Tigre

Just a short US$0.60 train ride away from Buenos Aires is the town of Tigre. Located just north of the Rio de la Plata, Tigre is a pleasant little town that is the entry-point to the greater Parana Delta. The town itself sits on an island and is surrounded by canals, creeks, and little rivers. It even has a public bus system much like Venice: a fleet of old wooden commuter boats that ferry townsfolk from island to island.






Me on a bus. Some of the fancier tour buses are in the background.

On the recommendation of a woman in the tourist office, Holly and I decided to take one of the buses to an island called "3 Bocas". Once we got there, there really wasn't that much to do besides walk around the small island on a sidewalk that was located right along the waterline.

There are also tons of people who row here. There are many rowing clubs (sort of like Boathouse Row in Philadelphia, but the sculls are much wider), so that lends a sort of prep-school, country-club atmosphere to the downtown waterfront.

We walked about halfway around 3 Bocas, until the water rose too high and we could not walk any more. We had noticed on the way out to the islands that the water seemed really high. It was lapping at the doorsteps of most houses, and several docks were close to being submerged. It wasn't until we got off the bus, however, that we realized just how high the water was. Holly stopped a man who was kayaking by us and asked what was going on. He told us that the rain the two days before had caused the water in the whole delta to be much higher than usual. We got trapped at a cafe on the island with a bunch of other people and had to be rescued by another bus on its way back to town. The above picture shows the gas station that was across from the cafe.

This is me eating a "wafflin" from Waffles del Mundo, back in Tigre. A "wafflin" is essentially a banana with a stick in it, dipped in pancake batter, cooked in a waffle iron, then dipped in chocolate. It was pretty good.

Holly on the Tigre waterfront promenade. She is leaning on a statue in memory of the great oarsman, Javier Henry. It is rumored that when the motorboat was first popularized in Argentina, Javier Henry challenged a slick motorboat operator to a race, stating that he was "a boat-rowin' man and ain't no machine ever gonna out-row me." Javier Henry got off to an early lead, but he couldn't keep up pace with the new invention. His heart gave out during the competition and he died with an oar in his hand.