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Heading north from Plaza San Martin takes you through the quiet neighbourhood of La Perla . Perhaps the best attraction here is the stunning La Cuadrada cafe, just one block from the Plaza on Mitre and 9 de Julio. Following Mitre another two blocks will bring you to La Perla beach , almost as busy as the central beaches but regarded as slightly more upmarket. One block to the south of Mitre there is a monument by Luis Perlotti to the poetess Alfonsina Storni , who committed suicide here in 1938. One of Latin America's most important poets, Storni had her first collection of poems published in 1916 and she reached prominence in the 1920s when she formed part of a group of writers, musicians and artists known as "La Pena", who gathered in Buenos Aires' famous Cafe Tortoni . In 1935 Storni was operated on for breast cancer and this, plus a subsequent series of suicides of close friends, including the writers Horacio Quiroga and Leopoldo Lugones, appears to have precipitated her own descent into depression: in October of 1938, Storni booked into a quiet hotel in Mar del Plata, one of her favourite cities, and sent a poem entitled Voy a dormir (I am going to sleep) to La Nacion newspaper and, three days later, threw herself into the sea. Following the coast around north brings you to La Perla's main square, the Plaza Espana, where you can visit the Museo de Ciencias Naturales Lorenzo Scaglia (Mon-Fri 10am-noon & 5-10pm, Sat & Sun 5-10pm; $2, free on Mon), which has a good collection of fossils from all over the world as well as a salt and freshwater aquarium.
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