Day 302
Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina
As we walked through Florida Street, the street we pass daily and a street that has more than 800,000 people walk through daily, we saw the streets being cleaned up after yesterdays litter fest! Apprently the locals get a few pesos for the recycled litter so it´s not as horrifying for the local cleaners that i originally thought...at least the offices get rid of their 2007 papers and the locals get a bit of money to clean it up!
Our walk ended, for the moment, at the Buenos Aires's Retiro Station. We were going to travel 28km´s to the famous Tigre.
Tigre is a gorgeous little town in the Buenos Aires province that lies on the Parana Delta. The whole town is built on land that is a river silt build up..and that land is still growing, depositing silt at 0.7 metres per year! They say it will extend to Uraguay by 2100!
It took us about 45 minutes to get there on the train..and cost $1.20 pesos! (It cost 95 centimos to get the train back to BA!) It´s the cheapest train journey of the trip!
When we first got off the train it felt like we were entering another world. It was light and breezy. It felt like a holiday place. And we found out later that is precisely what it is! A lot of people from BA go to Tigre on the weekends and stay either in their own holiday homes or in a hotel for about 100 pesos a night. Which is about AU$37 a night! The pesos is about 2.7 for one aus dollar at the moment. A cheap price for the beautiful island it is!
After feeling overwhelmed by the breezy, beach atmosphere and thinking we should be staying there instead of where we are...we headed for the centre of town, usually the spot where all the activity is found!
The focus of activity was at the River Terminal (the Estación Fluvial) and there we saw lots of boats taking locals and tourists on these long flat boats...they were laden with people with shopping bags, luggage, and dogs sitting on the top! There was no other way to get to their homes or accomodation except by these boats!
I felt sorry for the dogs, when they first got loaded on board! It was so hot on top of the boat..and there was one dog that couldn´t sit down..every time he did..his boy goods knocked the ground and you could see they were heating up!!! If it wasn´t so shocking..it would have been comical. He yelped and stood up...and repeated this until i couldn´t look! Minutes later we did see that boat steaming down the waterway with that dog laying down looking happier....(see pic above!)
After strolling along the leafy lanes we found the ´tourista´, the tourist centre, and asked what was the best way to see Tigre in a day.
We found out..being a delta...with an extensive river system, the only way to get anywhere is by boat! We both quietly decided we´d stay put because lugging the increasing weight of our backpack did not seem very appealing!
We found out where the restaurants were..and what to see..and we headed off!
Our stomachs were grumbling as usual..so we found a great little restaurant on the parana river and order picada..which was a plate of mixed nibbles including the yummy empanada´s..fritas..(naughty i know!) and mixed meats and cheeses....It came with a cerveza (beer) and there we sat....and watched the world go by. All for 28 pesos. It´s incredibly cheap here in BA. We could live here, collect rent for our property and make money!!!
We saw this grey straggly cat on the side of the footpath..and when i went to take a pic it started talking to me!! I´m sure it was asking for food!!
After lunch we passed Grey Scraggles and gave him a piece of the meat from our Picada...and he loved it...awww
We headed out to the boat the tourista suggested, Catamarane Tur, and headed out for an hour and a half cruise of the Sarmiento River. It was absolutely gorgeous! And for a hot day, the perfect thing to do!!!
It was so strange to cruise along the river and see all the boat craft zipping by..whether it was the carrier boats or jet ski´s, or ritzy speed boats (i´m sure this is the playtown for the rich and famous of Buenos Aires!). We were so glad we got on the right boat because our boat was for tourists..and we cruised the river. Other boats stopped at every jetty and landing to let people get off! That would have been ok..but we wouldn´t have gone as far down the river as we did if we had to stop all the time!
Along the way we saw superby riverside mansions built on plush green grass and trees...and lots of different sized boats from each jetty along the river. We even saw antique boats that looked like they were just dumped on the side of the river...
Such an interesting cruise....with so much to take in. I´ve never seen anything like it...and can only compare it to the canals in Gouda...or in Venice. Only prettier!
After we moored we walked passed the fruit and craft markets that were by the Lujan River and found a resting point at the Tigre Casino!
We watched people mesmerised by the pokies..and at one stage (while Greg was in the loo) i got asked by the Security guy..to do something..not sure what..I couldn´t understand him..but i guess there´s no place for waiting there..you bet, or you go! Just as well Greg came out just about at the time when i was trying to point to the loo (banos) and explain...in spanish...that my husband was in there!!!!
What a beautiful day...
Tigre, a special place in Buenos Aires that´s for sure.
I felt so compelled to buy a little tiny baby suit that hung up just outside the Tigre Train station...It said, ¨Tigre, Argentina!¨
Anyone having a little Tigre anytime soon??
haha!
