I've just returned from a short holiday in the seaside. July 9th is Argentina's Independence Day so when a friend invited us to his family's beach house, we HAD to agree.
I had never been either to Miramar (where we were staying) or to the seaside in the middle of the Winter, so everything was new for me!
The ride was a chilly one. I don't think we could have made it with our previous car, which had no heating. Even with the heater on, I felt I should have brought a warm blanket! Friday night was extremely cold, and it all made sense when we stopped for some petrol and noticed that the bloke at the station tried to wash our windscreen... with frost. I'm glad I only left the car to grab a snack, I'm sure I'd have frozen otherwise.
It was totally unexpected, but Saturday was lovely despite the cold weather. We went to Miramar's beach and then visited Mar del Plata (a huge nearby city on the seaside). We had the biggest "milanesa" steaks I had ever seen and got to visit one of the last (or the last) "Sacoa" in the country.
Sacoa is the name of what used to be the biggest game arcade company in the country. Game arcades were mostly gone by the end of the 90s and they're hard to come by nowadays. There's still a few in Buenos Aires -if you now where to look- but going to the seaside and finding these HUGE places felt like we were teens again. This meant a lot to my husband and his friend (both videogame designers) and it was so cute seeing Bam-bam totally overwhelmed by all the colours, sounds and things to do. We were glad he could still experience something like that.
On Sunday we visited some of Miramar's sights. We went to see the "Vivero Duncola" ("dune nursery"), which was a huge forest planted centuries ago in order to stop the sand storms. I was surprised to see it was a HUGE european-style forest... in the middle of the South American beach? Such amazing nonsense!
I gotta say I have no idea what Our Lady of Lourdes has to do with the forest, but she had a sanctuary right in the middle of it. It was filled with lots of rosaries, some of them huge, other just... creepy.
Some people started nailing crosses to the trees as I guess there's no more space for crosses and rosaries right in the altar. I found this tree kind of strange, because the last cross... it more of a T?
They also had this cross, Christ and all. It's more than 20 meters tall according to the sign, and the creepiest thing I've seen in a long time. I'll spare you from any close-ups from this image.
The same day we also visited the "Bosque Energtico" ("energetic forest). It's a part of the nursery that's supposed to be on some sort of "energetic" field which makes the treetops grow together into a place full of... new-age crap? A gorgeous place, nonetheless.
The pine trees we planted so close to each other that the tops grew together, forming some sort of natural roof. There are so many trees and they're so close to each other that day becomes night in this part of the forest. Also, the acidity of the pine leaves makes it difficult for other plants to grow below and the entwined branches make a distinctive noise, which adds up to a very creepy and dark forest!
After that, we visited the Boulevard Atlntico Hotel. It used to be a huge hotel in Mar del Sud, built in the 1870s. In the early 90s it was invaded by a drug cartel (???) that used it for its operations. Sadly, during the years it was taken over the hotel had no maintenance and it quickly went to waste, not to mention that one person was murdered in the meantime (!!!) If the place wasn't so dangerous (condemned doesn't even start to describe it) it would be the PERFECT place to shoot horror movies (which has been done already) and SG sets. Though I talked to the owner, and he rents the place to photographers for a small fee.
On Monday we didn't do much. Nacho (the friend who owns the house in Miramar) had some work to do, and after lunch we hit the local game arcade: Pibelandia.
Pibelandia is one of those places full of kiddie rides, a few videogames, tons of crane machines and other games that gave away tickets you can later exchange for cheap prizes.
It was at Pibelandia that something VERY strange happened to us. In the house Nacho had found a magnetic card we could use there, so we decided to put some money in it so Bam-bam could play in the kiddie rides. Only he didn't. He LOVES kiddie rides... as long as they don't move. At some point we used the card in the kiddie ride he was on (...he hated it) and the display showed a strange code. Next thing we know, our card had four times the money we had put in it. We couldn't help but think about the movie "Big" (there had to be a catch!).
But no. We got to play a lot, and very happily because everything was pretty expensive. We got a ton of tickets, which we exchanged for a slinky toy for Bam-bam.
I'm not used to going on trips and I never enjoyed them much, but this time it was a blast. I hope we can have another soon!
I had never been either to Miramar (where we were staying) or to the seaside in the middle of the Winter, so everything was new for me!
The ride was a chilly one. I don't think we could have made it with our previous car, which had no heating. Even with the heater on, I felt I should have brought a warm blanket! Friday night was extremely cold, and it all made sense when we stopped for some petrol and noticed that the bloke at the station tried to wash our windscreen... with frost. I'm glad I only left the car to grab a snack, I'm sure I'd have frozen otherwise.
It was totally unexpected, but Saturday was lovely despite the cold weather. We went to Miramar's beach and then visited Mar del Plata (a huge nearby city on the seaside). We had the biggest "milanesa" steaks I had ever seen and got to visit one of the last (or the last) "Sacoa" in the country.
Sacoa is the name of what used to be the biggest game arcade company in the country. Game arcades were mostly gone by the end of the 90s and they're hard to come by nowadays. There's still a few in Buenos Aires -if you now where to look- but going to the seaside and finding these HUGE places felt like we were teens again. This meant a lot to my husband and his friend (both videogame designers) and it was so cute seeing Bam-bam totally overwhelmed by all the colours, sounds and things to do. We were glad he could still experience something like that.
On Sunday we visited some of Miramar's sights. We went to see the "Vivero Duncola" ("dune nursery"), which was a huge forest planted centuries ago in order to stop the sand storms. I was surprised to see it was a HUGE european-style forest... in the middle of the South American beach? Such amazing nonsense!
I gotta say I have no idea what Our Lady of Lourdes has to do with the forest, but she had a sanctuary right in the middle of it. It was filled with lots of rosaries, some of them huge, other just... creepy.
Some people started nailing crosses to the trees as I guess there's no more space for crosses and rosaries right in the altar. I found this tree kind of strange, because the last cross... it more of a T?
They also had this cross, Christ and all. It's more than 20 meters tall according to the sign, and the creepiest thing I've seen in a long time. I'll spare you from any close-ups from this image.
The same day we also visited the "Bosque Energtico" ("energetic forest). It's a part of the nursery that's supposed to be on some sort of "energetic" field which makes the treetops grow together into a place full of... new-age crap? A gorgeous place, nonetheless.
The pine trees we planted so close to each other that the tops grew together, forming some sort of natural roof. There are so many trees and they're so close to each other that day becomes night in this part of the forest. Also, the acidity of the pine leaves makes it difficult for other plants to grow below and the entwined branches make a distinctive noise, which adds up to a very creepy and dark forest!
After that, we visited the Boulevard Atlntico Hotel. It used to be a huge hotel in Mar del Sud, built in the 1870s. In the early 90s it was invaded by a drug cartel (???) that used it for its operations. Sadly, during the years it was taken over the hotel had no maintenance and it quickly went to waste, not to mention that one person was murdered in the meantime (!!!) If the place wasn't so dangerous (condemned doesn't even start to describe it) it would be the PERFECT place to shoot horror movies (which has been done already) and SG sets. Though I talked to the owner, and he rents the place to photographers for a small fee.
On Monday we didn't do much. Nacho (the friend who owns the house in Miramar) had some work to do, and after lunch we hit the local game arcade: Pibelandia.
Pibelandia is one of those places full of kiddie rides, a few videogames, tons of crane machines and other games that gave away tickets you can later exchange for cheap prizes.
It was at Pibelandia that something VERY strange happened to us. In the house Nacho had found a magnetic card we could use there, so we decided to put some money in it so Bam-bam could play in the kiddie rides. Only he didn't. He LOVES kiddie rides... as long as they don't move. At some point we used the card in the kiddie ride he was on (...he hated it) and the display showed a strange code. Next thing we know, our card had four times the money we had put in it. We couldn't help but think about the movie "Big" (there had to be a catch!).
But no. We got to play a lot, and very happily because everything was pretty expensive. We got a ton of tickets, which we exchanged for a slinky toy for Bam-bam.
I'm not used to going on trips and I never enjoyed them much, but this time it was a blast. I hope we can have another soon!
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casiopea:
paprika:
Gracias 