For the night of the 31st December we went to the campsite in Puerto Piramides. We arrived around mid-day, the place was rammed and it seemed that every Argentine and his auntie had pitched up. We were told that the campsite was full, but if we could find a spot we could camp for ARG$20. Our tent is small, so this would pose us no problems.
We walked the length of the campsite to note that every spot was indeed occupied by converted buses, RV's, caravans, trucks and 4x4's, with tents squeezed inbetween. All the best places in the shade and on the sand were taken...even up in the carparking area there were tents pitched up on the rocks and gravel. Eventually we found a place, near the bottom of a sand dune and put up our wee two-man. Sounds good, but there were 2 4x4s direcetly opposite and I couldn't help but think that if the folks didn't insist on driving their cars and trucks into the actual site, finding a pitch would have been easier.
Errecting it was interesting as the sand was so soft that there was not enough tension to keep the topsheet taught, and all around us you could see (in between the vehicles) tents that were bowing and flapping in the wind. As it was about 2pm by now, the sand was incredibly hot, and as I was in flip-flops it was necessary to do some kind of hopping dance to stop my feet from burning as we pushed in pegs and tightened guy ropes! ouch.
We walked the length of the campsite to note that every spot was indeed occupied by converted buses, RV's, caravans, trucks and 4x4's, with tents squeezed inbetween. All the best places in the shade and on the sand were taken...even up in the carparking area there were tents pitched up on the rocks and gravel. Eventually we found a place, near the bottom of a sand dune and put up our wee two-man. Sounds good, but there were 2 4x4s direcetly opposite and I couldn't help but think that if the folks didn't insist on driving their cars and trucks into the actual site, finding a pitch would have been easier.
Errecting it was interesting as the sand was so soft that there was not enough tension to keep the topsheet taught, and all around us you could see (in between the vehicles) tents that were bowing and flapping in the wind. As it was about 2pm by now, the sand was incredibly hot, and as I was in flip-flops it was necessary to do some kind of hopping dance to stop my feet from burning as we pushed in pegs and tightened guy ropes! ouch.
After driving around the National Park, we spent the evening drinking beer while sat on rocks in Piramides bay, watching the sun go down at 11pm (Christina Kirchner, the new Argentine president, put the clocks forward by an hour on the 30th. This is the first time that Argentina has had a daylight saving policy, and it has been put into action as a means to save energy. The effect of this is strange, resulting in very cool mornings and the heat of the day being at its worst at around 3 or 4 pm). We followed this by pizza (surprisingly not the usual cheese slick that is the staple pizza variety here) at a cafe where, at midnight, the owners kindly gave us glasses of fizz and slabs of pan dulce (like panettone). The Argentines meanwhile were back at camp busy eating the barbequed meat that had been roasting away since the late afternoon. Walking around the campsite would not be a pleasant experience for a vegetarian, as whole animals are flayed and pinned open on a metal cross-shaped skewer, slowly cooking over burning wood. To me, having worked up an appetite from the days sight-seeing , the smell was divine!
So far the evening had passed quite quietly, but then the fireworks started. While the whizz-bang-pops were very pretty exploding over the bay, it was also a kind of extreme sport....this was no organised display and anybody with a couple of pesos to spare could buy a few rockets and set them off willy nilly from the beach. The wind carried them off in all directions, with some bursting into life on the sand, just feet away from people! Duck!
Back at the campsite the party was just beginning, with everybody singing along to music pumping out of car radios or in big groups around a guitar (no bandoneons, thankfully). To be fair, the Argentines have great singing voices and do it at any opportunity, with passion - and while we were not so much serenaded to sleep at least we had front row seats to a local past-time! Infact we were privileged until the sun rose again....
Hannah
No comments:
Post a Comment