Las Grutas is a beach resort town located in the
Argentine
Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Río Negro, in the
department of
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
, with a stable population of 8,000 inhabitants.
It's located 15 kilometers south of
San Antonio Oeste, and is visited by over 400,000 tourists every summer. Its beaches are known for having relatively warm waters in spite of their location in
Patagonia, due to the wide
tidal amplitude, and the protection of the
San Matías Gulf. The town was founded in 1964, mainly as a group of campings, and soon began growing. But it was not until the 1980s that tourism industry finally exploded, with the construction of numerous apartment and a casino.
southern right whales are seasonal residents and visit here.
Las Grutas', meaning "The Caves" in
Spanish, comes from the caves created by the erosion of the sea on the cliffs that separate the city from the beach. The access to the beaches is therefore restricted to the existing 12 ''descends'' or "bajadas".
Their names, from north to south, are "3 de febrero", "Los acantilados", "A.C.A.", "La rueda", "Cero", "Primera", "Segunda", "Tercera", "Cuarta", "Quinta", "Sexta" y "Séptima", the last seven named from ''first'' to ''seventh''.
The first accesses where the ones named "Primera", "Segunda", and "Tercera" (''first, second'' and ''third''), to which new ones were added as the town, and the number of visitors grew.
Near the "Cero" access there are pools artificially carved in the stone that change their water in every tidal cycle. When the tide is low, the water in the pools is quickly warmed by the sun. In colder days, old people and children sometimes prefer to make use of the pools instead of the sea.
Climate
References
External links
Populated places in Río Negro Province
Seaside resorts in Argentina
Populated places established in 1964
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