Mar del Plata, the happy city

I haven’t been to Mar del Plata for four years, and the truth is that after 4 years I went for two weeks in total to Argentina… I did this trip with my sister, my nephew, Fer, and I. And it’s not the same to organize for two than for four, more when we have different friendships, it wasn’t a holiday and people work, so in the morning we visited the city a little bit and in the afternoon we stayed with family and friends.

In total in Mar del Plata we were 1 week, in which we visited family, friends and of course I had to do some sightseeing to be able to tell you about my city, since every time I go it is different!

Mar del Plata, the city that saw me born

It is a tourist town, it is about 400 km from Buenos Aires, has about one million inhabitants, and about 40 kilometers of coastline with different types of beaches.

There is always something to do, in summer there are free concerts, you can surf, the Film Festival is held, the Sea Festival, also the Valencian “Fallas” are held, etc.

The truth is that it is beautiful, not because it is my city, that has nothing to do, hehehe

Mar del Plata, the happy city

Mar del Plata is called “La Feliz” or “the happy city”, no one agrees on why this name, some say it is because when the worker started to enjoy the vacation they went to Mar del Plata the whole family and they all were seen happy, others say it is by the name of the ranch of Patricio Peralta Ramos, founder of the city. I prefer the way when people go, they’re happier.

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There are several areas in Mardel, depending on what you want to do, for example in the Constitution area are the nightclubs (right now there are hardly any), some very nice ones like Sobremonte that has gardens and several different areas, I have never been much of disco, I liked them and follow me Liking pubs more. *Sobremonte doesn’t exist anymore, update 2020.

The pub area in Mar del Plata changes every time I go, sometimes it is in Irigoyen and sometimes in Alem, and now it has joined Guemes, I prefer Alem, which is close to the beach and I can go by a walk.

Taxi drivers are the same all over the world…

I think it was the first time I went with Fer to Mar del Plata, we took a taxi from downtown to my neighborhood, which is what you do in a taxi when you go with someone: talk, right? Well, you can see that the taxi driver heard Fer speak, Spanish, with a Spanish accent obviously and I think that my Argentine accent is no longer so marked or it may be because I use words from Spain, that the taxi driver must have thought this is time to scam tourists.

I tell you, to get to my house, it depends where you come is by an avenue, and as Mar del Plata is gridded and one street goes one way and the next in the opposite direction.

If you go down this avenue my street is in a forbidden direction, then you can turn left in the street before or the next one, but which wanted to take this man, no idea. I think he wanted to take us for a walk through the port and then take us home.

The thing is that if you pass the second street, you only have one more left before you get to an avenue, when you passed the second option. There I was angry and I made it known. He apologised and blah blah blah, but you don’t get a sense of the anger I had when I realized he wanted to scam us.

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Driving in Mar del Plata

Another anecdote is from this last trip, my cousin lent us his car in Buenos Aires, so that we can use it in Buenos Aires and in Mardel.

We’re in Mar del Plata, at my grandparents’ house and we say, we’re going to the southern beaches? So we went out my sister, Fer and I.

We went through the harbor first, we saw the Sea Wolves reserve, and before we pulled to the south, we passed Punta Mogotes and my sister says to have a drink in Waikiki (the beach that follows Punta Mogotes), so we headed towards Waikiki.

But one of the “beautiful” things about Mar del Plata is signaled on the streets, as it was not clear where we had to turn, we went through the parking lot of Punta Mogotes, which obviously did not arrive but we could leave the car and walk, but we decided to try again, so we went out to pick up the avenue again or kind of highway to take us south, but as the signaled shines by its absence, we went the other way and saw that we were going to end up in the opposite lane of this highway, so we reversed, it would have been about 100 meters or less,

and that we see when we are doing this donkey, that there was a police in a quad looking at us, we already think we are going to get a fine, we’re driving reckless, opposite sense… blab blab, but no, the police are, they looked at us, waited for us to finish and left, he didn’t make us a gesture of what you’re doing!!! So we already understood why in Mar del Plata they drive worse than in Buenos Aires, it’s because nobody tells them anything.

We were already hallucinating that everyone skipped the traffic lights, and when we asked our friends or family they would tell us: it’s because of insecurity, if I’m clear at 11 in the morning and also crossing them at 100 km/h, what I think is that they’ve been savaged, don’t take it the wrong way, if there’s any marplatense reading this, I’ve driven a motorbike until I left mardel and it wasn’t driving like this and if you did you’d be fined (I speak from experience, hehe).

On the subject of insecurity, in the week we were there, we didn’t see it, it’s more, we saw a living city, with people everywhere. It is also true that we did not go into any strange place, just as in Madrid there are neighborhoods that I do not go to…

Another thing is that when you leave the tourist area, the streets are a bit bad and it looks like a different city. And it would be nice to be looked after everywhere alike, not only for the tourist, but also for the people there.

If you ever go around La Feliz, have to eat some churros in Manolo, (it’s in Alem, downtown and on the coast), some Boston “Facturas”, it would be nice if you could have a drink at La Princesa, but it’s gone. I would give you more places, but every time I go they have new names. You can eat well almost everywhere and the customer attention is very good and you have to leave a tip. Eating is still cheap, despite inflation.

I’m probably doing another post to Mar del Plata another day.

Thank you for reading this far!

Greetings!

Prepare your trip to Argentina

• Buenos Aires Part 1
• Must-Visit Places in Buenos Aires
• Excursions in Buenos Aires
• Iguazu Falls
• Calafate and Perito Moreno Glacier
• A week in Salta
• Best Travel Insurance for your trips

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