We had the same problem with the cooing pigeons at this campsite just like in Monte Hermoso plus the added joy of two very loud snorers on either side of our tent. So we had yet another bad night of sleep. My suggestion is to just be prepared for the worst and maybe get some ear plugs (helpful for camping and hostels). But we woke up and asked around about the bus stop and, after a lot of waking, managed to find it. We decided to go to the port first since there were many things to do there and it was the farthest tourist point. We were advised by a local to take one bus from our campsite to downtown and then get another to the port because the bus from the campsite directly to the port goes through a bad area of the city. So we just paid for another bus from downtown to the port which was better because it went along the coast instead of inside the city. Also the buses are cool because you select the amount of tickets you need and it deducts from the charge so you only need one bus card per group.
So we headed all the way to the harbor and asked about the sea lion reserve and the ship graveyard, which we had heard so much about. Well it turns out that all the ships have been removed so the “graveyard” no longer exists which was really sad to hear. Dani was really excited for it because he saw many cool pictures online. So we went to the sea lion colony which is about 1.5km walking from the central harbor, which is a cute little area. Well this colony was in a very strange and unexpected place: down a pretty sketchy walkway along the harbor. After about 20 minutes of walking and you will see a bunch of sea lions right off this little area of sand. The colony had about 30 sea lions hanging around a polluted beach that was fenced off, so you can’t get too close, but they were close enough to get good pictures and observe their behavior, which was very aggressive. They were in the water but still on the beach, probably trying to stay cool on this extremely hot day. It was really interesting to see these wild animals up close and in action.
After the sea lion colony I had wanted to go to the reserve nearby but people told us there was nothing there but a lagoon so we decided to take the bus back downtown to get some lunch. We foursquared the area and a burger place called Crip came up with a good rating so we decided to go there. After about 30 minutes of walking we finally found it and it was a very cool place that wasn’t expensive. They have a great variety of burgers to choose from, it was a bit overwhelming. They also have a this cool burger called the T.N.T., which Dani got, that has a mini pizza as the base with a burger, bacon, and a fried egg on top, it was definitely different! The burgers were good, but not great, they made them very flat and large so it was different than normal burgers. Also something that we learned while visiting Argentina is that they are very simple with their food, they don’t like to add a lot of condiments or toppings so much of their food is a bit bland.
After lunch we walked more downtown exploring the Catedral Basílica de los Santos Pedro y Cecilia, shopping mall, pier, casino and central square. Mar del Plata is a very nice city and we liked it a lot but there aren’t so many tourist attractions. It’s mostly beaches, shops, restaurants, and buildings. We were told they have a good nightlife but we didn’t have the chance to explore it. We were also sad because there is a really cool-looking museum called Museo MAR that is brand new. It is a modern art museum and looks awesome but it’s closed on Wednesdays so we didn’t have the opportunity to go (in Argentina museums are open Mondays and closed on Wednesdays, in general). This particular museum is also only open in the evenings from 5pm until midnight so we could have gone the night before but we didn’t know it was closed on Wednesdays. It’s also free so if you have the chance to go then you should!
###Numbers:
- AR$14 = Bus Recharge
- AR$123 = Lunch @ Crip
- AR$150 = Camping
- AR$30 = Market
- Total = AR$315