18th of October to 24th of October
Long distance train🚂
When we arrived at the train station the Security guard looked at our big backpacks with confused looks and told us we must go to the long distance gate. There we noticed lots of people getting on a long train, with numbered coaches and seats.
The train trip was pretty “smooth” even though the railroad wasn’t always (at some stage we were half askew). The chairs where we were sitting reminded me of the plane because the back of each chair had a small flip out table.
After a while dad started to crave coffee so I went along to help look for the cafeteria, only to find that the famous cafetaria only sold a bag of bread, some unhealthy snacks and 3 different flavors of cool drinks 🙄!
Later a family with 2 small kids was getting excited over brown cows saying they were capybaras!? Capybaras are now vakybaras🤣🤣!! Mom also saw something outside that she thought was a fox but the train was too fast to be certain🦊. We saw lots of plains with cows and dusty rail road towns.
When we stepped out of the train we were blasted by cool air. So much for those sunny Buenos Aires days 😒. Luckily we later found out our apartment had heating🫠!!!! First time this whole trip someone was sensible enough to put heating🫠!
We were staying on the tenth floor of an apartment building. We had a tiny kitchen, a bathroom with plenty of hot water. Mom and dad were in a small room and I of course was on the sleeper couch again 🙄…
On the way from the bus station to our apartment we saw some really cute houses:
Sulking sea lions soaking up sun
The next day we took the bus down to the fishing docks to see our very first Sealions.
They were very very sleepy and stinky. Most of them were lazing on the docks in all sorts of funny positions like: upside down or head up in the air. It was funny to watch them!
Meanwhile the younger ones were frolicking in the water. We even saw a real fatty, snoozing on top of a sunken ship!! And another soaking up the sun in typical sealion fashion, identical to the statues on the promenade.
Once we had enough of sea lions we walked to a less stinky grassy spot to have lunch, where we were joined by a brave little bird who was eating our crumbs🐦⬛❣️
After that we walked down to the naval base where there was a small submarine museum. It was really cool. They had memorials for different submarines that sunk, all the different marine pins from all over the world, different dive equipment, life boats etc. And the guy there was really friendly explaining stuff if we asked.
After that we walked all along the coast back to our apartment.
In total we walked 6.5km from the port aaaaallllllllll the way back to our apartment.
Mar del Plata
A few things about Mar del Plata:
It’s a coastal town (Atlantic Ocean) in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.
Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province (after Buenos Aires ☺️) with close to 700.000 inhabitants and it is the 5th largest city in Argentina.
The name “Mar del Plata” is short for “Mar del Río de la Plata,” and means “sea of the Río de la Plata basin”.
Mar del Plata is part of the Argentine recreational coast. Tourism is the main economic activity. Every year, over eight million tourists visit the city.
Mar del Plata has the biggest seaside beach resort in Argentina. It has numerous hotels, restaurants, casinos, theaters etc….
The town is very spread out (and very very windy 🌬️!!!) with European looking beaches with little cubicle tents where you can put your stuff, like chairs etc. I understand the tents are to offer protection from the wind, but to me it seems strange. When you go to the beach it’s to get sun and fresh air, not sit in a little cubicle like you do every other day in the week!
Mar del Plata is also an important sports centre with an Olympic style stadium used for different sports (first used for the 1978 World Cup and later upgraded for the 1995 Pan American Games), five golf courses and many other facilities.
It has some major fishing ports, with at least two large shipyards, and an industry that concentrates on fish processing 🐟.
Natural Sciences
On Wednesday we walked to the Natural Science Museum, but we arrived early so we walked around the area a bit. On the promenade and to a plaza, where we saw a whole bunch of Old ladies dancing to the instructions of their coach. There were also a bunch of old guys in the back staring at the ladies’ moves🧐🤨💃🕺?!?
There were Cute old style buildings and one looked like it was right out of the Rapunzel fairy tale.
Finally the museum opened and we found out we came on a lucky day, because on Wednesdays entry is for free!!!
But of course that meant all the kids were there for school field trips.
There where different sections like: petrified animals🐦, marine life🪸🐟 and insects🦂🦗. They had lots of fossils of Prehistoric animals and a map showing that many different types where found in Argentina, the ones they had on display were:
- the Gliptodont the predecessor of armadillos and tortoises but the size of a rhino,
- Hippidion, the predecessor of horses, and
- Sabre tooth tiger, the predecessor of the Puma.
You could also spy on the scientists working, like one would be dusting a fossil, another would be glueing the pieces of a fossil together etc. Interesting for us to see, but maybe for them it felt like they were being watched like fish in an aquarium 👀.
I must say the stuffed mammals and birds section kind of creeped me out😰!!! But what was amazing was the huge mounted condor (the largest flying land bird in the Western hemisphere) they had on the ceiling.
We also made an intriguing discovery: Capybaras are called carpinchos here!? And they look thinner and have a different fur color to our Brazilian capybaras.
There was also a stuffed Fox that confirmed that what mom saw on the train was indeed a fox!
Onwards we go
Yet again the time had come to run around and pack our bags and move on to the next place.
Mom had a client in the morning, so we had booked a later bus. But the client decided to cancel the appointment, last minute.
We left to the bus station around 10am, and then sat around waiting for the bus, strolling through the souvenir shops, and well,… doing anything to pass the time. I saw a dog running up and down and playing with bottles and soon found out he was either the station’s resident dog or an employee’s dog. But he was sooo cute 🐕🥰!!! When our bus finally arrived we got on and discovered we had the seats leaning against the entrance and really close to the front of the bus🚍!!!!!
Anyways you’ll find out more on the next post…!
This is Gitane, tired of boiled eggs🥚🍞 and buses, signing out!!!!
See y’all later🖋️!!!