Sister cities of Pinamar

Pinamar is an Argentine coastal resort town located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in Buenos Aires Province. It has about 20,000 inhabitants as per the 2001 census [INDEC].

Located less than 400 km (249 mi)south of Buenos Aires, it is one of several small seaside communities that line the coast. Since Pinamar's main attraction is the ocean, it is a fairly quiet town during the winter months. Tourism is what fuels the economy during the summer.

Two facts set Pinamar apart from most of the other Atlantic Ocean beach cities: it is a planned city with a very strict building code, and it has been artificially turned from wild sand dunes into a forest (mostly of pine trees, which explains the "pina" in the name).

City planning, as defined by founding architect Jorge Bunge and maintained by elected authorities ever since, translates into a city mostly made up of residential houses with open gardens; that, together with the pine forest, combine to make the city a very nice setting. That explains why it has been chosen as the summer resort for many well-to-do Argentinians, in particular those living in Buenos Aires.

Pine planting was originally started in Cariló -- a town nearby Villa Gesell and copied in Pinamar, although the city plan for Villa Gesell was not as carefully laid out or kept through the years.