Gay Americans in Argentina: Mar Del Plata: Day 2 - The One With the Breakfast Buffet, Pool and Beach

With less than 24 hours until the New Year, the hubs and I decided to check out the outdoor pool at Hotel Costa Galana and the beach. But first, we needed some fuel, so we took full advantage of the hotel’s all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet!

And here's a video of the breakfast buffet. Trust me, if your mouth isn’t watering after watching it, you might want to check for a pulse!

After breakfast, we got dressed for the beach and took the elevator down to a passageway adorned with paintings on the walls. It felt like walking through an art gallery. The corridor led directly to the hotel’s private pool and beach area.

Every hotel in the area has its own pool and/or outdoor lounge area. But once you reach the beach, guests from different hotels can use the same private beach area. The only restriction is that guests can't use another hotel's pool or beach gazebo. I'll show you what these look like when I post more about the beach on day 4.

There’s a public beach further away, which I imagine is much more crowded, but I definitely prefer the private beach area.

Now, let me share some images and videos of what our pool and beach experience was like.

Damn! It’s been a couple of years since I swam in the ocean. The best I could manage was the frog stroke. I’ll admit, by the time I was done, I felt like I was about to have a heart attack. Maybe it was that huge breakfast I had earlier.

After spending some time in the pool, we headed to the beach, which made me feel incredibly nostalgic for home. As some of you already know, I grew up in Miami. It was my hometown, and my parents and I would visit Miami Beach often! But those beach trips ended when we moved to Orlando, Florida. The hubs and I did visit the beach in Key West in the early 2000s, but there were too many rocks on the sand to enjoy a barefoot walk. And of course, we got even further from the beach when we moved to the Bronx, New York. Córdoba City, Argentina doesn’t have beaches. Alright, some locals argue that the murky ponds in certain wooded areas in the province are beaches, but I don’t agree.

Thankfully, life gave me the chance to reconnect with the beach in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

After strolling along the sandy beach and relaxing at the pool, we went in search of a place to eat. Fortunately, there were a couple of restaurants right by the beach. I’ll share what they look like when I post about day 4.

We ended up choosing a restaurant called Antares, but later, we regretted it.

We didn’t mind waiting a little longer for our food, but we expected it to take 20 to 30 minutes at most. We never imagined we’d have to wait an hour and a half. At one point, the waiter came over and asked us to remind him of our order. Later, he returned to apologize for the delay, but he never offered us free refills or a discount. Naturally, some of the guests who had sat down around the same time as us ended up leaving the restaurant. But we were too tired to do that, so we decided to wait.

Eventually, our food arrived, and it looked delicious. I can safely say that none of us had any complaints about the taste. But I wouldn’t set foot in Antares again, even if you paid me. The wait time was unforgivable.

By the time we finished eating, it was almost 5 o'clock. That gave us just three and a half hours before the New Year’s Eve party at one of the hotel’s restaurants. So, we headed back to our rooms to "make space," shower, and relax.