The Argentine Tiger

A few kilometers outside of Buenos Aires, at the mouth of the Rio Plata, is a small, atmospheric port town called Tigre. We took a day trip to Tigre to get out of the city for a little while. It’s possible to take a commuter train directly from the train station near our house to Tigre, but we were advised that to get the full Tigre experience we really must change trains in Olivos and take the Tren de la Costa the rest of the way to Tigre because the views from the Tren de la Costa are really super beautiful. We enjoyed our stroll through Olivos, home of tasty medialunas and Argentine president Kirchner, to the station for the famous Tren de la Costa, but the train itself was something of a dud. It turns out that “spectacular views” = suburbia, with lots of high school sports fields.

Tigre itself, however, did not disappoint. We played guess the organ meat at an all-you-can-eat parrilla, where waiters bring tray after tray of unnamed meats to your table. (okay, Nate played, and I spectated.) After lunch, we took a trip out into the delta, which consists mostly of small islands that are reached via the boats that serve as buses for the area. These islands are prone to frequent flooding, so all the houses in the delta are built on stilts and look something like treehouses, giving the whole place a very Swiss Family Robinson feel. We took a boat/bus out to an island called Tres Bocas, where we spent a peaceful afternoon breathing the fresh air of the countryside and watching a three legged dog frolic. It was idyllic. -EMW