I headed to Mar del Plata intending to fit in some relaxing beach time before travelling on to Puerto Iguazu. I was somewhat thwarted though as, despite being sunny, the wind blew a gale for the three days I was there and so whenever you went anywhere near the beach you found yourself under a ton of sand.

I found a lovely hostal in a big, old house with high, beamed ceilings, creaky wooden floors and lots of original art and sculpture everywhere.

I didn't spend much time on the beach in the end, instead I did a lot of walking along the seafront. I explored the harbour and saw the huge male sea lions who live there for most of the year (until January when they go off to Uruguay to find lady sea lions). I cannot stress enough just how massive they are, now I understand why they're called sea lions, they have a big hairy mane round their heads. The Argentinians call them sea wolves, which works equally well as a description. They smell terrible and are extremely bad tempered, constantly grumbling and snapping at each other. I've put a video in the video section.

I also explored the town and visited the Museo del Mar (Museum of the Sea) to see the 30,000 strange and beautiful sea shells collected by the guy who set up the museum.