Tigre - A Day Trip

... graffitti on building walls on our street ...

man sleeps behind piles of street garbage

taxi driver points to 2 workmen on ledge
they are standing by top left dark window
even the driver is surprised

 ... Sturlisboat  pulls away from the dock ...

 ... a quick game of Candy Crush on the boat ...

... canals and islands everywhere ...

President's home encased in glass to save
weathering from the elements

... colourful home along the waterway ...

"Tranquil" Tigre is a good description of this city which is a day trip, 1 hour by train, or 2 hours by water from Buenos Aires

Wyona was the driver behind getting us off to see Tigre and the huge river delta that is its home.

To begin the day, I was outside of our apartment waiting for the taxi this morning when I saw what I thought was the wind whip a piece of cardboard up in the air and back away from a corner of the building across the street.

Then I saw the energy behind the cardboard going up so high was a homeless man waking up, throwing off the top of his protection from the cold and climbing out of the industrial garbage bag into which he had tucked himself.

He folded it up to put it away in a sack, emptying the sack first, counting how many crushed cans he had to take to the bottle depot.

Someone entering the building said good morning to him, so this might have been his usual sleeping spot.

I was ouside, waiting for a taxi when i saaw this.

Greg explained to me yesterday that there is a protocol around getting taxis.

Outside of an department store is a man who wears a yellow baseball cap with the word Taxi emblazoned across the front of it.

He helps you out of the taxi.

You give him a peso.

6He calls the taxi for you.

You give him a peso.

If you don’t pay up, he put his hand in front of the driver’s windshield: the driver doesn’t go until you pay up.

When you alight and pay the taxi, a bit of money from the taxi driver goes to him as well.

Greg had figured this all out by the time we needed to take a taxi yesterday.

As well, if the taxi is called from you hotel it is four pesos, not just one.

Our taxi wasn’t on time this morning, so we were just going to hail one from the side of the street, but no, the doorman stopped us and told us we must wait for the one that had been called.

... tangled branches at the side of a canal ...

Everything done by protocol here.

Minutes later it arrived.

In those few minutes while I was standing on the sidewalk waiting, that is when I saw the man across the street waking up.

Yesterday, we had gone down to the dock to figure out how to get on the ride up the delta to Tigre.

We declined taking a trip on the ship that would take us for lunch and then up the river.

We wanted to see the canals and waterways that the guide book talked about – latte coloured water from the iron the river picks up on its way to the sea.

The two hour ride up the delta did not disappoint us.

The homes we saw can be purchased from $30,000 American to $150,000 American.

... tourist bus follows a load of cement ...

There are no community services.

Boats come by to sell vegetables, to do dental work, to carry away garbage, and to carry the children to school.

 ... Greg outside the Tigre Art Gallery ...

Tigre boasts the largest amusement park in South America and a large casino, as well as a famous Fruit Market which is more lively on the weekend than it was today.

Our ticket included lunch in a magnificent colonial mansion.

Though the spacious house is run down now, the oak stairwells and the silver candelabras in the ceiling high hutch were not lost on any of us.

... local train station ...

The most fun was the tourist bus which drove around the island, stopping along the road to pick us up, even though we were not at a prescribed stop.

How easy does that make travel?

Arta