To the Delta and Back

Today we all met at China town again and then headed back to El Tigre.  It's a little bit of a trek to get there, but it's been worth it both times now.  Last time we went to the museum and walked the river banks, but today we actually went on a boat bus out to one of the areas in the center that can only be accessed by boat.

This is one of the houses in the city area by the bank of the El Tigre... but these aren't the types of houses we were bound the experience.

We left on the boat taxi and after about a 30 minute ride we arrived at our destination.  During the trip I learned that they actually have boat school buses that take the children to school, boat grocery stores that travel up and down the river and also they have these buses (like the one we were riding on) that the locals pay a fee monthly to utilize.

Sarmiento's Residence

Our first stop once we arrived was the house of Sarmiento which is encased in this large glass structure.  Approximately 30% of this structure is original.  He was a famous educator and President of Argentina from 1868 until 1874.

Sarmiento's original desk

Next we traveled on canoes up and down the portion of the delta that was right outside the place where we ate our lunch.  To get to the starting point of the canoe adventure we had to cross over several bridges.  I believe it to be true that infrastructure is not a top priority in this part of Argentina (see caption below).

This is me on one of the bridges.  I am alone on this bridge for two reasons 1) I was posing for the picture and 2) only one person was allowed on this bridge (like many) because with too much weight it would probably collapse.

Side-note:  One of the girls stepped a little off of the trail and fell completely into a mud hole filled with water.  She was okay, but needed a change of clothes and time to recover from the embarrassment.

The place above is where we had lunch.  The food was absolutely delicious.  It was a quaint little place and the woman who cooks there is apparently known for her ability to add her own twist to some of Argentina's favorite dishes.  I'm guessing you won't see this on Diners, Drive-In's and Dives...

Locro

The above dish is called Locro and is one of the traditional Argentine dishes.  It was absolutely delicious!  It is generally made with the left over parts of cows and pigs that are butchered for other fine cuts, but in this case I don't think it included anything too odd.  

After lunch we made our way around the neighborhoods in the Delta.  One of our guides actually has a home in the area and showed us where he lives.

This house was constructed by him in about 5 months.  It is made from bricks of mud and blades of grass hand-compacted together.  He used the bottles to create his own version of stained glass.  On the property he dug a hole which pumps water into a tank inside of his house and purifies it for use.

He has several animals on the property including this adorable 5 day old kid.  

All in all it was a pretty interesting day.  It was fun to see people enjoying such a primitive way of life.  They canoe to their friends houses and are relatively self sufficient.  It was a great change of pace from the day-to-day in Buenos Aires because it is such a large city with so many people.

Until next time,

Tim

Traveling the El Tigre

Yesterday I didn't have the chance to blog because we took the subway to the China town in the far North part of the city.  So here is a wrap up of my Thursday night and Friday for everyone.

On Thursday night a group of us went to a bar called Port in Palermo SOHO, a part of the city.  On Thursdays they have free Pizza all night as long as you are drinking.  I took the subway and for some reason it was abandoned and I didn't have to pay to use it... so that was pretty great.

I tried an Argentine beer called Buho and I chose the have the "Blonde" Ale.  It was actually pretty delicious and tasted like a nice Boulevard Pale Ale, but maybe just not as much after taste and little less hoppy.

After everything was said and done I think that I spent a total of $31 US to go out, eat free pizza, drink and then come home in a Taxi.  It's not bad, but prices fluctuate a lot depending on location here - so there is a chance that we'll just have to learn the lay of the land to understand what is a good place to go.  This particular bar was pretty awesome because of the all of the artistic graffiti on the walls.

On Saturday we went to China Town and it was pretty cold so I ended up buying a stocking cap that I didn't pack because I didn't think I would need here.  It turns out in US dollars I think it only costed about $7, so that's not bad.  I also found a store with a ridiculous amount of fresh sushi for sale (average price $4 US per roll).

We walked up and down the banks of the river El Tigre and the river was pretty dirty, but it was still impressive.  I took the following picture of a bike that was abandoned next to the bank of the river.

We are going back and taking a boat tour of the river in a couple of weeks and I think that will be pretty interesting.  After walking along the bank for awhile we ended up at the Museum of Art which had an beautiful lawn.

When we returned from the Museum of Art we were able to meet some of the students from the actual University of San Andres.  They were all soooo impressive.  They spoke at least two languages and some three languages and had traveled many different places in the world.  We were able to sit and talk with them and I think that some of them will join us on other excursions.

This was Tomas who spoke to us at our table. He is from the Patagonia region in South Argentina and spoke a few languages and had studied English since he was a child.  He also took a year and spent it in Europe and then returned to school... he is still in his early 20's and has had a lot of experiences in the world.

Saturday Agenda:  Laundry Day & Tango Lessons