Mar Azul - (Blue Sea)

I've been in Mar Azul for several days now, and I've been slow to upload a post... sorry. Honestly, it took a while to form an opinion about this town. It's a small, quiet, beach town - but it's still very new. There is a very eclectic mix of adorable homes and hotels, most of which are new, or are still under construction. I think the town only got their water supply in early 2020.

I'm staying in a "tiny home" that I found on Airbnb. I love it. It's got everything I could possibly want; hot water, a bathroom, fully stocked kitchen, comfy bed, a little deck, picnic table, BBQ, hammock, Wi-Fi, even an alarm system - not to mention two friendly dogs that are highly protective of their territory. They sleep under my house much of the day. But this rental is pretty far from the beach - 1.8 km. Not so far, really, except that I have to walk the entire distance in sand. Sand, sand, sand, so much sand. The roads are sand. The ground is sand. There are no sidewalks. I found a few roads near the beach that have some wood boardwalks set up (it's like a dream to walk on them!), but they don't help me get from here to there. I always have my phone with me and took a look at what Google had to say about my journey, and I found that the 1.8 km takes nearly twice as many steps to cover - because of the sand. I keep telling myself it's good exercise. And my calves are rock hard.


The sand gets really hot. It would be easier to walk barefoot, but there isn't enough shade and it really burns the soles of my feet after a few minutes. The hot sand also destroyed the sandals I brought with me (they were getting old, but a day of walking killed them dead). I ended up buying some overpriced flip flops from a convenience store just so I could get back to my place without losing my mind. 

The weather is... dynamic! When I got here five days ago (at 11PM) it was SO COLD. It went down to 7 or 8 Celsius that night and it was windy. I wore flannel to bed, under a couple of blankets. But the following day turned out to be lovely; 26C I think. Then another cold night, another hot day. And then... hotter. It got up to 34C yesterday - I didn't go far at all - just to the convenience store two blocks away for a cold beer and some fruit. And today was rather cool and ridiculously windy. I went to the beach this afternoon thinking the cool weather would make the walk more pleasant, but the wind was insane. The beach was completely deserted. I should have turned around the moment I hit the beach and come straight back, but I thought I could walk downwind and find a spot among the dunes to chill out for a bit. I didn't. I was so wrong. Walking back into the wind was a no-go, so I had to walk about a kilometer through the dunes to find the next beach access into town; I was muttering "ow" the whole way as I got sand blasted from behind.

SO! I got some exercise today, and a full body exfoliation! Eyeballs included. I think I swallowed a lot of sand too. And the pockets in my shorts acted like sand catchers. I'm super impressed by the pile of sand I left in the shower considering I never even sat down on the beach.

Oh, and the ocean - it's cold. It's okay to splash around in for a few minutes, but without a wetsuit, you couldn't spend too much time in it. There are a lot of surf shacks along the beach, but I haven't seen anyone surfing. Maybe it's not the right season.

Good news is: I quite like the yard at my Airbnb. There is lots of shade and shelter from the wind. I have had a couple of naps in the hammock. There are humming birds and the owners have a dog that seems to like me. Insects don't seem to be a problem - I got bit by a couple of black flies when I was exploring some dunes near the beach, and maybe one mosquito bite? But that's about it. And there are no ants. I repeat: NO ANTS! I'm thinking the sand makes it impossible for ants to live here? Any place where you can live without ants must be desirable! Having traveled a fair bit, I've decided ants are the worst. Even in Calgary...

But, there are a LOT of dogs. So many dogs. Not a single one on a leash. Everyone has a couple of dogs to guard their property, but there aren't many fences to hold them in - there wouldn't be much point - because SAND. The dogs love digging in the sand and do it with ease. I walked by a fence yesterday and watched with fascination and terror as a dog dug under the fence in about 20 seconds so it could run up to me on the road. 

So far I have only had one problematic dog encounter. A dog came up to me on the beach and insisted that I throw a pinecone for him to fetch. I tried to ignore him, because... you know, strange dog. But he kept dropping the pinecone closer and closer to me until he was dropping it in my lap. I gave in and threw the pinecone. Then (of course) I had to throw it again and again and again. And every time the dog took off to fetch, he shot sand at me. And the dog kept getting... more enthusiastic?...if I'm being charitable. Definitely more aggressive. After a few minutes, I was no longer enjoying the game and the dog started barking at me. Not a small dog. Kind of scary. I have no idea who the dog belonged to...? I mean, really??? But I was starting to feel intimidated, so I got up and left. The dog didn't follow, thankfully.


What else...? Oh! my bathing suit! So... when I was packing in Calgary I discovered that all of my old bathing suits had lost all structural integrity. You know how the elastic parts get crumbly lose their stretch after sitting in a drawer unused for a few years? Well, yeah, so I didn't bring a bathing suit. Here in Argentina, I had seen a bunch of shops selling bathing suits, but the prices were kind of high and I didn't see anything appealing. And I don't think I'm going to be needing a bathing suit much when I head south, so I didn't want to spend much on one. I went to Wal-Mart in La Plata. Partly out of curiosity. The Wal-Mart is HUGE, the parking lot enormous, the aisles wide and clear. They definitely have room for expansion. Best Wal-Mart experience I've ever had. But.... they don't have dressing rooms, at all. They have (I believe) some kind of 'virtual try-on' app that I am not interested in knowing anything more about. So, I bought a basic, black, cheap swim suit that (based on the internet) I decided should fit. And it fits great, actually. It has a lace up back I like because it's very adjustable. But, they really didn't put much material into the butt area (I will NOT be sharing photos of that). And, apparently, that's the style! - regardless of body type. Men wear knee length shorts, but female bums don't get covered. Whatever... I'm just owning it. I have been wearing shorts over top most of the time anyway. 

Finally: Mar Azul is kind of remote. It's not like I can wave down a taxi or take a bus anywhere. That limits my options. A visit to the bus terminal would have made buying a bus ticket easy, but instead, today I spent 6 hours online, planning my next 3 weeks - in Spanish. I still don't know what Característica means in terms of a phone number. Plans included purchasing a bus ticket, plane ticket, reserving 2 hostel rooms and filling out an application for domestic travel outside of the province - because of Covid. I really, really hope I did everything right... or the next week could be pretty interesting!


​Did I mention the sand?