Tigre!

So this past weekend I went to Tigre with Meredith and Molly. We decided to escape the city and take a boat ride around the town and enjoy the beautiful saturday we had been given. Tigre is a town on the river delta just 40 minutes north of BsAs by train. The ¨town¨is composed of a mainland city part and then a bunch of little islands in the delta where people live in their houses or you can rent for the weekend.

The ¨roads¨in Tigre are actually water passages between all of the islands. The collectivos are not the buses they are in BsAs but boats instead. Molly asked at the tourist office for recommendations about where to go and how to get there. They told us to buy a ticket for the collectivo and to first go to Rama Negra and then take another collectivo to Tres Bocas, the touristy spots in Tigre where we could walk around and get some lunch. So we bought our tickets, got on the collectivo and began our adventure.

We were not sure where exactly to get off for Rama Negra but we knew it would be about an hour on the boat before we got there. Well it turns out the collectivo we got on did not go to Rama Negra. Instead we were dropped off at one of the islands with a museum of one of the old houses. Confusion set in as we tried to figure out how to get to Rama Negra. Fortunately we met an older man and his daughter who lived in Tigre. He explained to us about the collectivo system and helped flag down one of the boats and proceed to tell us where to get off for Rama Negra.

Once at our first stop, Meredith Molly and I were simply giddy about how green and beautiful and peaceful and serene the island was. We stumbled across a huge open field which Meredith and I took advantage of by throwing for a little bit. I had snuck the disc with us because if Molly had known we were hoping to throw, she her self would have thrown as well (a fit that is). After a few minutes of throwing in the field (which was actually probably someone´s backyard) we kept on with our exploration of the island. After walking around for about an hour, we found the community area with a small playground, soccer field, volleyball court, tennis court and parilla. We played like little kids on the playground, took a nap nand I tried to be artsy and take some pretty pictures.

Around 3:30 we decided we should start heading back, abandoning our idea of going to Tres Bocas. Meredith and I had ticket to see Swan Lake for later in the evening and we wanted to make sure we could take a shower before we went. So we headed back to the dock where we got off at to wait for the collectivo.

At the pier, a friendly island yellow lab kept us company. We named her Sol (which means sun). As we had done on the museum island, we tried to flag down the collectivos to take us back to Tigre. After three passed us just waving, we figured we must be doing something wrong. There was a couple sitting a few docks and we decided to ask them how we could get the boat to stop and take us back. They informed us that we were waiting at the wrong dock. Natually we went to the collectivo stop and hoped we would have better luck.

We were wrong. After waiting another half hour and getting passed by about 5 more boats, worry started to set in. Our friends from the dock stopped by to check-in on us and told us that there were only certain boats that stopped there, but that we had to make sure to flag each one we saw because there was not real way to tell which was which. After another half hour of being ignored by even more boats, and it now being about 4:30, a little bit of desperation started to set in. Jokingly I took out my disc and the green highlighter I had to make a hitch-hiker sign to try to get back to Tigre.

Another half-hour passed and still no collectivos were stopping. We managed to flag down a couple going in the opposite direction and ask them how we could get back to Tigre. They told us the same thing, wait there and flag down every collectivo you saw. They also told us that they only came ever few hours. Great. It was now getting late and starting to cool off a bit and we were hungry. Now our hitch-hiking plan was starting to seem more reasonable than waiting for a real boat.

We were thrilled when a collectivo eventually stopped. The only problem was it was going in the opposite direction we needed as well. We tried to get on it, to just ride it to the end of the line and then wait for it to turn around and go back to Tigre. They wouldn´t have it. We asked if they would be stopping here again going in the opposite direction. They said no. ¨Mierda¨we thought, ¨how the hell are we going to get off this island?¨ We were hoping that if by 6 or 6:30 we were still stuck there our friends from the dock would check on us, feel bad we were stuck there, and invite us to their house for an asado and to stay for the night or have their own boat and take us back.

In the mean time, I started seriously holding out my sign and ¨hecho el dedo¨for every smaller boat that was going in the direction of Tigre. Imagine our surprise when a couple with their two children stopped and offered to take us back. They were headed to San Fernando, a bit further down the river, and Tigre was a bit out of their way but their generosity was overwhelming. The father worked as a producer for Fox and gave us his business card. He said he needed more Americans for his shows and wanted us to email him. Molly still needs to do that I believe. His wife is a professor of psychology at the Universidad de Belgrano where we are studying. The whole time we could not believe our luck and that our hitch-hiking actually worked. We had resolved ourselves to staying on the island forever.

Finally we got back. Meredith and I did not have time to shower before running off to the ballet. To add to our public transportation mishaps of the day, we almost missed our stop. Luckily the driver announced that Luna Park (the site of the performance) was in one stop. It turned out to be okay though. You know it´s not that big of a deal to be in jeans and a shirt when they sell hotdogs, popcorn and other stadium food. While the performance was good, we were sad about missing Julio Boca (the famous Argentine ballet dancer) by one night.

All in all, it was a great saturday adventure.