Tigre

Trying to escape the deathly heat of Buenos Aires, my roommates Gus, German and myself headed off to the town of Tigre for the weekend. We were also accompanied by Mark and Alex, two Swiss guys that are staying in the house for a few weeks (Mark used to live here, but has since moved back to Switzerland). So all 5 of us crammed into Gus' old VW coupe and made the 40 minute drive to the Delta of the Rio Parana. I had heard about Tigre but I had no idea it was so close to downtown BA. Essentially, Tigre is like any other river town, but what makes it different is that there are hundreds of islands dispersed throughout the delta. A lot of the islands have houses on them that you can rent. Gus and 9 of his friends rented a really cool house for the entire month of January for about 1000 US. The house has it's own private dock, about an acre of land behind it, a big area for a fire pit, a nice kitchen, and a few big rooms inside. Furnishing however is another story, thus making my night's "sleep" rather interesting. Getting to the islands too is pretty interesting. All the beds that were in the house went to those who paid so I settled for one of the hammocks outside, which all things considered was very comfortable. The only problem was that the mosquitos on this river are EVERYWHERE. You know the rest of the story. Since everything revolves around water, there are boat "buses" that go to different islands via various waterways. We had to take the number 59 I think. If you didn't plan well enough for supplies, there are floating supermarkets that come by every few hours too.

Once we got there, we ate unhealthy amounts of meat, had hours long drum circle sessions and swam. By the end of the afternoon, the house of 10 became about 50, with the friends of friends randomly hopping off #59.
It was great getting out of town for a day or so, getting some swimming in, meeting all of Gus' friends and exploring yet another part of the world. Aside from the mosquitos having an asado on my body, it was a blast and I will definitely be going back soon!

as always, my photos at: http://www.pbase.com/afirestein/tigre