Tigre

Very gross Spider
Big Boat
Big Abandoned Boat.

So, on Thursday I went with my class to Tigre. A town upriver from Buenos Aires and easily reached by train from the city. It lies at the base of this vast maze of waterways all connecting to one of the major arteries that empties into the bay here by Buenos Aires, el Rio Paraná.

The trip was gorgeous. You get on a small lancha (boat) in Tigre and for about an hour or so you navigate these waterways of murky brown water. The inlets and outlets are studded with small vacation houses on stilts, crumbling docks, and old abandoned ships that were run ashore and left to rust. Once you get to the river Parana, the waterways disappear and you enter this massive river which is filled with floating debris making its way from Brazil to the ocean. The giant river, about 1600 miles long and 300 ft deep (second longest river in South America behind the Amazon), is also the main artery for many of the communities upriver and is loaded with these massive (and I mean massive) cargo ships that are probably anywhere from 300-500 feet long (maybe, my estimates aren't great).

We stayed in this smelly old hotel on the side of the river that was infested with cockroaches and massive spiders. We were also fed some pretty poor food and shown some pretty lousy entertainment. Oh well, it was still a good two days of lying around, sunbathing, and meeting some new people on the program.

Tonight I am going to the Feria de los Mataderos. I don't quite know what it is, aside from a cultural fair, or where it is but I am going with these two very sweet girls I met on the trip to Tigre who have been here for about 6 months already and know the city very well. More soon.