  Pablo Etchevers
Men who resist drastic changes and the attempt to modify the pace of life. Everything from the popular fable of the hare and the tortoise to the new self-help books inviting people to reflection and a new lifestyle has the same meaning: change. |
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Over the past years the neighbors and visitors of Mar de las Pampas have started to use some slogans seeking to build an identity for this paradise site. “Live slowly”, “slow city” or “the first slow city in Argentina” are some of the clear examples of a special lifestyle, which is not just a statement but a real aim to be attained.
Although identities are built as a static concept, in this case people work on its identity day after day based on common sense. So, here it is already possible to see neither ATVs, watercrafts, scooters nor motorcycles driven by teenagers around shopping centers or along sand streets.
Walk and Ride a Bicycle
On the contrary, you can see billboards fostering walking and biking rather than driving motorcycles. Many pedestrian promenades and public areas ban the use of mobile phones while others recommend using these phones without disturbing people who are not involved in the conversation. |
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Due to certain measures against pollution through graphic or audio advertisements, visitors may immediately notice the difference between this seaside resort and all the rest on the Atlantic Coast. The small Mar de las Pampas is composed of three main elements: the sea, the forest and its inhabitants. However, the inhabitants, who may be considered as the most significant of all, should be unnoticeable in a place where the real protagonists are the sea and the forest.
Slow Cities Philosophy
For many people, Karl Honoré is the intellectual author of a movement, which over the past years has made the world, or some places, turn slow. The book written by him entitled “In Praise of Slowness” is considered a “Bible” of the slow movement. The book talks about slow cities or moments where we have to make the world stop and come to a halt in order to find our direction or discover what we want to do. |
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The fact of living in the era of high-speed, which demands efficiency at every minute, makes us live unhappily. “In Praise of Slowness” is, therefore, a comprehensive look tending to talk about this feeling and think about the new defense movement of slowness. These movements promote this lifestyle in every place where we develop our activities – in offices, factories, neighborhoods, kitchens, hospitals, bedrooms, gyms, schools and, of course, cities.
In Search of the Perfect Leisure Time
Leisure is part of this concept. Vacations and the way we enjoy leisure time are also part of this common sense we live with. Get there as soon as possible, make “more and more things in less and less time”, pay attention to every detail and, finally, come back as fast as you can, is part of our blurred vision of the world.
In contrast, getting there slowly, enjoying your journey, appreciating the new place, visiting it and being part of it, doing what we feel like doing and leaving things for another moment, another day or, perhaps, another year and, eventually, coming back slowly is the purpose of people who live in Mar de las Pampas. People who want to make change happen and have made Mar de las Pampas their home. And, it seems that tourists visiting more and more frequently this site have been able to grasp this spirit. |
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Welcome Argentina - Outings in Mar de las Pampas
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Kart Honoré was asked about what a slow city was like and he answered: “The ideal city is a city with less than 50,000 inhabitants seeking a human rhythm: increase the pedestrian roads, make benches, plant trees and hedges”. Mar de las Pampas is working on that.
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