(Actually, in Spanish it'd be El Tigre, and the town doesn't even have an article before it, but get it? The ref? @Sarah?)Today I took a day trip to Tigre, which Wikipedia labels "an important tourist and weekend attraction" just one train ride (costing 2.70 pesos aka 75 cents round-trip) away from Buenos Aires. It's at the mouth of the Parana Delta, which flows quite a way through Northern Argentina. Tigre is a small, obviously vacation-y town with quaint streets (food's cheaper than in the big city) and artisan fairs everywhere and a large amusement park. The Parana River itself is actually the dirtiest, the water is brown and full of trash, but as long as you don't look too closely, it's pretty enough.
I went with four girls from my house -- Becky, Debbie, Candida and Shreya. The girls made healthy snack packs for each of us with dry roasted edamame (CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW GOOD THIS IS, unfortunately it was not bought here) and granola bars. Candida is one of the most outgoing people on the planet, and also fluent in Spanish, so when some street-urchin sisters tried to sell us calendars on the train, she asked them instead to play games. We spent the rest of the hour-long train ride playing quack-didioso and bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish (not an actual game, it turns out, as it requires zero skill). The girls' names were Tatiana and Claudi, and Becky ended up buying them empanadas and giving them her Diet Coke when we got off the train.
After walking around for a little while (we bought churros, full of dulce de leche and cold but still good all the damn time) and taking 9827576 pictures, we bought a lancha (boat) tour of the river. 
We had the boat to ourselves and had our picture taken by the cell phone of the sketchy driver. The river has gorgeous homes on both sides, and small canals function as streets and alleyways. Most of the houses are brightly-painted (that's one thing I love about here) and though I think most are vacation homes, we saw some people sitting out on their docks. The sun set while we were on the boat and the driver played an Ace of Base CD to set the mood for the hour-long ride.
After walking around for a little while (we bought churros, full of dulce de leche and cold but still good all the damn time) and taking 9827576 pictures, we bought a lancha (boat) tour of the river. 
We had the boat to ourselves and had our picture taken by the cell phone of the sketchy driver. The river has gorgeous homes on both sides, and small canals function as streets and alleyways. Most of the houses are brightly-painted (that's one thing I love about here) and though I think most are vacation homes, we saw some people sitting out on their docks. The sun set while we were on the boat and the driver played an Ace of Base CD to set the mood for the hour-long ride.Tigre, we decided, feels like a strange mix of different world locations. The town insisted on building German-looking architectural structures, there's the very Americanized theme park thrown in, the only way to get to residences is by boat (channeling Venice), and the trees sometimes hang low over the dirty, dirty water like one would expect in New Orleans. As we walked back to the train, this one bridge over the lit-up river reminded me even of NoFo a little bit.
Anyway, we got delicious wafflins (crepes but on a stick, filled with dulce de leche [as everything here is] and dipped in chocolate) before heading back. We were less fortunate on the way home and got half-seats (or ass-seats, basically you stand with grooves to lean your butt) but were entertained by a self-labeled 'rock' musician who played the harmonica and guitar and sang a Spanish version of "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." Pretty cute day overall, and made me even more excited for future weekend trips (Mendoza! Patagonia! Salta!) to Argentine towns that end in A.
You know what food I can buy on the street in China? Balls of meat, wrapped in dough. Balls or rice, wrapped in dough, balls of Taro paste, wrapped in dough.
ReplyDeleteI miss chocolate!