When you ask Argentines about Villa Gesell, they will warn you that it’s full of pandejos. Roughly translated: Rambunctious teenagers on their first vacation or shirtless dudes with silly tattoos zipping around on 4 x 4s.

Not exactly my scene.

Lucky for me, we decided to camp at Mar Dorado, a campsite nestled amongst pine trees and whimsically white sand dunes, 4 km outside of Villa Gesell.

It was exactly what we were looking for.  A world away from the honking horns of Buenos Aires. A place where wandering paths lead to empty beaches on the last long weekend of summer.

The first day was a bit of rainy camping adventure. Think pouring rain with thunder ringing louder than relaxing sound of the surf. When water began to enter the tent, I suggested to my friend Sarah that it was time to seek reinforcements. Sarah, being the awesomely perky travel companion that she is, quickly agreed to tromp out in the pouring rain without much fuss.

Sarah not only came back with an extra plastic covering but she had successfully rounded up a camp staffer to improve our tent set up (“Ohhhhh, that’s what that string is for”) and open our bottle of wine. Salud!

We decided that the best way to spend the night was to stay tucked inside the cozy tent.

The rest of the holiday weekend was tranquilo and full of long breakfasts, looking for sea shells, sprinting up sand dunes and roasting marsh mellows over cozy fires.