach of Mar Del Plata and you will note that many other pursuits are free too. Bowls, squash courts, volley ball pitches, etc, etc. What´s more, they are used. It is refreshing to see that although the Argentines are capitalist by definition, they are not yet obsessed with milking everything for money when the opportunity seems ripe.
Oh, and one of the main statues is to a man from Co Mayo who happened to be the founder of the Argentine Navy, Admiral Brown.
The weather was nice enough while we were there but it isn't summer and not very hot. Not really swimming conditions. The multitudes have yet to arrived. That begins in December and during the summer season, it is said, the beaches become so crowded that the sand on them is barely visible. All we really saw was the occasional oddball frollicking about in the cold surf and the industry of youngsters assembling countless, what I can only describe as beach huts.
In line with all other places I have been in Argentina, there is a shrine to the Falklands War. This one honours the score or so who died that were born in Mar Del Plata. I don´t want to show disrespect but it was not exactly Stalingrad in magnitude. I continue to be surprised by the intensity of how the Argentines feel about the war. Aside from the dead and the defeat, I think the Argentines feel most strongly about the nature of their defeat. The speed and thoroughness of it. It was a humiliation really (but what else should one expect when a conscript army takes on a professional army). They are Argentines are proud people (justifiably so, in my estimation) and what happened on those dreary, windswept islands hurt their national psyche rather deeply.
Anyway, onto less profound ground, Mar Del Plata is home to a jolly bunch of 800 large, tremendously smelly, loud and sometimes irritable sea lions. They stink. Phew! The colony is natural. They occupy a side of the main harbour and lounge about barking at each other most of the time. When the trawlers return to port they go crazy. The benevolent fishermen throw the unusable catch plus entrails to them. That´s their main activity other than slobbering about, rolling over each other and basking in the sun. They take absoltutely no notice of the numerous humans standing only a matter of feet away. Gawking from behind the safety of a metal fence I should add. Despite the whiff, it is a interesting spectacle.
It reminds me of another thing about the Argentines. They are not out to commercialise everything like some in Europe. If this sea lion colony existed in say, London, then the local counsel would sell of the site to some investor on the grounds that they are better qualified to efficiently handle the ecology and preservation of the colony. Yeah, yeah. The colony manages itself well enough. The local authorities here provide for the little old lady with the lolly pop stick who waves on the traffic to prevent conjestion. If locals want to see them, then just pop down.
A quick walk along the beach of Mar Del Plata and you will note that many other pursuits are free too. Bowls, squash courts, volley ball pitches, etc, etc. What´s more, they are used. It is refreshing to see that although the Argentines are capitalist by definition, they are not yet obsessed with milking everything for money when the opportunity seems ripe.
Oh, and one of the main statues is to a man from Co Mayo who happened to be the founder of the Argentine Navy, Admiral Brown.
posted by Ciarán at 9:13 p.m.
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