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With its 3,989 km of coasts to the West and the famous Andin lakes to the East ; Argentina is a type of aquatic country. However, during the 34 days travelling across the country, the dives and fresh swims were not the most memorable. For example, there was the swim on the Rada Tilly beach where we wanted to enjoy the sunset. But we were not the only ones who had this idea, we had to share this moment with many Argentinian tourists who came to enjoy the sand of this seaside town. In the waters of Rio Parana Guazu and Gualeyan, in spite of being fresh at the end of these hot days, every time there were a disruptive element disturbing our swimming time. At Zárate, we needed to trace a path through the branches dragged by the stream. At Galeguaychu, it was an obligation to stay in a restricted area for our swimming time.
But during our crossing of Argentina from South to North, we enjoyed, even so, two lovely swimming spots.
Puerto Pirámides
After a day driving through the tracks on the Valdez Peninsula, like the rangers with our eagle eyes scrutinising the fauna and flora of this microcosm of 3,600 km2. We did a stop by the village of Puerto Pirámides.
We popped by the firemen station. No…. we didn’t want to check if we would be swimming in safe conditions, but we wanted to fill up our water tanks. An anecdote far from the topic but which was a sympathetic moment that I needed to share with you.
We arrived at the main beach by the end of the afternoon. It’s located in a cove, surrounded by white cliffs about a 100m high. At this late hour, the tide was low, leaving plenty of space for the tourists to put their towels on the dry sand or the slightly wet one. Once setup and dressed up with our swimsuit, we only had to jump in the clear water of the small cove. At low tide, the bottom of the sea didn’t go down quickly. After walking during a few tens of metres, we only got water at the waistline. But who cares? After a day driving in the dust, it was a great pleasure to bath in the Atlantic sea, floating on our back with our closed eyes and face in the last sun rays. After drinking a bit of water by the nose, we stranded up straight and started a few lengths of crawl.
Back on the sand, we strated to climb the cliff, the rocks were going forward to the ocean. At the tip, some teenagers laid down their towels and did some risky dives.
It was now the time for us to leave the beach and the peninsula for going North in the direction of the capital of the country…
Tigré
It’s not that easy to find a space with some shadow on the asphalt of Buenos Aires city. When we arrived in Tigré, the temperature was 35°C. So it was with a lot of happiness that we accepted the proposition of Ricardo: cooling down in the artificial lake at the tip of his garden.
Without a second thought, we changed our motorbike gears for our swimsuits and dived in the lukewarm water of the lagoon from the wooden pontoon. After a few lengths, Ricardo offered his canoe and kayak to explore the lagoon. Like three Indians in a nice wooden canoe, we went alongside the beautiful properties having often avant-garde architectures.
During this sunny weekend, kids were playing on the pontoons and young Argentinian teenagers were chilling with an electro music. Quickly, Julien and Marcos were catching up as a good crew on the sailing dinghy of the family. In spite of Marcos studying a competitive exam to enter an engineer school, he indulged himself to a break to enjoy sailing with us.
Sailing is a tradition in this Argentinian family, member of the local club from a few generations.
In the middle of the lake, I changed of boat with Julien. So I enjoyed again the pleasure of sailing. The first minutes were with Marcos before he asked me to bring him back home. He went back to study, leaving me sailing on my own. It was time for me to understand the list of the boat and to enjoy the movements. at the beginning, I was not very confident but after a few manœuvres, the confidence came back. I was very proud to get closer to the canoe of Marie, Emilie and Julien! But here we go, by being too confident, the boat was going quicker and at the time of jibing… the boat turned over throwing me into the water. The sailing dinghy was floating on a side a few metres further. After a few lengths of crawl, I needed to go on the rudder of the boat to put it back straight before to go again on the water and to tack with more vigilance.
At the end of the afternoon, the sun was reflecting in the waters of the lake, blinding the little skipper that I am. I continued the discovery of the lake by crossing the banks. The pontoon of the family is located in a narrow arm of the lake, facing up the wind at this time. I needed to tack many times fighting against the wind to be able to brink back the sailing dinghy to the pontoon where we took it out from the water with Ricardo.
This watersport session ended with many dives in the lake from the pontoon. It was time to dry ourselves to launch the preparations of the “parilla” for tonight.