Brief history of Mar del Plata
Founded in 1874, Mar del Plata was soon developed into a European-style bathing resort, following the vision of Pedro Luro, a successful Basque merchant. As the railway began to expand into Buenos Aires Province, Mar del Plata became accessible to visitors from the capital, with the first passenger train arriving in September 1886. The subsequent opening of the town’s first hotel in 1888 – the luxurious, long-gone Hotel Bristol – was a great occasion for the Buenos Aires elite, many of whom travelled down for the opening on an overnight train.
Nevertheless the richest of Argentina’s very rich continued to make their regular pilgrimages to Europe and it took the outbreak of World War I to dampen Argentine enthusiasm for the journey across the Atlantic and to firmly establish Mar del Plata as an exclusive resort. Mass tourism began to arrive in the 1930s, helped by improved roads, but took off in the 1940s and 1950s, when the development of union-run hotels under Perón finally put the city within the reach of Argentina’s middle and working classes. The horrified rich then abandoned it for the more genteel Pinamar and Uruguay’s Punta del Este, while Menem’s peso–dollar parity in the 1990s meant the middle classes found it cheaper to sunbathe in Florida and the Caribbean than on the Argentine coast. The 2001 crisis and devaluation led to a resurgence in Mardel’s popularity; in 2009 the Gran Hotel Provincial reopened after lengthy restoration.
Images of Mardel: fishing boats and sea lions
Second only to the Rambla Casino, with its stone sea lions, Mar del Plata’s favourite postcard image is that of the striking orange fishing boats that depart every morning from its port, about 3km south of the city centre. In the early evening you can watch them returning to the Banquina de Pescadores (Fishermen’s Wharf) full of crates bursting with sea bass, sole and squid, which are hauled onto the quayside by the fishermen. At the far end of the wharf is the Lobería, a colony of around 800 real-life sea lions – they are all males as you can tell by their distinctive giant manes and loud bark. These lobos can be observed from an incredibly close (and smelly) distance – a metre or so – all year round, though the colony shrinks in January and February, when large numbers head for the Uruguayan coast to mate. There are also a number of good seafood restaurants around the port, mostly grouped around the Centro Comercial. Buses from the centre of Mar del Plata head to the fishing port; both #551 and #553 can be caught anywhere along Avenida Luro.
Miramar and Mar del Sud
Heading south from Mar del Plata, the first resort you come to is popular Miramar, 45km further down the RP-11, a largely modern town, dominated by some rather grim high-rise buildings. A more appealing alternative to busy resorts like Mar del Plata is tiny Mar del Sud, a further 16km southeast. One of Argentina’s least-developed beach resorts, Mar del Sud is in many ways one of its most appealing. Although it is increasingly courted by in-the-know Porteños looking for something a little different, the atmosphere remains tranquil, with a safe community feel and the occasional party to inject some life. Its beaches are far less frequented than those to the north and if you venture a short way away from the small clutch of beachgoers grouped around the bottom of Avenida 100 you won’t have much trouble finding a stretch of soft sand to yourself. The town’s unassuming buildings are dominated by the crumbling faded-pink walls and steeply pitched roof of the ex-Boulevard Atlantic Hotel, an elegant, French-influenced construction built in 1886. It’s now a wonderfully creepy old building, its once glamorous rooms taken over by doves and scattered with chunks of plaster. Guided visits are possible during the day on request from Eduardo Gambo, who runs the place and is something of a local personality; he also rents out bungalows.
Top image: Almirante Brown Square in the coastal city of Mar del Plata in Buenos Aires province, Argentina © Anibal Trejo/Shutterstock