Tigre: The fiercest city around

The title might be a little bit of an exaggeration for this slow moving, river city, but since it translates to “tiger” I couldn’t resist.  I had the opportunity to visit Tigre, Buenos Aires a couple weekends ago with my program CEA.  We all got onto the train (1.10 peso/ticket) and took the 45-minute ride there.  It was gray, cloudy, and little cold so not the greatest day to be visiting a city built on waterways.  Despite this though, we had a great time. First we took an hour boat ride through the waterways, which act as roads through a lot of the town. On the tour we saw gas station along the river for boats, old boats half sunk into the water, and unique buildings like the Tigre Art Museum and Sarmiento Museum.  Even though some of the buildings were beautiful, the murky brown water we floated on was not.  You can see the difference in water color the closer you get to the main “port” area because of pollution. This is pretty obvious from the dead fish floating along (even though I’m sure there are some live ones too).

Tigre

Sarmiento Museum

After the boat ride we walked to the main attraction of Tigre, the fería. They have a huge open market with anything from bubble machines to cow hide throws to the cheapest mates around.  My roomie and I hit up the waffles on a stick stand right away, me getting a waffles with lomo and cheese on the inside and smeared with cheese and basil on the outside. Delicious. Then we wandered around the fería finding earrings, mates, and much more.  After about an hour it was time to meet up with the group and head back to BA. On our way to Tigre we were graced with the live performance of a “folkhop” band who combined, yep you guessed it, argentine folk music with hip-hop.  We were treated to some music on the way back too.  A man walked around with a boom box playing music comparable to a ‘Now’ CD from the States, but with Argentina hits and selling the CD’s. so not quite as cool as folkhop, but better than nothing.

Rule: If riding a bike with out a helmet, it gets taken away. And put here.

There's also a theme park! Looks like Valleyfair's Mad Mouse right??

If you’re planning to visit Buenos Aires any time in the future and want to take any day trips, I would definitely recommend Tigre. It’s a unique city and you can’t find deals like they have at the fería in other places. Maybe just try to pick a day with nicer weather J

Until next time, chau!