One of the things people may not realize about Argentina is that it is a pretty big country, north to south. In fact, Argentina is about as long as the continental United States is wide. So it's a big country, which is great... and not so great. While that means that Argentina has many interesting places to visit, it also means that it takes a flight to get to many of them from Buenos Aires.
However, one of the things that you can do with just a drive from Buenos Aires is hit the beach. And in January and February, pretty much everyone in the city does. Mostly at the same time. The whole country pretty much goes on vacation for the first month of the year, in fact. And while Mark, Anne and HBomb didn't take the whole month off, they did take a long weekend trip to the beach.
The cool spots to go around here are Punta Del Este (in Uruguay) and Mar Del Plata (in Argentina). These are the hots spots for the cool kids around here. Our trio operates at a little bit of a slower pace, so they chose a spot that they anticipated being a bit more relaxed called Mar de Cobo.
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| The beach is starting to fill in. |
Mar de Cobo is a sleepy little town a little north of Mar Del Plata. It is much less developed than the beaches in its larger neighbor, but it had a nice beach and a cool, relaxed vibe. It is kind of a like one of the Florida Keys that you haven't heard of - some retirees living there, a few restaurants, but not a huge tourist business going on.
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| Sand art adds to the relaxed vibe. |
Our trio spent most of a Sunday and Monday on the beach. Initially, HBomb took a little coaxing to get out into the ocean. This was a little unusual because HBomb had seen the ocean before (a couple of times) and is absolutely fearless in the swimming pool at home.
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| HBomb hiding out in our beach tent |
So we waded out into the shallows.
HBomb started to get the vibe. He liked the rhythm of the waves and tried to stand up against their push, sometimes successfully, other times, not so much.
And then, as is often the case, HBomb really started to get into it. And then he started to get impatient waiting for the tides to come in. So he started charging deeper and deeper into the water to find the waves. Apparently, fear of the water is a stage of development he is quickly moving beyond.
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| That's far enough, young man. |
