Mar del Plata.. On the Beach: Feb 25 - March 1

It had been about two months since I had been in a major city, and entering Mar del Plata was a bit of a shock. Normally I leave my bike parked in a place like this, but first I have to get someplace to leave it. Fortunately for GPS, I was able to find the apartment that my friend Alicia (from Ushuaia) had offered to loan me.

Mar del Plata is a huge beach resort. Think Miami Beach on steroids. Also, like Miami, the average age appeared to be in the low 100s. This is high season, so things are crowded. It was nice to just walk around and along the beach for a few days, get laundry done, and catch up on the blog.

Alicia eventually showed up and we did a little sight seeing. One was to the beach (about all I could deal with). More fun was riding my bike to Sierra de los Padres... a village about 20 km from Mar del Plata.







First we went to visit Alicia´s friend Joyce, her daughter Jackie, her boyfriend Ali, their two dogs, and eight horses. It was this last that was the most fun: We saddled up the mounts and all went for a nice ride in the country.

Gauchos we were not, but we still had a lot of fun.

We then went to visit Cristian Villouz and his family, also in Sierra de los Padres. Cristian is a friend of Angel Costa, who had helped me with a project in Uruguay last year. He kindly offered to let me store my bike at his place while I returned to Panama, but in the end I decided to leave it in Buenos Aires. However, it was nice to visit him and see his business operation (fruit preserves)

After a few days it was ¨hasta luego¨ to Mar del Plata, and off for the final run to the Big Apple, Buenos Aires.