The BA airport is undergoing improvements (like every airport anywhere in the world!). You'll want to check with any visa requirements before you attempt to board you flight to BA. US citizens do not need a visa if you stay less than 90 days.

After clearing customs, you may want to exchange currency (the Argentine Peso is the local version - It works quite well). There are ATMs in Pinamar which accept VISA/Mastercard and the local supermarket (CJC) also accepts plastic, just have either your passport number or drivers licence available.

You may also want to rent a car while in Argentina. Hertz and Avis both have rental desks in the BA airport BEFORE you exit to the main area. Both are on the left (after you exit customs - the money exchange is on the right as I recall). Rental fees are not excessive and, while there are KM limits on the distances traveled, the limits are adequate for getting to/from Pinamar.

When you have all your things collected and you are ready, step through the (non-return) glass doors into --- Argentina!!

Getting to Pinamar

If you rent a car, the rental personnel will give you clear directions as to how to get out of the airport complex and on to the proper highway. you should be able to make the reservations with either Hertz or Avis via the net. We, as usual:), made the snap decision to rent while walking by the counter - it worked out. There are weekly rates and Hertz was the more cost effective.

There is a good map on the Official PanAm Website. You basically want Route 2 south for 100 miles (of course, you jog east a bit and actually go in on Route 56! But GET A MAP if you are going to drive. And don't trust the road signs once you get off Route 2!! There are also numerous tool booths, generally costing $1-$2 each, so have cash!

At the airport, there are also Bus Schedules and Air Schedules. Both of these will move you in the right direction. The bus will take you right to Pinamar. It runs frequently and is very predictable. The price of the bus ticket is about the cost of a day's rental on a car. Air transportation will take you to Mar Del Plata, @100 km to the south and west of Pinamar. From there, taxi, bus, or rental car will take you back to Pinamar.

Hotels and Food

There are 140 hotels and 160 restaurants in Pinamar!! But ... I am not having great luck finding the phone numbers of many of them. Still, you should not have difficulty either finding a place to stay or a place to eat. We stayed at:

El Hotel Las Araucarias
Phone: (02254) 48-0812/48-0140
Fax:   (02254) 49-5272
email: araucaria@telpin.com.ar
       araucarias@hotmail.com
web:   www.pinamarturismo.com.ar

In general, you can stay near the beach (lots and lots of choices) or near the Hippocamp - it's the other end of town - but only 5 blocks or so separate the two ends.

• A list of hotels in Pinamar
• Another list
• And -- I have requested a list from the local Organizing Committee. It will likely be a list with phone numbers.

Food is easy to come by in Pinamar!! And it is delicious. There are numerous restaurants on all major streets, with Argentine cuisine (Meat and Potatoes!) being readily available. Italian, French, Fast Food - It's all there. Most places take credit cards, but you will want to have a ready supply of Pesos as well.

A good overview of the Food

Stabling and the Internet

The internet is readily available at numerous hotels and at internet cafes spread through town. Generally, at a cafe, the hours are 8am-midnight. There are also 24hour internet terminals available if you do not need to use your own notebook.

The ride venue will also have internet connectivity during the event. It is not known yet what availability and restriction may be put in place concerning general access ot the net from the venue site however. Be prepared to drive to town (a 10 minute drive) if you really need to get on the net!

Other Things

Electricity: It's all 220 v. It will blow up 110 v things! check your power bricks and chargers and such for 110-220v capabilities. You can get $10 step down transformers and simple conversion plugs in Pinamar at the electric shop. It is inexpensive! The safe thing to do is go the the electrical shop right when you get to town if you think you will need a transformer.

Language: It's Spanish - be prepared! Actually, its a dialect of Spanish which is really only spoken here and in the Castel region of Spain. Very distinctive for those that have the ear.

Cell Phones: They work. A 3 or 4 band US phone works fine. But it's expensive of course to carry an international phone here. It's HARD to get temporary phones - you have to have a local address and commit to the standard 1 year of service! I did find a phone card (vendor: Personal) but I had to go to the main office in BA to get it (AR$30) - cheap but not convient!! BUT if you really must have a cell phone, and your phone is "unlocked", then the sim card will do it for you. It's a 1/2 day opperation to get the sim card - very personal service, but a VERY long wait at the main office!

Convenience Stores: There are 3 gas stations with convenience stores very close to the ride site. All have snacks and drinks. Stocks of bottled water may be found at the CJC which is two blocks left off the main street at the first intersection coming in to town. (Don't be confused by the two rotaries! there are two of them - the Hippocampo is at the second one). The first intersection is further toward town - there's a palm tree in the central island of the road! - if you reach the beach, you have gone too far.

The Beach: Pinamar has a beautiful beach and many restaurants are located at-or-near it. The beach is many KM in both directions of the central town. Riders will become very familiar with it!!

Pinamar - In harmony with dunes

They used this strategy to leave the dunes where they were, fixing them in position and using them to give relief to the developed area. The dunes, tamed, give Pinamar a unique vertical dimension in this flat land by the Pampas!

The establishments of the housing was difficult since the wind with its force wanted to move the dunes from one place to another, burying everything to its path. Perseverance managed to afix them and to construct a landscape with these great masses of sand. It is the Pine Trees of Pinamar which have accomplished this feat!

The History

Don Felix past them, upon his death, to Martín de Alzaga, who married with his daughter Guerrero, that in 1870 died a tragic victim of a passionate drama. Having no descendants, the property passed to their father, Don Carlos Guerrero and upon his death, to his son and his wife, Doña Felicitas.

The couple had seven children to inherit the fields of Pinamar Of this subdivision, made in 1886, twenty-five km of beaches and coastal dunes are divided between the stays "Martín Garci'a", "the Wintertime", "the Rosary" and "Springs", property of Manuel and Enrique Guerrero.

In 1908 the Provincial Government declared to this town head of the "Party of the Tuyu '". That year the Railroad of the South was completed and in the fields of Jose Guerrero, a main station "Juancho" was located. This, later, would become a main transport for tourists to these beaches. In 1910, it was arranged to change the name of the Party of the Tuyú by the one of "Juan Madariaga".

Meanwhile, in 1908, the Fernando Robette and Agustín Poli arrived at the Belgian beach area to install a bath/spa on the coast, símilar to the one of their native place, "Ostende".

They manage the purchase of the medanosa area of the fields from Don Manuel Guerrero and this started a city-planning-tourist project that anticipated avenues, diagonals, reserves for buildings public, railway station, lands for cemetery, municipal yard and a central avenue. This focal plan guided the development of the area which concentrated on hotels and tourist related facilities.

In 1912 the construction of the South Boulevard is begun, located in the center of this area. Also in that year, the Hotel "Thermas" (today Ostende Hotel) was constructed, in which the writer and aviator Antoine of Saint Exupery, author of the famous book "the Principito" resided.

Towards 1918, Don Héctor Manuel Guerrero, proprietor of the "Two Mounts" area, decide to start the forestation of dunes beginning from the continental part towards the coast. Towards 1926 his dream of taming the sands began to become reality.

In following years, Doña Valeria, Cardinal red of Russo, with the aid of the Architect Jorge Bunge, began forestation on part of her fields on the coast. In 1941 she began to agressivly pursue the dream of a forest on the coast. It was a year of many rains and circumstance that favored the plantings. In 1942, the work was constituted by the the Architect Bunge and Mrs. Cardinal red Valeria Guerrero of Russo, with a corporation formed between them an important group of professionals and landowners.

Thinking about the forest it had created (in its majority pines) and about the sea, they decide to assign the name of "Pinamar" to this area.

According to a decree of the Honorable Deliberative Council of Pinamar, Municipal Historical Site "to the South Boulevard, located in the intersection of the streets Flowery Privateering, Avenue Our Falklands and the corresponding beach sector is afixed a plaque: ", which served as stroll the adventurers tourist of the time. The first house of summering, property of the Fariní family, denominated "Swell", which still rises in the corner of the streets Of the Tuyú and the Odiseo with its original facade.

On the 14 of February of 1943, Pinamar inaugurated the beach locality and, the Provincial Executive authority approved the Plan Director, creation of the Architect Jorge Bunge, who guided the construction of the city. In the summer of 1947/1948, Don Herman Parini initiated a transport service of passengers with the company "To the Sea". This line soon passed to be the company "Sun Sea".

Between years 1949/53, there started in Pinamar an Italian immigrantion. People arrived in the country following the end of the second world war. In that period it is begun to organize the community stable and the different institutions of like form: the Club of Fishing, the Society of Promotion, the Commission Pro-Temple, etc.

Adema's, Pinamar S.A. donated land for the construction of the Primary School and for Public Hospital, starting the facilities of the Communitarian Hospital of Pinamar.

The 13 of August of 1961 die Don Jorge Bunge, creator of this paradise. In 1962 the creation of the Telephone Cooperative of Pinamar takes shape.

In the decade of 70s, further development was undertaken with the construction of multifamily residences. The l of 1978 July, by Law 9,024 of the Province of Buenos Aires, the "Urban Municipality of Pinamar" was created, which included part of the territory pertaining to the party of Gral. Juan Madariaga. As of that date, the localities of Montecar, Pinamar, Sea of Ostende, Ostende, Valeria of the Sea and Cariló form the Municipality of Pinamar.