Pinamar & Carilo

Having been unable to book a place in our desired location of Pinamar due to absolutely no availability of hostels (the place is a holiday resort for residents of Buenos Aires and it was peak season), we had to go for a hostal a little further out of town in a beautiful little pine forest next to the sea called Carilo. On arrival at the bus station Steve and I made the trek from the bus terminal into town which was about 2km there and back only to find that the Hertz car rental place where we were headed was closed which did not do much to raise the spirits and Steve was already experiencing a low and even at one point said he’d rather be watching Bruce Willis in Armageddon at home! Getting back to the terminal we jumped in a cab and headed to Carilo which was a very pretty place amidst a pine forest with dusty tracks, beautiful big houses and some lovely upmarket fashionable shops and restaurants in the middle of the forest all set out in wooden decking and balconies and terraces. At one point I thought the taxi was lost as he had to check the map and I thought we must be very lost because our hostel couldn’t possibly be in such a nice place but we weren’t. We arrived at our hostal a large white house in the middle of the forest with a swimming pool at the front and were greeted by a nice young lady in a bikini. This was all good for me until she showed us to our room which was a small stand alone bulidng to the back of the hostal. It was cramped and full of bugs but luckily not too many mosquitoes and luckily it wasn’t too hot although later in bed I was sweating and the beds were all quite damp. Oh and the toilet was in the shower which was rather odd! All this said however we did have a very large communal area with sofas a very large TV and a kitchen area all to ourselves and I had actually considered sleeping in there but the place was even more buggy than our room.

Now our priority was food and so we headed to the hub of shops and restaurants just 10 minutes walk through the forest. This was a charming place and the weather was fantastic (30 degrees and no clouds) so I was feeling pretty happy apart from the thought of going back to our dingy little shack at bed time. After eating and paying over the odds (much more for a steak than BA for worse quality) we headed to the beach to catch the sunset over the sea just a further 10 minutes through the forest. The beach was still very busy considering the sun was about to set and games of beach volleyball and watersports were still going on. The sunset cast some lovely colours above the sea and across the backdrop of the sand dunes and allowed for some nice photos to be taken although dusk meant mosquitos were suddenly out to feed and we all especially Steve got bitten.

Back at the hostal the girl in the bikini seemed to have arranged some sort of party and people were drinking smoking and swimming in the pool in their clothes! We just went back to our shack and sat in our large lounge for a while to watch TV. After a little while I was bored and wanted to explore a little so I went out with my torch for a walk through the forest to the shopping and eating complex in search of some savoury snacks for the others who were still hungry. The night was completely clear and the stars were out in force. They were so bright that you could actually make out the milky way and I even saw a couple of shooting stars. It was a nice evening with a lovely cool breeze blowing through the pines and I thought to myself I want to return here one day. When I reached the complex there were people everywhere, dining, drinking, shopping, live music and loads and loads of kids everywhere which I was surprised at as it was nearly midnight but I guess they were all on their summer holidays so mum and dad had let them stay up. It was a great place for kids too with lots of entertainment, playgrounds, what looked like a creative workshop too. It made me think of my little nephew Mikey who would’ve loved it here. After finding a free wifi zone I checked the vitals such as facebook, emails etc and found some extortionately priced ham and cheese toasties for the guys I headed back through the woods in the hope that the guys would still be awake since I had been about an hour and it was now nearly midnight.

On return to our room I found at least that Steve was still awake and we ate a half each but couldn’t eat the other so we left it for breakfast. The party was still going on out front and they seemed to have a tin whistle and drums going and I was half tempted to go join them but I didn’t think theyd appreciate a gringo crashing the party and tiredness had got the better of me even though I had been putting off sleeping in the buggy damp bed with a lumpy excuse for a pillow for as long as possible, bed beckoned. I somehow clambered up to the top bunk above Steve’s bed in the dark (without steps) and fell into bed, although I as aforementioned I was sweating within minutes although I must’ve fallen into a light sleep as the next thing I knew I was awoken with a start. Having said that the thunder was loud at Boca was now an overstatement as this thunder clap that woke me was deafening! It was the loudest and longest thunderclap I had ever heard almost like a bomb had gone off just above the ceiling and then the rain started which was the heaviest rain I have ever heard, it was so heavy and so loud that I was sure the roof of our shack was going to collapse from the intensity. It was ceaseless and getting back to sleep now was near impossible. The next thing I knew I heard water gushing inside our room and it immediately made me thought that there had been a breach in the roof somewhere but after distinguishing between this gushing water and the rain I realized that it was in fact the shower going! This really confused me as I thought it was one of the guys having a shower as it was time to get up but on inspection of the time, I saw that it was only 2.15am so I guessed one of them had got so sweaty that they got up in the middle of the night in need of a shower.

In reality, I found the reason for the shower going the next morning. It turns out Lee had had a bout of the rumbles (anyone who knows Lee will know all about the rumbles) let’s just say his bowels were playing up somewhat! Apparently he got up in the middle of the night with the severe necessity to unload and with the toilet as I mentioned being in the shower, he ran to the loo and successfully missed the bowl getting it all over the shower floor and up the walls (he even gave me a reenactment) and to make things worse we’d run out of tissue paper and that was hence the reason for the shower running. Anyway so needless to say it was pretty much a sleepless night for all of us and we all woke up and got ready (without showering) to get out of there as soon as we could.

Next stop was Mar Del Plata, a coastal city about an hour and a half drive south from Pinamar.