Tigre was an hour train ride from the Retiro Terminal in Buenos Aires. Once we arrived at the train station in Tigre, we had to take a taxi boat to the couple’s home that we had planned to hang out with for the day. This area is a summer getaway for the people of BsAs, but for the people we were going to spend the day with, this is their permanent home.
Tigre is a town situated on a lot of water. There are many streams and rivers connecting to the Delta. And everyone has a boat…in fact, if you didn’t have one, you’d be kayaking, canoeing or taking water taxis to get around.
It reminded me a bit of the bayous in New Orleans.
The Delta’s water looks brown, and dirty, but it is not. It’s the constant mixing of the sediment. In fact, people who live out there do their best to keep the water clean with systems in their homes, and how they dispose of garbage.
We took a tour of their home, and had a nice breakfast on land. Then, we boarded their boat and set sail for the day!
The boat trip around the Delta was the highlight, along with our hosts, Ana and Ralph. Ralph was a former chef on various sailing vessels, and he brings his skills to this one! Once we docked, he made a makeshift kitchen complete with a grill. The center of the boat turned into a beautiful countertop to display all the food we ate — and this isn’t even the hot stuff!
Along the streams and rivers leading into the Delta we saw supermarket boats (see one below), house boats and taxi boats. In the main part of the Delta where the water leads to Paraguay, we saw many shipping boats.
During our travels on the Delta, Ana and Ralph pointed out their friends homes and we did loads of waving from the boat to all the people enjoying the summer sun!
At one point, Ana heard some whimpering in the plants behind some trees along the Delta. Ralph pulled the boat up close because Ana was pretty certain it was a dog who was stuck.
Ana and Ralph had such good hearts, and a love of animals — there were already two dogs and several cats back at their home — that she was determined to rescue the dog.
Ana,coaxed the dog on board and here he is. This was taken by one of the other people on our trip as I was the farthest away from where the pup would board the boat.
The boat capacity is eight people, and we were already seven, so while we were comfortable, bringing a puppy on board greatly limited where I could move about because…yes, I was terrified. I have an aversion to some dogs, but especially to one found in the wild – in another country, with no record of shots and one that no one knew. And, once aboard it was definitely excited to be saved, and especially to eat, once Ana took some of the leftover steak and chicken that was part of our lunch, for the pup to eat.
Ana and Ralph created a makeshift leash and collar to keep the pup at one end of the boat (the end that I wasn’t going to be on!). The collar was made from Ralph’s belt and the leash was made from a loose rope from the boat because I was the only one not pleased with our addition.
Once back at the house, where the pup met his fellow canines, we were able to sample mate, the local tea prevalent in Argentina. It is meant to be drunk and shared with friends, and before this trip, I had been warned that it’s not something you can easily find in a restaurant, and the warning was right! So here it was, our last full day in Argentina, and finally, get to taste true mate!
Headed back to BsAs with our new friends from Provence, France. Trust me, my head is already spinning to go visit!! Once we returned to BsAs, showered and changed, we headed out for our last night! We were still stuffed from Ralph’s food, so we managed to get down an entire cheese plate for dinner (there was enough cheese to feed a small army).
After ‘dinner’ we walked around Plaza Serrano and then found an outdoor cafe to have some beers and people watch. We received an invite to a party that wasn’t scheduled to start until 3am. Since we had a full day and were pretty exhausted we headed back to the B&B around 1.30am which sounds late, but it was around the time that everything was just getting started!
simply three cents 
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