Villa Gesell, a dream come true

The Villa, Villa Gesell or simply Gesell, different ways to designate this wonderful place along for decades, but always the same and magical corner. A different place to others, a place that had a soul and more...

In this post, and with the help of one of the granddaughters of the protagonist of this story and above all great friend of ours, Marta you will come closer to the wonderful azaña that his grandfather starred in this inhospitable place. 1700 acres of desert filled with spectacular dunes to hit by strong wind in the area came and went, accompanied by a sea that ended on a pretty beach. A place that also had a lover who dreamed to turn it into something unique.

Its history began in 1931, when an Argentine citizen of German parents called D. Carlos Gesell, decided to purchase these lands. This businessman was the owner of an important business dedicated to items for babies, called Casa Gesell. Mr Gesell began working on their major project with which had been dreaming for a long and what undoubtedly would become after investing much effort, money and time in the wonderful Villa Gesell as we know it today.

To achieve its objective had to fight very hard as he had against many aspects. Two were their main enemies, the strong wind that always flogged the area and continued drying of the land. A day after building a well near the sea, he discovered with great joy the water containing the well was sweet and drinking instead of salt, joy was immense, and that granted him a large dose of hope to achieve his dream.

He began to think seriously about afforest the area and so began to bring seedlings of different species, planted them and waited for it to grow, but little the joy would last him to Mr. Gesell, these fragile trees did not support the strong winds that ended up breaking them or directly pulled them from the ground. It does not desfalleció and he planted again, this time they were not the winds that ended with them, but a plague of hungry ants that devoured them. If this wasn't little, a vast drought whipped the area constantly and made the weak trees succumbed again, but Mr Gesell, remained and continued planting one time after another.

To all this, the nearest town was about fifty miles and there were no roads, so the brave dreamer should pass through fields dotted with lagoons and grassland to reach him and get supplies needed to continue with his dream. The locals soon nickname "the madman of the dunes".

Villa Gesell

Villa Gesell Beach

Mr Gesell away thinking about abandoning and ignoring the comments of their neighbours, built a House to live with his family, his wife Marta and her five children. In the House he opened four doors, and many you may ask for so many?, thus getting that when strong winds clogged with sand, leaving on the other. It was really an adventure to settle there.

To continue with his dream, Mr Gesell did come from Germany to an engineer who had experience in this type of terrain as it had worked on something similar in the West of Belgium.

The engineer soon began to condemn the Gesell Lord loco and abandoned him, spent the days, months and even years and nothing diminished her enthusiasm for go ahead.

He fought with all his strength until a day already desperate said out loud that he was about to abandon his dream. Then, it is not known very well by work of a miracle, he found an Adesmia Incana, it is a beautiful yellow flower plant and is capable of surviving in the Sandhills. At last! The solution had been found by our tireless fighter, began to draw grids of hard grass, in them he planted alfalfa, tested with other trees and soon started to give good results, were behind the Tamarisk, the Acacia Trinervis to the maritime pines. After some years and too much effort, the town started to afforest is and began to develop in an interesting place that attracted the first German tourist. He soon ran the voice for the country that in Argentina there was the closest thing to a paradise, something like a green oasis in the middle of some dunes bathed by the sea. They began to get more and more visitors that they began to buy land and develop them, the chain grew and did not stop. Mr Gesell was happy and was out every day to make sure that their green children continued to grow healthy and strong, he embraced them and I breathed deeply... his dream had become a reality.

A spa was built, the Spa recommended from friend to friend, with many foreigners, artists, poets, musicians, rockers, the dolce vita had reached the village, take the tea of the five with European pastries. Ultimately, in Villa Gesell they breathed life all over, day and night horseback riding to see the full moon reflected in the Sandhills, bonfires in the sand were lit, take breakfast after the dance and held concerts in the forest of ballet.

Villa Gesell from the air

That Hippie paradise of the 60 and 70 located to just 300 kilometers from Buenos Aires, only remains the memory of those who lived there and who today have their children and grandchildren with great nostalgia. Today, Villa Gesell, is considered one of the spas and major tourist attraction centers in Argentina and offers the visitor an excellent infrastructure for rest, recreation and fun. Its main attraction remains its beaches packed during the holiday season and chosen by a large number of young people and families.

We want to make a special mention to our heroes of history.

The first of them and how it could be otherwise will be directed to the main protagonist. Thank you grandfather Carlos for your commitment and effort because thanks to people like you know that dreams can also meet!.

The second mention is certainly for our dear friends Martha and Paula, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Mr. Carlos. Great women, mothers and very our friends for more than one decade and that today we have approached his beautiful corner and have opened for us the doors of your home and your heart to tell us the beautiful story that surrounds her family.