Mar del Plata to Tandil, where I finally found the cows!!

Despite the fact that you know it's going to make you tired, a beer in the afternoon never fails to seem like a good idea. Today is no exception and so it's a sleepy me writing my post about Mar del Plata and Tandil. I'm putting the two together because I only spent one night in Mar del Plata and can't generate enough content to make a separate post for there worth it.

I arrived in Mar del Plata after a 16 hour bus journey and was super lucky as the hostel let me check in at 10am! Thankfully I wasn't in the bedroom long before heading into the shower as two minutes after I got into the bathroom I heard this almighty crash and the window above the door to my room had fallen out and landed just where I'd been standing! Eek! So straight away I was moved rooms and everything continued as normal! 

Mar del Plata is one of Argentina's coastal resorts and according to my hostel owner there is a lot of stuff to do around the city but given I spent way more time in Chile than originally anticipated I'm now having to pick and choose where I go as I fly home 8 weeks tomorrow and want to fit in as much as possible. So I basically just went for my usual jolly around the city to get a feel for the place. Of course,  my first stop had to be the sea, and when I arrived it was quite grey and looked like rain, although it improved a lot during the day. 

Then I meandered around the city and went to the cathedral 

This was my first cathedral in a while, since Chiloé maybe? And whilst I wasn't missing religious buildings, I was missing the architecture. One of my friends after my Eastern European adventure said he didn't realise I was so interested in buildings (I feel he may have been being a little facetious!) and it wasn't until I've been back amongst old buildings that I realised myself just how much I like and missed them!

And there's not a lot else for me to report! I went and bought my bus ticket to Tandil, had some food and then headed back to the hostel where I wrote up my Puerto Madryn post!

The next day, I headed up to Tandil and this is when I found them! The cows! I'm pretty sure everyone knows that Argentina is known for its beef. But I figured that you can't have a great reputation for beef without cows (including bulls in this) but I had yet to really see any. There had been the odd farm, but nothing like the numbers I thought you'd need. Anyway, this all changed during my journey from Mar del Plata to Tandil. I saw literally hundreds of them. Farm after farm after farm all with cows! At last, that mystery was solved!!

Whenever I'm travelling around a new country I always think about whether or not I could live in the various places I visit. Until Tandil I had yet to find anywhere that ticked this box in South America but I really like it here and think it's possible I could live here. It's not huge, but has a great atmosphere, there are beautiful parks, nice shops, at least 5 of them selling material (!), good bars and restaurants, it's safe and has great transport links. Everyone is so friendly, and many people have said 'Hola!' to me as I've been walking along the street, it's lovely. In a way, I almost don't want to talk about Tandil too much. It's not that I think that thousands of people are going to read my blog and suddenly want to descend on the place, but I'm here because the hostel owner in Puerto Madryn recommended it. It's not in the Lonely Planet guide and I kind of hope it doesn't ever make it in. I used to live in Marylebone and it was such a great place to be with lots of independent shops and good pubs, After a while it started winning awards for being the best high street in London and that was the end of it in my mind. It's now full of shops you'd find on any high street and has completely lost the individuality for which it won the awards in the first place. I would hate for Tandil to start becoming overrun by tourists and suffer the same fate. They do get tourists, but apparently more round long weekends. The guy in my hostel said I am the 5th British person in the hostel since he started working there a year ago! See what not being in 'South America on a Shoestring' does for you!

It's now getting dark fairly early here and so my first night exploring was after sunset and yet even without being able the see the place properly it had a lovely vibe about it. The next morning the first thing I decided to do was head up one of the hills to the castle that sits at the top. 

The hills in Tandil are the oldest hills in Argentina (apparently) and geologically are linked to some in Africa (according to Manu who recommended I come here). Anyway, they're not big hills and these days I generally find the need to climb a hill if I get the chance so I did, and this was the view from the top.

There was a coffee shop in the castle and so being around 11am by the time I got there, it seemed wrong not to stop for a coffee, which turned out to be one of the best I've had since I got here!

I then went for a wander round the city, over the dam

Where unfortunately Tandil's problem with litter, much like most of Argentina that I've seen, became clear.

And then I went back to the centre, via a lovely park with paintings of the local flora and fauna

for some lunch before heading to Monte Calvario. Here there are statues of the 14 stations of the cross with one huge statue of the crucifixion. It's set in a beautiful park and was just lovely. The journey here reminded me of you, Chris

Which was a block away from me!

As some of you will know, I had an intensely religious phase in my 20s which passed, but it took a long time for me to become reconciled with religion. However, I do enjoy the peace of religious buildings and this place, for me, was just the perfect combination of nature and religion. And on a beautiful sunny afternoon was a lovey place to sit and contemplate life for a while.

After this, I headed to Staples. Yes, the stationery store! I love to write with a fountain pen. I have a beautiful vintage Parker 45 gold nib pen that my parents bought me for my 18th birthday. It was, of course, not vintage when they bought it, it's just that it's more than 25 years since I was 18 and so now it qualifies for that label! I had brought a Parker Vector fountain pen with me but a cartridge broke inside it a few weeks back and so I've been relegated to biros for a while. I did see a Parker Vector when I was in Rio Gallegos but it was priced at $1704 Argentinian Pesos (around £60!) and as I'd only paid £8 for mine in Tesco I couldn't justify the cost! Anyway, Staples had them for $365 ARG (around $12.50) and so I bought myself an early 100 day gift! I hit 100 days tomorrow, Friday 20th April. Anyway, here it is!

After that, I headed back to the hostel for a couple of hours before going out for a glass of wine! I fortunately timed it beautifully as we had a thunderstorm here last night and I made it out between the showers!

Today, I went out a bit later as it was raining again this morning. I headed to the bus station to get my ticket for tomorrow's journey to Buenos Aires and then popped into a bar called Liverpool for a couple of empanadas for lunch before walking what felt like miles to the travelling rock. David in my hostel said it wasn't really worth it and he was right. The original rock apparently tumbled down years ago and the town council in its infinite wisdom decided to replace it with another one. Not sure they should have bothered!!

Anyway, it was on the way back to the hostel from here that I stopped for the beer that made me so sleepy! It was expensive too - a metric pint (500ml) for £4!! That rivals London!

Tonight I'm going to head to one of the many cervezeria for dinner and then tomorrow, as I say, it's day 100. I kind of like the coincidence that puts me back where the trip started - in Buenos Aires!