ESG: My last vacation #2

My last vacation was a year ago, on February. It was what we call “a long weekend” (Sat – Sun + Mon – Tue due to a national holiday) and my relatives from Metán, Salta (Metán is 1363 km from Buenos Aires, in the North-West corner of Argentina, on the Andes area) were spending some days at home. 4 out of 5 of them had never met the sea, so that was the goal of that year’s visit.

Sadly, we chose the worst weekend ever. We were aware that a lot of people would go to the shore during those days, because of the long weekend and because there was the “fortnight change”, which meant that a lot of people were going back home from their vacations, and practically the same amount of people was starting theirs. So, predictably, the route would be a chaos. But, what was completely out of calculus was the break of a bridge in the middle of the journey.

We left very early in the morning on Saturday in 2 cars (there were 8 of us, so we were quite a bunch), my stepfather leading the way, and my uncle driving behind. 

Watching the sunrise in the car

"Are we there yet?"

No, honey, not even close.

By the time we were trying to leave Buenos Aires city heading south, the freeway was already very charged. “We knew this would happen”, we all said. But the thing was that it remained like that for the entire journey.

From a local news site. This is how it looked like, just trying to leave the city. The rest of the journey was exactly the same, although with less lanes

A travel that would took us 5 to 6 hours to complete, took us around 11 hours!! 11 hours stuck on traffic, sometimes without moving at all. Imagine that, after so many hours incapable of leaving the car, every time we arrived to a gas station, EVERYBODY stopped there too. Rows of cars to refill tanks, rows of people to the bathrooms, rows of people to buy food, water and whatever else. We were lucky that we made sandwiches before leaving home, and we had enough water for all of us, because every place was short of supplies. We were also lucky we were all adults, and could handle it quite well, because there were so many families with little children and babies that were going through a living hell.

We were so slow (more like still) that I could take pictures of the grass next to the road, without even leaving the car.

And pictures of the signs...

"STOP"

"LOL We are not even MOVING"

I must admit that I was quite thrilled. I was aware that something big was going on and that I would remember that day for the rest of my life, so I was actually seizing the moment (especially because it reminded me so much of Julio Cortázar’s short story “The Southern Thruway”, you can read it here) But I was probably the only one, because I wasn’t driving and I wasn’t going through my first traffic stuck ever, like my relatives were. And of course, this was a rough one.

Watching the sunset in the car

(by this time the worst had happened and we were moving at a regular pace)

But, at the end, we arrived in one piece (only one cousin with a nervous breakdown), although at a very dark night. We were exhausted and completely lost an entire day of vacation.

Almost there!

We were staying at Mar de Cobo, a very quiet and little village. We wake up early to seize the day and had a little walk around town (my relatives wake up even earlier to go see the sunrise at the beach), It was such a lovely place! There were brambleberry bushes growing wild on empty slots, so it looked like there were little pieces of forest everywhere! 

Those thorny bushes didn't let us go too far. And, also, there was a sign that said "Private property"

Makenna, the spirit of the forest

O, hi there, Sun

Want a bite?

Near noon we went to Mar de Plata, which is like THE town of the shore, always the most crowded. It was my first time there too, but I didn’t like it much, because it reminded me a lot of Buenos Aires (in my opinion, what’s the point of going away to a place so crowded as the one you came from?). There were some pretty old buildings, though. 

Me and my big butt in the foreground, my relatives in front of me. 

You can see in the background the big sealion statue, the iconic spot of Mar del Plata

After dinner we went back to Mar de Cobo, to seize the afternoon at the beach, which was really quiet –not crowded at all- and enjoyable.

Big blue sky ahead

Big white clouds behind

We start our way back on Monday morning, because my family had to return to Salta on Tuesday. Luckily, we made a detour and could avoid the bridge problem, arriving safe and happy.