We at DA beach

Sorry for my brief absence, I’ve been in Pinamar, which is a beach five or so hours south of Capital Federal in the Province of Buenos Aires. We are now headed back to Capital Federal and I thought I would take the opportunity to use Josh’s computer to put down some of the memories from our first Christmas at the beach. We arrived Monday, and stayed in the same place we stayed at less than two weeks ago when we came here for the beach tournament and we are taking full advantage of the kitchenette and cooking all of our meals except for the first when we spluuurrgged all over Antares. It was amazing. Since then, we've sunned ourselves cooled ourselves with running leaps or dainty strolls in the cold ocean, we rode bikes to Carilo, and hid in the life guard tower drinking maté or champagne trying to avoid crazy winds by day and by night.

spreading on the sun screen

poor choclo (corn) guy lugging his choclo cart

Pinamar is considered a very fancy place, and the town center includes lots of fancy stores, a place to rent bikes, a cinema, tons of stores where one can purchase beach toys for the children and some car rental places. It’s a pretty typical beach town full of rusty old trucks, visitors, and the people who live here and work the tourist spots. The beach is long and you can't really see where it begins or ends, and you are never crowded by other people as we were in Mar del Plata almost a year ago when we went with Mia and Kenny. Here you can have as much space as you can enjoy. We took advantage of this with the Frisbee Nick brought and used the long peopleless stretches to throw as far as we could.


Carilo is a different story. To stay in Carilo you need to be rich enough to have a car, and then of course you need to be rich enough to stay in one of the swankiest beach towns in Argentina. The town center looks a little like a neighborhood in Disneyland with little duendes, or gnomes, popping out from all over the place. What really separates it from other beach towns is that it is surrounded by forest and there is not a single paved road. The bike ride to Carilo from Pinamar is short but once you hit the sand roads the going gets tough, so the tough got going. I arrived sweating and ready for our packed lunch. The beach was windy that day and only Josh took a dip, but we all needed a rest before doing battle with the roads of sand that cause bikes to fishtail and get stuck at every turn, so we took one of many opportunities to relax and read. Unfortunately it was too windy to sit out on the beach and the sand whipping at your body or face was painful. Also unfortunate was how hot it was behind our protective dune, so we headed back a little earlier than anticipated.

funny store names

the windy wind at Carilo

Josh and Nick knocking on the door of the house we rented...
just kidding. Its just a cool house on the bike ride back from Carilo

Josh and the biggest dog in the world

grilled burgers!!! with gaucamole!!!

in front of a cool statue carved out of a tree stump

doing the J-Crew pose

running away from the sea

not fast enough

reading with one of the many beach pups

I’ll leave Christmas for a separate post, but today I woke up early and headed out to the beach one last time to take a walk and take in the view and clean air before we headed back to Capital. I had a dream that my parents wouldn’t leave me alone about what I am going to do with my life and I woke up feeling harassed and in need of some quite beach time. The day was cloudy and grey, but the ocean felt great on my feet and I regretted leaving my suit behind as I watched some surfers paddling around the waves. I walked along kicking at the strange plastic like hollow balls filled with water that line the tide line wandering what was going on there, and I found a used cup and filled it with water to bring back for Ulises. He claims to want it so he can sunbathe next to it, but I can’t tell if he’s being serious or not.

It was only my second real beach vacation as an adult that lasted longer than a weekend and it was awesome. I’m really could get used to this beach thing. The company was excellent and we watched a different movie every day. We also cooked some of the dankest (Nick’s vocab is rubbing off on me) – I mean delicious- food I’ve eaten in a while including the most banging burgers we’ve made yet. We return to Capital well fed and well rested and ready for the arrival of more guests! Tomorrow brings us Mellissa and her boyfriend Rob. Melissa and I lived together in Perugia, we travelled to Egypt together for spring break Junior year, and we won money together at the Kentucky Derby when she bet on the Filly that had to be put down. Oh Eight Bells, we’ll drink some Fernet and Coke for you!