Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 6

Thursday, March 9, 2023

We’ve been in Buenos Aires for five days now, and our family has comfortably settled into our airbnb apartment. Oddly enough, this is the quietest accommodations we’d had in all of Argentina — no dogs barking, roosters crowing, or violent wind rattling the windows. Our condo unit is on the 8th floor of a tall building in the Palermo Soho neighborhood, high enough above the roaring city traffic to bother us much. And thanks to the 90-degree temperatures outside this week, we’ve had our windows closed and air-conditioning running constantly. Three cheers for peace & comfort— surpisingly, in the city of all places.

Today, we planned a day trip to Tigre, an Argentinian town about an hour north of Buenos Aires. Here, the Paraná River meets the Rio de la Plata twisting into a maze of swampy grasslands and islands. This area is known as the Paraná Delta — the fifth largest delta in the world — and one of few river deltas to empty into fresh water instead of the ocean. The islands and mainland surrounding the delta make up the town of Tigre where 300,000 Argentinians call home.

Before our day trip, I made Tory and Aden breakfast in the apartment while Andi visited a travel agency in Buenos Aires to see if he could get some assistance booking a future flight. For whatever reason, he’s had a heck of a time reserving domestic flights online — the airline website keeps giving him an error message. Unfortunately, the travel agency was no help as they only book lodging and excursions. Frustrated, Andi reached out to our airbnb host to see if he could help. The owner agreed, and after several unsuccessful attempts purchasing tickets through the website, he was finally able to reserve the flights we needed. Phew!

At 12:30pm, Aden, Andi, Tory, and I took an Uber to the town of Tigre, about 27 km (17 miles) north of Buenos Aires. Residents of Buenos Aires visit Tigre to take a break from the city, and have been doing so since the late 1800’s. “Islanders” who call Tigre home navigate the delta’s maze of channels solely by boat — there is no bridge that connects the islands to the mainland.

We arrived in Tigre 90 minutes before our private boat tour began, so we grabbed lunch at a traditional Argentinian restaurant called La Isla. Andi ordered a mixed platter of meat, plus a salad and plate of French fries. The mixed platters are a great option to order in restaurants because they’re perfectly-sized for our family of four, but the cuts of meat are always a little interesting. This variety included asado (short ribs), bife de chorizo (sirloin steak), pork chop, morcilla (blood sausage) and chinchulin (small intestines). Andi asked the waitress to substitute regular chorizo in place of the blood sausage, but our Spanish wasn’t advanced enough to realize we would be served intestines. It looked disgusting on the platter all curled up like a tail. Andi and Aden were brave enough to try it, and their verdict was “chewy,” though not fans of eating the organ.

I do love all the sauces that accompany meat in Argentina. There’s always house-made chimichurri, plus relish and a mayo/cream spread.

After lunch, we walked a few blocks to the Puerto de Frutos. In the early 1900’s, Tigre residents grew fruit and sold it at this well-known market along the waterfront. Over the years, water levels increased and fruit trees no longer produced. The market evolved into what it is today — a large, open-air shopping mall selling souvenirs, food, and home goods. Andi and I I expected more of a ramshackle artisan market, and instead we were surprised to see an upscale shopping area.

One of the stores in the Puerto de Frutos selling mate cases and accessories:

In fact, Tigre wasn’t at all what we expected. Over 80,000 porteños (Buenos Aires residents) flock to the delta every weekend; it’s clear that this is “cabin life” for many. In addition to the Puerto de Frutos shopping area, there’s also an amusement park in Tigre, a mate museum, and of course, the river as entertainment.

We stopped for a quick ice cream & espresso break at Volta, and then made our way to the Tigre train terminal where we’d arranged to meet our tour guide.

Andi booked us a private boat tour for the afternoon through Airbnb Experiences. Our guide, Fernando, was scheduled to meet us at the Tigre train station at 3:30pm. Except, it was Fernando waiting for us there — it was a guy named Sergio. Andi and I were so confused. The same thing happened to us on Sunday when we had a city tour of Buenos Aires scheduled with a tour guide and someone else ended up taking us around the city. It appeared that our hired guide has been swapped again without our knowledge.

We followed Sergio to the river dock where he summoned for a boat tied off on the opposite side of the river. Driving the boat was Sergio’s son, Lautaro, who picked the five us up on the other side. Sergio took over as captain of the boat, and we began to navigate our way through a series of waterway channels in the delta. The scenery was gorgeous, and I felt myself exhale a big breath of relief as the feeling of being back on the water rushed over me.

The delta connected to the Rio de la Plata where the channel opened up to big water. The Rio de la Plata is the widest freshwater river in the world, spanning 140 miles in some parts. Today was a moderately windy day on the water, so dozens of kite surfers dotted the water catching air in the breeze.

We bounced along on the water for 15 minutes until we reached a spot protected by the wind. Sergio tied off his boat in the reeds, and invited us to get into the water. I wasn’t so sure at first — the water of the Rio de la Plata is really brown from all the river sediments, but the kids were excited to swim and Andi jumped right in. The Rio de la Plata is shallow, and the water only went up to our knees. The bottom of the river is a squishy layer of mud but free of any rocks or debris.

We spent the next two hours swimming and relaxing in the sunshine. It was another 90 degree day in Buenos Aires, but the temperature felt perfect on the water. Tory and Aden had a great time swimming together. The kids covered themselves in mud, and then made up a game called “one million” where they pretended piles of mud in their hands were one million dollars, and they couldn’t let the money drop. Or, Aden swam around in the water while Tory threw globs of mud in his direction, yelling, “obstacle!” They laughed and splashed, and could have spent all day playing in the water. In the distance, we could see the skyline of Buenos Aires.

Early Spanish settlers originally named Tigre ‘Las Conchas,’ because of the snails and shells found in the river, but in Argentine Spanish concha is also slang for female body parts. So, to avoid embarrassment, ‘Las Conchas’ was officially renamed Tigre in 1952. The name Tigre (tiger) also comes from the Spanish who mistook jaguars they spotted in the delta as tigers. Today, there are no jaguars (or tigers) to be found in Tigre, but there are many large conchas like this one (conchas = shells in Spanish) in the Rio de la Plata.

Around 6:00pm, we left our anchored spot in the water and cruised through the channels. Andi flew his drone behind the boat, and got some great photo and video of the delta. Sergio was so impressed! Any time Andi pulls out his drone, he’s guaranteed to have a guy or two over his shoulder oohing & ahhing over the footage.

It was really neat to see the interconnecting waterway channels from a bird’s eye view. You could spend hours cruising through the shady canopies of trees. It was obvious that Sergio knew each one like the back of his hand. We saw hawks, herons, and ducks on the water.

Afterwards, Sergio asked Aden if we wanted to drive the boat. “Yeah, I drive my dad’s boat all the time,” Aden said. I could tell he was proud to have been asked to “captain” the boat, but kept his smile hidden under a serious expression. Lautaro tried to get Aden to wiggle the steering wheel back and forth in big cartoon-like motions, but Aden looked back at him like he was crazy and continued driving in a controlled manner.

A bit later, Sergio asked Andi if wanted to waterski. “When in Rome… or Buenos Aires,” Andi said. He hopped in the water and got up on the first try. No easy feat in a panga boat! Andi said later it was the weirdest waterskiing experience he’s ever had. The current of the river kept pulling his skies every time he tried to change directions, and there were boats everywhere in the channel. Because the Rio de la Plata is so shallow, all the watercraft activity happens in the deeper channel dug out by a special boat.

As we made our way back to the Tigre docks, Lautaro asked if we wanted to stop for a drink on the water. We pulled up to a bar called Bemvelon and ordered two Aperol Spritzes and a pitcher of fresh strawberry juice. The six of us enjoyed swapping stories about fishing and life on the water. Sergio didn’t speak much English, and our Spanish isn’t the best, but Lautaro did a great job translating between us all.

We made it back to the docks around 8:00pm, and Fernando was there to greet us. He apologized for not taking us out on the water today, saying he was occupied with another client. Fortunately, we had an awesome day on the water with Sergio and Lautaro, so it was no big deal having a different guide than we’d planned. Andi and I wouldn’t have changed a thing about our day spent in Tigre, only wishing that we could have stayed longer. As we pulled away from the docks in a taxi, Andi and I kicked ourselves for not renting an airbnb for the night on the Rio de la Plata.

As we made our way back into the city of Buenos Aires, we felt sun-kissed, hungry, and ready for a shower. Andi took the liberty of ordering food to be delivered to our apartment building — pizza and empanadas. Andi and Tory wanted ice cream after dinner, so they walked a few doors down from our condo building to buy some. “Do you think they’ll still be open at 10pm at night? Andi wondered as he walked out the door. Of course, they were — in the city, it seems like everything is available 24/7.

Tonight’s flavor choices — dulce de leche, vanilla, and menta granizada (mint chocolate chip).

Tomorrow is our last full day in Buenos Aires, and we have a few more neighborhoods we’d like to explore before we leave the city. Not sure anything will top the awesome day we had in Tigre.