Mar del Plata: Latest Facebook post by Leticia Limbe It dates back to last Saturday and carries a message that today seems like an obsession: it was titled “Tending Lucky” and referred to the album that Los Arlequines was going to present in Tres Arroyos, the city where he was born and lived.
This Wednesday afternoon He fell from a height of about 25 metres From a sector in which there are remains of a staircase reaching approximately sea level on a façade slopes Which runs along Route 11 from south of Mar del Plata to the first resorts upon arrival in Miramar.
in This stretch is about 20 kilometres There is barely any beach surface underneath. When you see sand at the foot of valleys, it is largely due to the ebbing tide. In just a matter of hours, it will advance again, and in contact with these types of walls, it will undermine them to continue gaining ground. This is how it was and this is how this dynamic of nature will continue.
Thus, the spaces that tourists and residents of Mar del Plata used to spend the summer there have also disappeared, far from the large clusters on the central coast. The only thing left that they enjoyed then was… The remains of those concrete structuresIt was built over 50 years ago to provide safe, comfortable and picturesque access from those road-level heights to sinking your feet into the sand.
Even today, that staircase, with its winding design, allows one to descend by steps to where there is now water, or at best stone or rough stone, which is nothing more than the base of the cliff that once reached there and was eaten away by marine erosion.
He explains: “Last week we were working on the place where this girl fell. It is an area of great interest to us, and we made a new discovery.” Nation Paleontologist Matthias Taglioretti, from Municipal Museum of Natural Sciences.
In this latest incursion, which was to take some photos to showcase other pieces that will be displayed at a conference, they found the remains of a specimen of Argyrolalgus Scagliai, a species of kangaroo rat considered one of the hardest to find in fossil sites on these coasts.
The staircase there, in the first section and at road level with its railing, with less protection in the rest of the way requiring a descent on a steep slope, was initially called Martínez de Hoz because it took as a reference the nearby farm that this traditional family had in the vicinity.
Much of its original design has been immortalized in Argentine cinema, when part of that platform was used to film scenes from the movie. Blue commandswhich at the end of the 1970s starred Jorge Martinez and Carlos Bala, among others. This scene allows us to see the direct connection that existed between the road and the pier that led, after a long path, also equipped with cement railings, to the beach. Much of this structure has already disappeared.
There were many of these types of stairs leading down to the beach in that stretch of waterfront that presented the image of a jagged cliff extending from the so-called Always Green Reserve – where the row of spas that runs to the Punta Mogotes lighthouse ends – almost to Miramar. The first beach taken by the sea is Los Lobos Beach. Then the condition at La Estafeta, already in Chapadmalal, deteriorated. This is now known as Barranca Los Loboswhere a journalist died in Tresarroyense while trying to take a photo, and another in somewhat better condition in the strip known as La Paloma.
Since there are no obstacles to access and although there are warning signs nearby talking about the danger of landslides, many people tend to venture to this type of unique viewpoint that allows you to see the view of the cliff from the ground but below its maximum height. This allows paleontologists, for example, to work more comfortably on those walls where they always find fossils of interest for their research.
It’s a place It is highly chosen by hunters Because, always, with the advantage of descending the rest of these stairs, they remain at sea level on a large fixed platform. Where they not only cast with rods, but due to their proximity to the sea, they achieve good catches with medium nets or triple nets.
Others who benefit from this access are surfers, who find this area to have some very favorable spots due to the complexity of the waves. They come down and get their boards off those structures. Sometimes, among the many curious people who dare to settle, with their companion, on those platforms with a wonderful view of the sea are laden with the possibility of accidents.
“It’s a practical place for us but it’s still very dangerous,” Taglioretti said, noting that the majority of the area has almost no beach surface. If it exists, it is only for a few hours. This happens even at points that were once a spa – with or without services – and wooden stairs were made to reach them. Storms between the sea and the wind are responsible for its deterioration or destruction time after time.
The danger of the cliff front is not limited to its heights only. There are frequent cases of falling accidents due to loss of balance. One of the most recent attacks, also in that area, was the victim of a foreign tourist who was trying to take a selfie at the edge of the valley. He died after falling.
The other big danger is precisely at the foot of those massive walls that are about 30 meters high, where landslides always happen. Report requested by the Office of the Ombudsman of the Province of Buenos Aires and accessed Nation He warns that “the risk of landslides is partly related to the geological structure, the nature of the materials composing it, the height and type of coastal slopes.”
“The presence of macrophytes is another factor that changes the natural dynamics of the cliff face, because the action of the roots weakens the upper layers, causing landslides,” highlights this survey commissioned by the organization, after the death of a girl on the beach of Las Delicias, in the northern end of the city.
She was buried under the remains of a cliff that fell from a height of approximately 15 metres. This case marked the beginning of a prevention campaign that swimmers are not entirely concerned about.
That report submitted to Office of the Ombudsman in Buenos Aires The landslide area is also determined according to the degree of probability, in this case on the southern coastal front of the area. The most important point, about 400 meters long, is located south of what was formerly the El Marquesado complex, now abandoned. They represent two other recurring rings north of Terrazas de El Marquesado and south of what is known as Punta Vorohué. They represent a strip about 450 meters long and are somewhat better protected since they have a coastal defense system known as Rip-Rap, which is arranged with large boulders.
On any given weekend it is common to see hundreds of people on that southern corridor, among the flat greenery or areas with abundant vegetation that ensures shade. In all cases, even with vehicles, people usually stay as close to the edge of the cliffs as possible.
Some warning campaigns have been encouraged, and there are some scattered signs warning of the danger. The Barranca de los Lobos area and other sectors without a public beach or ramp do not have rescue sites. The service reaches the mouth of the Las Prosquitas River, on the border with Miramar, and only exists if there are suitable conditions for people to reach the sea.