Day 8 - Buenos Aires - Tigre
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2009
1
17
146
Trip End
Jan 23, 2010
Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Saturday, July 4, 2009
We travelled to Tigre today. Tigre is a holiday destination and consists of waterways and canals, posh holidays homes for the wealthy, jetskis, water skiers, sailing boats and power boats. We travelled there by train from Buenos Aires for less than 9 pesos (AU$3) return, although I miscounted my change as I had AR$10 less when I counted the change. An hour on the train (hardly a wait) since it is frequent and effective although far from comfortable. On arrival we made our way to the well known and popular Puerto de Frutos (Fruit Market). Not a great deal of fruit but a super handy craft market and dirt cheap prices. On the way we bypassed a rather large theme park. We had no intention of going in but that didn't stop Jody and Niamh from endlessly requesting that we pay a visit, made worse by the fact that you could hear the constant screams as we made our way around the market
Tigre Jody and Niamh having fun
.We jumped onto a catamaran for the 90minute tourist trip around the canals and waterways, passing by heaps of holiday homes, mostly uninhabited for this time of year but obviously belonging to wealthy owners. We also passed the once owned house of Argentinian President Domingo Sarmiento, which was caged in glass in order to preserve it. I was impressed by the number of women rowers, they outnumbered the men rowers 10fold. We also passed plenty of motor boats, water skiers and jet-skis on the river, and no apparent rules or need for caution as boat after boat weaved or zigzagged in, out, behind and in between the white water from other boats. For all of that it was a good family day out. On our 30minute walk home Belgrano estacion we passed a group of youths enjoying themselves in a local park banging a rather large drum inwhat looked like a rehearsal for some kind of festival. I became aware later at dinner that one of the local soccer teams River Plate were playing Estudiante from the town of La Plata who incidently are finalists in this years Copa America cup final. Sure enough we could feel the electric atmosphere and hear the distant chant from the crowd. I also recognised the sound banging from that same drum I had heard earlier in the day.
Jodys Story
Today was Saturday so we didn't have to do any school work
Tigre - Theme Park as seen from the river
. We headed straight to the train station to get tickets to tigre. The first thing we did was go to the markets. After the markets we went on a boat ride for 1 hour and a half. We saw between 10 and 20 shipwrecks. After the boat ride we went back to the market for a while. When we got home we played for a bit, had dinner and went to bed! Niamhs Story
This morning I wouldn't get out of bed, so dad made me. Then sleepily I got out of bed had breakfast and brushed my teeth. After that we went for a walk, we didn’t have Spanish School today, so we had the whole day to spend. First we went to the train station so we could go to Tigre. It took 14 train stops until we got to Tigre. When we got there we headed straight for the markets. On the way there we saw a massive, awesome looking theme park, of course dad and mum didn’t let us go there. Just before we went to the markets we had lunch, I had a hotdog. After we had gone to the markets we went on a boat ride. It was pretty fun, we saw lots of different boats. Then we had a little more time at the markets. Then we went back on the train. Then we hopped of the train and walked the rest of the way home. When we got home we had dinner, brushed our teeth and went to bed.
