Saturday I took a trip to Tigre, a little town in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. It is located at the river delta where both the Río Uruguay and the Río Paraná flow together to form the Río de la Plata; the massive bay in the ocean that is, in fact, the river, and no salty waters from the Atlantic Ocean, as one might suspect.

Buenos Aires on the right, Montevideo on the far left.

With the river stream being visible from space.

With Buenos Aires

It’s the place where Porteños go on a weekend, so the trains are packed. I met up with Matías at 10 in the morning at the Retiro train station and we hopped on the next train. They leave every 15 minutes, but still are full with people heading out. The ride takes about 45 minutes and gets you through the city and its outskirts.

The first view is pretty depressing. The close-by villa Retiro, the Argentinian counterpart of Brazils favelas, starts right behind the train station. It’s a place that my friends tell me I should not go into. I might come back without phone or camera.

And unlike Rio, there are no tourist visits organized here. It would feel awkward anyway, like being on a safari to take pictures of the local poor..? But at least seeing it from the train stain is a reminder that Argentina is not all like Recoleta, my little clean wealthy Paris-like barrio.

The houses are cube-like constructions, raw materials, metal roofs, holes where the construction hasn’t been finished. It’s run-down, or probably: never even looked better, the only color being the red brick and the laundry floating on top of the roofs.

But, in all this, an encouraging sign, a little, better-maintained house that even got its walls painted in yellow, with the following inscription: Detrasdetodo.org – Hay una escuela!: Despite everything! There’s a school!

During the ride, the view changes from minute to minute. The villa, tennis courts, the municipal trash van parking lot, parks, the hippodrome (with a horse race in progress – can I spot the ladies with the large hats?), parks, more tennis courts, and then smaller, little houses, residential arenas passing by….

Finally, Tigre, the final station of the line where everyone gets off. Most people with their children seem to head to the local fun fair. Huge queues have already formed at the entry, in this wet and humid heat this seems to be not so much fun…

We headed to the Puerto de frutas, a former harbor area now transformed into an outdoor shopping mall, selling much of the touristy stuff and art, but also lots of furniture and decoration for Porteño houses.

We get to eat something pretty special… Belgian Waffles!!! Well, sort of.

In this case, it was a dough-wrapped hot dog, or, in my case, caprese style melted cheese with tomatoes, that is baked like a panini and eaten on a stick. I got mayonnaise and fine crushed potato chips on top of that. It’s good, although not necessarily the healthiest thing on earth.

We rounded it up with some ice cream, though.

We walked through the little streets to the river, where you can see a number of boats on the other side, abandoned and rusting, while the new ones carry tourists through the delta with its numerous streams, and small boats or luxurious yachts pass by….

We didn’t go on a boat tour, it was too hot and humid already, and we feared the crowds heading back at one point, when you might have to wait up to two hours for a train back to the city. Instead, we went back early for a bit of time in my rooftop pool and a beer.

A perfect day!