Bahia Blanca

This is one part of our field.  Bahia Blanca is a coastal city of around 300,000 people.  When I say coastal, you think, oh good! she's near the beach!  Alas, you can't even see the sea.... the sea is about 10 kms away, there is a major port here, but no good for swimming.  The nearest 'nice' beach (more on that later...) is about 150 kms away!  I've only ever been there once, when some friends took us in their car.

So 'nice' beach, means that it's big, and you can swim there...but that's about as far as it goes.  The reason being, PEOPLE.  On a nice day it's crowded with people.  They flock to the seaside, and it's very hard to find a carpark within a few kms of the beach.  The high-rise buildings are built right up to the frontage of the beach.  Like this:

Nice huh???!! Kiwis, be thankful you live in a country with a small population and readily-accessible beaches!

Anyway, back to Bahia Blanca (literally means White Bay).  It can get quite hot in summer (up to 40oC sometimes) but cold in winter (frosts).  Dry climate.  There are two Sunday morning fellowship meetings here, and another in a very small town called Micaela Cascallares to the north east of Bahia. (takes 2-3 hours to get there on the bus).

Here are some random shots of the place:

Argentina has quite a history with the British and the railway they built.  Although the railway has mostly fallen into disuse now, (still used in some areas), the tracks are still there, and the very distinctive British-built workshops are still standing (mostly abandoned).  In the 1800s when the railway was at its prime, the British came here and left quite an influence around the place.  There are towns called Hughes (which they pronounce "OO-guess") and Murphy (MOOR-pee) ha.  

The tap water in Bahia Blanca isn't too bad at the moment, but often in the height of summer when the lake levels get low, the water comes through with a very strong taste and smell of algae.  The residents either buy drinking water or they go to these springs that are in a couple of parts of the city. The council have fixed them up with pipes that are constantly running.  Boiling hot water comes out of them!  People take their flagons to fill, and they get free drinking water.  Fascinating! They advise you to either keep it refrigerated, or put a couple of drops of bleach in each bottle if it's being stored unrefrigerated. So here we are with Valeria Reyes and her mum Angelica, collecting our drinking water...

 And finally...this is what we are enjoying today... Where's that beach??!