We are actually in Uruguay now! We have a lot to catch up on. Our last post was from Santiago, Chile, and since then we bussed the whole way across the continent to Buenos Aires. Priscilla is posting the BA post now, I get to write about our day trip to Tigre on the outskirts of BA.
Tigre! It's the Venice of Argentina. Since BA is the Paris of South America and Uruguay the Switzerland, there's a lot of Europe going on this stretch of the coast. Tigre is the biggest stretch of these three comparisons. It's a (domestic) touristy section of the mainland next to the Paraná river delta. Tigre itself is a good way to spend a day, but even better is taking a boat to some of the delta islands. Here's where the Venice comparison is relevant: no cars, just water.
The waterways of the delta near Tigre resemble wealthy suburbs, but the further you go the rivers narrow and the houses are smaller and more charming. We went 30 minutes out to the Tres Bocas area for lunch and wandering on the paths next to the waterstreets, only 5m wide at that point. We had a good afternoon of pretending to be house hunters. This one made the short list:
When we returned to Tigre we visited the Maté museum. Don't think we've really written about maté yet besides a food blog mention, but it's as essential to the Argentine experience as steak, futbol, and inflation. A bitter tea (yerba maté) shared from a gourd-like cup (maté) and drunk through a metal straw filter (bombilla). Argentines carry thermoses of hot water around and drink maté everywhere. The museum was surprisingly excellent! We learned that maté was originally a custom of the indigenous peoples of Paraguay. Hundreds of maté cups on display, from historical silver or porcelain matés for the wealthy to actual gourds.
Join us next time when we catch up on the 4 days we've already spent in Uruguay!
-Peter
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