Tourism and Cityscape of Villa Gesell

Being a coastal city, the main tourist attraction in Villa Gesell is the beach. The Villa Gesell beach is 10 m (33 ft) long, with a soft slope, and a variety of spas built alongside; the annexed cities of Mar de las Pampas, Las Gaviotas and Mar Azul extend the beachside to 21 m (69 ft). The city has a staff of 150 lifeguards.

There is a lighthouse 30 m (98 ft) to the south, surrounded by a forest; some houses organize adventure tourism visit to the forest. It is the second highest lighthouse in the coast of the Buenos Aires province, second only to the one in Bahía Blanca. The area around the lighthouse works as a natural reserve as well.

The city has a zoo, a golf field, a market of crafts and many discos.

Villa Gesell and Pinamar, both tourist cities, have a regional rivalry about the type of tourist trade they cater to. Pinamar aims for wealthy Argentine tourists, while Villa Gesells aims for those in the middle class. Prices in Villa Gesell are lower, but crime is higher.

Villa Gesell is built parallel to the coastline, along a main avenue. The architecture has a mix of styles, with buildings of different sizes, shapes and colours. The urban development at the beaches proved to be harmful for nature, as the beach became gradually smaller each year. The city sought to revert this effect, and when the franchises of each spa began to expire, they were not renovated. The buildings made with bricks and concrete were demolished, and replaced with smaller buildings made of wood. Automobile traffic was banned next to the beach, and each beach lease was allowed a maximum of 80 tents.

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Villa Gesell beach

Villa Gesell is a seaside village in Villa Gesell Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It was founded in 1931, afforestating a dune field. The growth of the city allowed it to annex the nearby cities of Mar de las Pampas, Las Gaviotas and Mar Azul.

History

The town is named after Carlos Gesell, the son of German economist Silvio Gesell. Carlos Gesell bought wood at Tigre for his business, and wanted to plant pines somewhere near Mar del Plata to reduce costs. Gesell was not planning to build a town at that point. Héctor Guerrero told him of 16.48 km2 (6.36 sq mi) of sand dunes on sale for 28,000 pesos, and Gesell bought them in 1931 when he checked for the existence of groundwater in the area. The coastline was 10 km (6.21 mi) long. He immediately began to forest the area, and built a house for himself in 1932. This house is now a municipal museum.

The forestation work did not proceed as expected: the strong saline winds moved the sand and harmed the plants, exposing and drying their roots. Gesell hired German agronomist Carlos Bodesheim in 1934, who could not find a solution. He then implemented two new ideas. First, he planted a high number of beneficial weeds, capable of surviving in the dunes, in order to anchor the sand in place. He planted trees with tubed roots, so that the roots sought water deeper in the ground and the wind could not tear them. Losses were still high, but decreasing. In 1938 he learned about the Australian Acacia longifolia, which was well adapted to the sand and the saline winds, and increased the ratio of nitrogen fixation. The Acacia was a success, and he arranged the plants so that the Acacias protected the pines from the wind.

Carlos Gesell lived permanently in the area from 1937 on. He began to run out of money in 1940, so he built a small timeshare named "La Golondrina" (Spanish: The swallow). The first tourists were the the Starks. Mr. Stark was manager of the local branch of the Siemens corporation. The Starks promoted the town back in Buenos Aires, and more tourist accommodations were built. The town was linked to Provincial Route 11 in 1943.

With new houses for tourists and the local population, the area was turned into a proper urban settlement, so Gesell began to see after the needed urban services, such as the supply of food, electric power, gasoline and a car workshop. He banned alcoholic beverages, cigarettes and any other things he deemed as a vice. He strongly opposed the establishment of a local casino, which was finally established at the nearby town of Pinamar. The city saw a large European immigration during World War II, who built the first hotels and themed restaurants. Most Italians worked as construction laborers, and most Spaniards administrated the shops and hotels. Urban development grew even more in the 1960s, as people that bought land and built houses in six months or less were refunded half the of the land's original price.

The settlement gradually expanded stretching along the coastline, and today continues it's growth has annexed three more towns to the south, namely, Mar de las Pampas, Las Gaviotas and Mar Azul. Villa Gesell has been a popular tourist destination since the 1940s.

In recent years Villa Gesell was known as a touristic destination for teenagers, but the current administrations seek to change this and aim instead for mature tourists. The "Gesell Rock", an annual rock festival, is not celebrated anymore, replaced for family-oriented musical shows.

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San Clemente del Tuyú beach

History

Noticed by Ferdinand Magellan in 1520, who gave nearby Cape San Antonio its name, Spanish authorities first surveyed the area in 1580. Led by reformist Governor Hernando Arias de Saavedra, his Guaraní staff christened the spot Rincón del Tuyú ("muddy corner"). First mapped by British Jesuit Thomas Falkner in 1744, the neighboring stream was named San Clemente by Spanish Jesuit José Cardiel.

The San Antonio lighthouse, built in 1890.

Dunes on the San Clemente del Tuyú shore.

The waterfront area was soon purchased by the Ortiz de Rozas family, one of Argentina's most well-established landowners. Sold to another prominent family, the Leloirs, in 1816, the area became a sheep ranch. A descandant of the Ortiz de Rozas', General Juan Manuel de Rosas, had the area incorporated into a district of the Province of Buenos Aires in 1825, the area's first assigned jurisdiction since national independence in 1816; as Governor, Rosas brutally repressed a local insurrection in 1839 against his repressive rule. Following Rosas' 1852 overthrow, the area was given a county seat (Mar del Tuyú) in 1864 and, with the arrival of abattoirs, the government had fishermen's docks, a canal between San Clemente and Buenos Aires, a railhead and two lighthouses built between 1878 and 1902.

Prospering during the 1920s, the Argentine middle class first became widely aware of the idyllic coast through the efforts of Mayor Jorge Gibson, who had the local coastline graded into public beaches. The project's success led to the first gravel road into San Clemente in 1932 and its formal designation as a municipality; soon followed service stations, campgrounds, real estate developments, a power plant and even a monastery. President Juan Perón made plans for a nearby submarine base that, though never built, resulted in a four-lane highway into San Clemente. This and continuing national prosperity led to the town's rapid development after 1950, which led to the establishment of a hospital in 1970 and of Mundo Marino in 1979, still the largest oceanarium in South America.

A nature theme park (Parque Bahía Aventura) opened in 1997; drawing few crowds, the area was slated for closure when, in 2003, mineral hot springs were discovered at the spot. County Mayor Juan de Jesús set aside part of Bahía Aventura and opened Termas Marinas, today one of Argentina's most popular hot springs.

The city today

San Clemente del Tuyú, the northernmost among seven sea-side communities in the Partido de la Costa district, today counts 27 hotels (of which 14 are three or four-star establishments), the most important of which is the four-star sea-front Hotel Fontainebleu, with 71 rooms. The aquarium, adventure park and hot springs are complemented by two natural sciences museums, fishing boat tours and the 129 meter (400 feet) -long pier, among other parks and attractions. Punta Rasa, at the northern end of the city and the cape, was made a nature preserve in 1997. The activity around fishing boat tours centers around the black corvine feast held annually since 1966, towards December. The area's vast dunes also set the stage for the annual Enduro competition held here every February since 1998. A small but loyal contingent of visitors also arrives seasonally from San Clemente, California, a sister city of San Clemente del Tuyú since 1969.

The seven sister communities receive nearly a million visitors monthly during the peak summer season (January and February), of which San Clemente del Tuyú hosts roughly one tenth, given its proportion of the district's hotel room availability. A considerable number of summertime visitors also come to enjoy Benedictine monk Mamerto Menapace's sermons and lectures, which takes place at the order's San Clemente estancia and offers ascetic "pilgrim" accommodations. San Clemente del Tuyú hosted the Sixth Iberoamerican Congress on Environmental Education in September 2009.

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Rada Tilly beach

Rada Tilly is a town in Escalante Department, Chubut Province (Patagonia), Argentina. The town is between Punta Piedras hill to the north and Punta del Marqués to the south. Punta del Marqués, a geographical landmark on San Jorge Gulf, reaches a height of 167 metres (548 ft), and extends into the sea for 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi).

The area was first populated at least 9,000 years ago, and was first recorded by Captain Robert FitzRoy during his voyage on the HMS Beagle in the early 1830s (best known for its impact on the naturalist Charles Darwin). The municipality was established on July 24, 1948, as part of a nature conservation effort in the area during the administration of President Juan Perón. It was named for the Marquess Francisco Everardo Tilly y Paredes, a captain of the Spanish Armada who defeated Portuguese forces on the Río de la Plata, in 1795; Rada is "roadstead" in Spanish. The municipality is home to a growing population, which reached 6,208 in the 2001 Census, and has doubled every decade since 1980; its estimated population, per the provincial statistical bureau, was 9,226 in 2008. A beach resort city, Rada Tilly became one of the main recreational spots for visitors from nearby Comodoro Rivadavia, a city 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) to the north.

The main attraction of the city is its coastline, extending for 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi), covered in fine sand. This uninterrupted geographical feature allows for the enjoyment of numerous leisure activities such as football, beach volleyball, and walking, as well as windsurfing, kitesurfing, diving, snorkeling, trekking, motocross, and mountain bicycling. Landsailing (three-wheeled carts with a sail attached to them that move with the force of the wind) is a popular spectator sport in Rada Tilly, and the 2008 Landsailing World Cup was held on these beaches.

Rada Tilly is also a popular fishing destination, and the wide range of fish includes salmon, hake, and sea bass, among others.

Wildlife and vegetation

From the look out point on Punta del Marqués, opened at the site in February 1986, a natural reserve for sea lions can be observed. The males are dark brown, and are distinguishable from the females by their manes and larger size; females calf from the last days of December to the last days in January. Other fauna include oysters and seagulls, which frequent the area's coast to feed.

Among the variety of flora found along Punta del Marqués, local species such as: uña de gato, zampa, adesmia, malaspina, duraznillo, and coiro predominate.

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Puerto Madryn beach

Puerto Madryn (in Welsh, Porth Madryn) is a city in the province of Chubut in the Argentine Patagonia. It is the head town of the Biedma Department, and has about 57,571 inhabitants according to the last census in 2001.

The town was founded on July 28, 1865, when 150 Welsh immigrants who came in the clipper Mimosa named the natural port Porth Madryn in honour of Sir Love Jones-Parry, whose estate in Wales was named "Madryn". The settlement grew as a result of the building of the Central Chubut Railway by Welsh, Spanish and Italian immigrants. This line, opened in 1888, linked it to Trelew via the lower Chubut River valley. Puerto Madryn is protected by the Golfo Nuevo, which is formed by Península Valdés and Punta Ninfas. It is an important centre for tourists visiting the natural attractions of the Península Valdés and the coast.

A new mall in the city center has helped tourism significantly, making Puerto Madryn a more attractive place for both international and domestic tourists visiting Patagonia. It is twinned with Nefyn, a small town on the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales, result of its great link with Welsh culture since the Welsh settlement in Argentina. The first of a two-Test tour to Argentina by the Wales national rugby union team was played in 2006 in Puerto Madryn, a 27–25 win for Argentina. Puerto Madryn is home to two football clubs; Club Social y Atlético Guillermo Brown, who play in Torneo Argentino A and Deportivo Madryn that currently play in Torneo Argentino B.

A basketball team, Deportivo Puerto Madryn plays in the Liga Nacional de Básquetbol (LNB). Their home arena is known as the Deportivo Puerto Madryn Arena.

El Tehuelche Airport is located 10 km northwest of the downtown. Commercial flights from Buenos Aires, Ushuaia and other Argentinian cities are available. Most tourists fly in the Trelew airport as flights are restricted into Puerto Madryn due to environmental concerns.

Geography and Climate

Puerto Madryn can be found in Chubut on the Golfo Nuevo, which is formed by the Valdes Peninsula and Punta Ninfas. The climate is a temperate semidesert, with an annual precipitation between 150 and 200 mm.

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Pinamar beach

Pinamar is an Argentine coastal resort town located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in Buenos Aires Province. It has about 20,000 inhabitants as per the 2001 census.

Located less than 400 km (249 mi)south of Buenos Aires, it is one of several small seaside communities that line the coast. Since Pinamar's main attraction is the ocean, it is a fairly quiet town during the winter months. Tourism is what fuels the economy during the summer.

Two facts set Pinamar apart from most of the other Atlantic Ocean beach cities: it is a planned city with a very strict building code, and it has been artificially turned from wild sand dunes into a forest (mostly of pine trees, which explains the "pina" in the name).

City planning, as defined by founding architect Jorge Bunge and maintained by elected authorities ever since, translates into a city mostly made up of residential houses with open gardens; that, together with the pine forest, combine to make the city a very nice setting. That explains why it has been chosen as the summer resort for many well-to-do Argentinians, in particular those living in Buenos Aires.

Pine planting was originally started in Cariló -- a town nearby Villa Gesell and copied in Pinamar, although the city plan for Villa Gesell was not as carefully laid out or kept through the years.

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Necochea beach

Necochea is a port city in the southwest of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, located on the Atlantic coast, on the edge of the Quequén Grande river, 528 km (328 mi) from Buenos Aires City and 120 km (75 mi) southwest from Mar del Plata. It has 89,000 inhabitants as per the 2001 census and it is the seat of government for Necochea Partido, a partido of Buenos Aires Province. On the mouth of the Quequen river, the port of Quequen, one of the most important ports in Argentina, is the gateway for the agricultural production of the southeast of the Province of Buenos Aires.

The majority of inhabitants of Necochea are Argentines, but throughout the years a large number of Danes have settled there. There are smaller "pueblos" or communities in Necochea mainly founded by Danes and other Nordic settlers.

  

Settlements

• Quequen
• Juan N.Fernandez
• Nicanor Olivera (Est. LaDulce)
• Claraz
• Ramon Santamarina
• Balneario Los Angeles
• Costa Bonita

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Monte Hermoso beach

Monte Hermoso is a town located on the Atlantic coast of Argentina, some 100 km (62 mi) east of the city of Bahía Blanca, in the south of the Province of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of the partido of Monte Hermoso.

Founded at the beginning of the twentieth century, Monte Hermoso is a family seaside resort with more than 32 km (20 mi) of beach overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and with the unique characteristic in Argentina of having both sunrises and sunsets over the sea.

The summer climate of Monte Hermoso is more temperate than that of other major seaside resorts due to the sea breeze effect, while the water itself is warmer, making for a pleasant beach experience.

Monte Hermoso owes its existence to the 1879 purchase of 4,000 seaside hectares (10,000 acres) by Esteban Dufaur. His son, Sulpicio, created the El Recreo estancia in 1910, and in 1918, began welcoming guests with the inaugural of the Hotel de Madera; the hotel was built by Dafaur with lumber salvaged from a shipwreck on the shore. The settlement was established as such in 1975, and given autonomy on April 1, 1979.

The lighthouse, Faro Recalada a Bahia Blanca, 73 m (240 ft) high and the tallest in South America, is situated on the coastal road to Sauce Grande about 7 km (4 mi) east of the resort, where it marks the route to the nearby port of Bahía Blanca. Prefabricated in France by the same construction company, Barbier Bernad and Turenne that built the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it was erected in Argentina under the direction of Engineer Luigi, who also supervised the construction of the nearby naval base at Puerto Belgrano. Opened on 1 January 1906, the manned lighthouse, painted in red and white and giving out a white flash every 9 seconds, comprises an octagonal pyramidal cast iron tower with a central cylinder lantern and gallery. Guided tours of the lighthouse are provided daily.

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Attractions and activities of Miramar beach

Attractions

• Miramar Golf Course.
• Museo Punta Hermengo, museum.
• Vivero F. Ameghino, 5.02 km² of woodland.
• Enchanted Forest or Energic Forest
• Aero Club de la ciudad de Miramar, Aerodrome.
• Autodromo Roberto Hirch de Miramar, 1.47/1.72 km motor racing venue.
• The farm circuit, knows as "Mar y Pampa" near 37 Avenue has nice places, specially on weekends
• Vivero Dunícola "Florentino Ameghino"
• The dunes: 12 km of sand beaches - South of Miramar. There is a possibility to take a truck to know this incredible places and practise sandboard.
• The "Médano Blanco" (white dune), one of the tallest and close to "La Totora" brook.
• The coastline between Miramar and Mar del Plata (40km), has incredible landscapes with beaches, cliffs, brooks and wood.

Other attractions include the rivers Durazno and Brusquitas, an ecological reserve and a number of beaches.

Activities

• Surf: Many good breaks, one of which is famous throughout South America
• Golf: The course is of the well-known Scotch type.
• Fishing: by the coast, on board or in "La Ballenera" lagoon.
• Trekking: Especially in the forest ("El Vivero"), guide is recommended
• Mountain biking: Miramar is the point of the international circuits of mountain bike in Argentina, like "Panamerican Games"
• Horseback Riding: alone or with a guide, one can rent horses on weekends.

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Miramar, Buenos Aires Province

Miramar is an Argentine city located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in Buenos Aires Province, 450 km (280 mi) south of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of General Alvarado Partido. The name "Miramar" cames from the words Mira (look) and Mar (sea).

 History

1870: The land that now includes General Alvarado Partido came into the ownership of Fortunato de La Plaza.

1879: The area changes jurisdiction from Balcarce to General Pueyrredón.

1887: It was around this time the project to build Miramar was undertaken by Jose María Dupuy, Rómulo Otamendi (engineer) and Fortunato de la Plaza.

1888: Miramar was founded on 20 September.

1889: Construction began on the first church in Miramar.

1891: The Partido of General Alvarado was created on September 29, with Miramar as its capital.

1911: The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway arrived in Miramar and the company later built a comfortable hotel and adjoining golf course in the town.

1920: The first aeroplane arrives in Miramar.

1927: The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway began the construction of the Miramar golf course.

1930: The hotel Dormy House was built adjacent to the golf course by the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway, and later a tunnel was built to provide access to the sea from the hotel

Economy

The summer tourist season provides the most significant contribution to the economy of Miramar. Other economic activities include farming and agroindustry, with most of these concentrated around the nearby village of Comandante Nicanor Otamendi.

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Las Grutas

Las Grutas is a beach resort town located in the Argentine province of Río Negro, in the department of San Antonio, with a stable population of 3,500 inhabitant.s

It's located 15 kilometers southern of San Antonio Oeste, and is visited by over 250,000 tourist every summer. Its beaches are known for having relatively warm waters in spite of their location in the Patagonia, due to the wide tidal amplitude, and the protection of the San Matías Gulf. The town was founded in 1964, mainly as a group of campings, and soon began growing. But it was not until the 1980s that tourism industry finally exploded, with the construction of numerous hotels and a provincial casino.

Las Grutas', meaning "The Caves" in Spanish, comes from the caves created by the erosion of the sea on the cliffs that separate the city from the beach. The access to the beaches is therefore restricted to the existing 12 descends or "bajadas". Their names, from north to south, are "3 de febrero", "Los acantilados", "A.C.A.", "La rueda", "Cero", "Primera", "Segunda", "Tercera", "Cuarta", "Quinta", "Sexta" y "Séptima", the last seven named from first to seventh.

The first accesses where the ones named "Primera", "Segunda", and "Tercera" (first, second and third), to which new ones were added as the town, and the number of visitors grew.

Near the "Cero" access there are pools artificially carved in the stone that change their water in every tidal cycle. When the tide is low, the water in the pools is quickly warmed by the sun. In colder days, old people and children sometimes prefer to make use of the pools instead of the sea.

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History and tourist attractions in Carilo

The Cariló area was transformed from large desert dunes close to the sea to a huge forest and a beach.

In the early 1920s, Mr. Héctor Manuel Guerrero started the forestation of the farm cóalled "Dos Montes". This farm included a cattle ranch called "Médanos" (meaning "Dunes") that has a surface of 1.700 ha. Several problems were faced as the lack of transportation and accesses were combined with almost no experience regarding on-sand forestation. Guerrero family decided to keep the forestation up to the sea shore, and included some fruit trees that brought local bird species.

In 1935, that new forested area was named "Cariló" that means "Green Dune" in local Indian language, Mapuche.

In 1938, the forestation nurseries were moved to the farm "Dos Montes".

In 1947, More than 660 thousand trees were ready to be planted.

In 1948, an estate house called "Divisadero" (also "Casa Grande") was built over a dune by the sea with the forest behind.

During the 1970s, all the forestation nurseries were disabled when the forestland of the total private property of the Guerrero family was completed.

The sons of the founder decided to name all the streets of the Cariló, using wild plants/trees - for those streets running perpendicular to the sea - and local bird names - for those that are in parallel to the sea - in alphabetical order.

Cariló is a beach town that offers many hotels, lodges, cabins, and summer homes to tourists both from Argentina and elsewhere, rather than having yearlong residents. Since it is a hotspot amongst tourists it offers several activities to visitors.

• Cariló Beach

Offers a clean ocean environment for families and freinds.

• Downtown Cariló

Downtown Cariló offers many unique shops around the Paseo Epuyen. Small, family own restaurants can also be found in this area, which allow for a cozy dining experience.

• Cariló Dune bashing

This beach town's sand dunes allow for fun on the All-terrain vehicles.

• Cariló Forest

Cariló not only has a beach to enjoy from but it also is built amonst a forest, which gives a chance for tourists to enjoy from the natural wildlife of the plants and animals.

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Cariló

Cariló (from the mapuche word "Green Dune") is a beach resort town in Argentina. It is situated in a man made forest on the Atlantic coast of the Province of Buenos Aires, approximately 360 km south of Buenos Aires city in the adminastrative division of Pinamar Partido.

Until a few years ago, access to the town was strictly controlled by the ruling authority. Today Cariló is publicly accessible, but comparatively high prices ensure that it remains the preserve of the well heeled.

Cariló offers a lot of activities to individuals of all ages. The beach town offers sand dunes that attract many tourists for four wheeling. Many hotels and lodges in the area either have All-terrain vehicle, or quads, to rent or are associated with a company on the beach that does it. Dune bashing is a local favorite in the area for tourists and year round inhabitants.

How to get there

Access is via intercoastal state Route 11 (Spanish) that travels along the coast of the Province of Buenos Aires. Train, bus and plane are also available from Pinamar and Villa Gesell (please, check transportation availability as it may vary according to low or high season) and then a taxi is required to get there (about 6 to 10 miles from these terminal stations).

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Government of Mar del Plata

Mar del Plata is the head of the department (Partido) of General Pueyrredón. The current Mayor of the city and department is Gustavo Pulti, of the local party Acción Marplatense.

The Honorable Concejo Deliberante (the town council) has some legislative powers. The term of office for both the Mayor and council members is four years.

In 1919, Mar del Plata became the first town in South America to have a Socialist Mayor, a son of Italian Immigrants, Teodoro Bronzini. The Socialist Party would dominate the city political landscape for most of the 20th century.

The Government official page has a comprehensive listing of all Mayors and Commissioners of Mar del Plata from 1881 to the present.

There is an extensive but interesting work by the American sociologist Susan Stokes about the democratic process in Mar del Plata since 1983 in comparison to other regions of Argentina. One of the main thesis of her articles is that the social and economic development of Mar del Plata was quite atypical, with a strong prevalence of middle-class values that discouraged the policy of clientelism that is the common background in other urban environments of Argentina.

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Climate of Mar del Plata

The weather pattern for the region is that of an oceanic climate, with humid and moderate summers and relatively cool winters, although polar air masses from Antarctica are frequent. The average temperatures for January reach 20°C (68 Fahrenheit) and 8°C for July (46 Fahrenheit). The West-Southwest winds bring down the temperature below 0°C (32 Fahrenheit), while the Southeast ones (the so called Sudestada) are stronger, producing coastal showers and rough seas, as well as strong squalls, but the cold is much less intense.

There are about 20 days of frost each year, and almost 60 in the west hills area (some 300 mts above the sea level). Snowfall is not uncommon, but snow accumulation on the ground is rare, a phenomenon that takes place every 6 years or so, according to the last 40 year's data.

Among the most best known such occurrences were the 1975 and 1991 snowstorms, but there were also snow accumulations in 1994 and 1997, in the highest hills area of Sierra de los Padres, in 1995 along the southern coast, and other two during the first hours of July 10, 2004 and July 15, 2010. There were two flurries in September 1986 and June 2007. There is fog in the last days of fall, and springtime is often marred by sea winds and sudden temperature's changes. There are some ten days of 30°C (86 Fahrenheit) each summer, certainly milder values than the rest of the pampas region. Usually, the summer nights are cool and pleasant, with values between 13º to 17°C (55 to 63 Fahrenheit). The record high is 41º on January 1957 (105 Fahrenheit). The wet season occurs during spring and summer, specially in January, with values between the 70 and 80 mm. The average annual rainfall is 780 mm.

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Architecture of Mar del Plata

The development of the city as a seasonal resort in the early 20th century led upper class tourists from Buenos Aires to build a European-inspired architecture, based mainly on the picturesque and later on the art deco styles. This gave Mar del Plata the nickname of the Argentine Biarritz. The building industry became the main non-seasonal activity of the town by 1920.

During the '30s,'40s, and beyond, local architects and builders, like Auro Tiribelli, Arturo Lemmi, Alberto Córsico-Picollini and Raúl Camusso recreated and transformed the picturesque values into a middle-class scale, marking the beginning of a vernacular architecture, called Mar del Plata Style, consisting in small samples of the luxury-laden summer residences of high society, built for the summer visitor as well as for the local resident.

These chalets were built with stone façades, gables roofs covered with Spanish or French tiles, prominent eaves and front porches. This gives the town some distinctive urban character compared with other Argentine cities, despite the fact that the growing mass of tourists in the '60s imposed the construction of large apartment buildings and skyscrapers as the predominant architectural style downtown.

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Culture of Mar del Plata

Mar del Plata is the most popular destination for conventions in Argentina after Buenos Aires. Mar del Plata has a wide range of services in this sector. The summer season hosts over fifty theatrical plays.

Shows and festivals

• The Mar del Plata International Film Festival, the only competitive accredited film festival in Latin America.
• The Fiesta Nacional del Mar ("National Sea Festival") with the election and coronation of the Sea Queen and her princesses, which takes place in December as the official inauguration of the summer season.
• The Premios Estrella de Mar ("Sea Star Awards") which honor the best stage plays and shows of the season.
• The Valencian Falles week, a local reenactment of the Valencian event conducted by the Valencian community.
• The Mar del Plata Fashion Show, along with a number of fashion parades that gathers the best haute couture designers.
• The Fiesta Nacional de los Pescadores (National Fishermen's Festival), a colourful display of seamen tradition and cuisine.
• Mar del Plata has also hosted the 1995 Pan American Games, the 2003 Parapan American Games, the 2005 FIBA Under-21 World Championship, and co-hosted the 1978 FIFA World Cup and the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship.
• Since 1987 Mar del Plata annually hosts the Mar del Plata Marathon, in early December.

The local Government sponsors a stable Symphonic Orchestra, as well as a Conservatorium and a School of Classical and Modern Dance.

Nightlife

Mar del Plata has a wide variety of clubs located by district: the area of Alem street and Irigoyen (known for its quantity of pubs and nightclubs) and the coast and Constitution Avenue.

Museums

• The Juan Carlos Castagnino Municipal Museum of Art.
• The Museum of the Port of Mar del Plata Cleto Ciocchini.
• The Museum of Natural Science Lorenzo Scaglia, specialized in Paleontology of the Quaternary species around the region.
• The Mar del Plata Museum of the Sea, which includes one of the most complete collections of sea snails of the World.
• Villa Victoria, a vintage wooden house, the former residence of the late writer Victoria Ocampo, now a place for art expositions and classical music.

Notable people

• Alberto Bruzzone (1907–1994), painter, was born in San Juan but chose Mar del Plata as his home city.
• Alfonsina Storni (died 1938), famous Argentian Poet, who drowned herself in the waters at Mar del Plate: a statue still was erected near the beach.
• Ástor Piazzolla, composer and musician.
• Auro Tiribelli (1908–2006), architect, the main representative of the Mar del Plata style.
• Erica Bibbó (1985), the first female commander of a naval unit in the Argentine navy.
• Gabriel Gaby Amato, former international soccer player.
• Germán Mono Burgos, former goalkeeper. He played two World Cups. Currently, he is oriented to music.
• Guillermo Vilas, top tennis star in the 1970s.
• Héctor Babenco, movie director, who made Hollywood films like Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ironweed.
• Homero Cárpena (1910–2001), actor, playwright and filmmaker.
• Inés Arrondo, hockey player, winner along with the national team of an Olympic Silver medal in Sydney 2000 and a Bronze medal in Athens 2004.
• Juan Carlos Castagnino, painter.
• Juan Eduardo Esnáider, international soccer player. Former forward of Espanyol, Atlético de Madrid, Juventus, River Plate.
• Jorge Lanata, journalist and writer.
• Laura Echarte, agricultural engineer, researcher in crop physiology studies, winner of a 2007 L'Oreal-Unesco international fellowship for Women.
• Maria Gabriela Palomo, marine biologist, also winner of the L'Oreal-Unesco junior award in 2003 for her works on port-areas environmental pollution.
• Mario Benedetti (1945), electronics engineer, the main Argentine scientist involved in the Large Hadron Collider project. He is also the owner of Tío Curzio, one of the most fashionable restaurants in the city.
• Martin Donovan (not to be confused with American actor Martin Donovan), Hollywood screenwriter and producer, co-author of the screenplay of movies like Death Becomes Her and Loving Couples.
• Nacha Guevara, singer and actress.
• Ricardo Piglia, writer born in Adrogué but raised in Mar del Plata.

The common linguistic and social background of the city is that of the so called rioplatense culture.

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