Tigre... a visual diary!

Tigre was a beautiful retreat from the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires, from smog and horns to horizons and humming birds. Our first day brought its usual doubts and worries, but all of them came to nothing. We had a beautiful, relaxing and happy time. No crazy stories or insightful anecdotes in this blog, just a record, mostly visual, of our happy days.

The house we were staying in was just under 200 years old, beautiful original floorboards, wooden staircases and antique furniture. It wasn't quite what we expected a Bed and Breakfast to be, but then nothing here is quite as we have expected. We can not say a big enough Thank You to our host Julia (en espanol, pronounced 'Hulia') who welcomed us into her home, cooked for us, took care of us, taught us Spanish, and gave us a wonderful insight into Argentinian life. We found Julia and her bed and breakfast through helpx.net, we spent a couple of hours each day cleaning the bedrooms or sweeping the floors, hanging out the washing or helping to cook. It wasn't hard work at all. 

Tigre is very picturesque, its located in the banks and islands of the worlds 5th largest Delta, formed by the Parana river. It is by no means a small country town, in fact it's in no way separate from the urban sprawl of greater Buenos Aires, but it's streets are wider and tree lined, there are parks and gardens along the river and the pace is slow, especially during the week. Every second or third house seemed to be a 'weekender', you can tell the homes of locals by the two or three dogs in the yard... Have I mentioned the amount of dogs in Argentina? Strays and pets.... that is another story entirely!

The Town

Town Center

The flagpoles - on weekends the flag of each country is flown along the riverbank

James watching the crazy traffic. Only one collision!

Me, the train station in the background

The river in the center of town. The brown boats are like buses,
they service the houses and people who live in the delta.

Those trees along the riverbank are gum trees, a little bit of home.

The Delta

Parque De La Costa (Park of the Coast) is a big
amusement park on the bank of the river. We are
regretting that we didn't go, it looked like good fun!

All along the river bank there are the hulls of old, unused boats. These three
are in quite a good state.

The little jetties all belong to houses on the islands of the delta, a little
landing platform for each house, serviced by the 'bus boats'.

A rower on the river, there are many many rowing clubs. In this picture
you can see how built up the delta is.

Some of the houses are grand, some are not so.

This boat made me think of childhood,
and growing old. Imagine growing up with the
delta as your playground and a little boat in which
to spend the day.

There are many small barges on the river, carrying everything from timber to
garbage!

Eucalyptus!

I want this one!

One of the more grand houses.

The Parana River.

A view of Buenos Aires from the delta!

...and another.

I have no doubt that this photo will end up on www.AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com
It was so windy and cold and the sun was in our eyes!

Some people fishing from the hull of a rusted old boat.

Man and his dog. Jack Riley, when I took this photo I thought of you. Happy.

James and I after a feast of cheese and cold meats, which we later regretted,
at a funky little restaurant on the water front. The couch/table was made of an
old wooden boat!

The first 'Big Thing' we have found in Argentina!
Fittingly it is a giant 'Mate' gourd (pronounced
'Mah-tay'.) It is the drink of the nation, the locals
go and sip mate on the river bank in the evening.

The Asado!

 We were so lucky to experience a traditional asado, or barbeque, with our hosts. The food is cooked on a grill, under which is hot coals. Very Argentinian! So much meat, vegetarians, perhaps its best not to look!

Lighting the fire Argentina style, yes, that is a gas blowtorch...

Hungry? Guess how many people this meat is to feed.... Five people! Seriously!
All of this meat cost $190 peso, about AU$35. That is Walter, the chef, in the background!

Walter preparing the coals. Walter was the maintenance
guy at the bed and breakfast, he had fun teaching us to swear
in Spanish, beating me at chess and laughing at James
 when he was sick.

Walter, en chapilota (pain in the arse!) and Carlos, one of the guests at the
Bed and Breakfast, an ex-cop who told me that he is buying an island, this was
later clarified to be 'a block of land on an island'.

The cooking of the feast.

But the big bits of meat are still on the asado!

Our wonderful host Julia, who I will miss greatly.
She is a wonderful cook, a wonderful spanish teacher
and a beautiful person. I will also miss dear Gata Gorda
(Fat Cat) who managed to wrangle her way into our bed
for a few nights!

 Culinary Delights!

Julias dad came over to teach us to make candied nuts and easter eggs, then he made me 'Tortas Frittas', an Argentinian food, like a fried pastry, that is generally made on a rainy day. Delicious. We had a wonderful day!

Candied Nuts... mmmmm

On the boil!

Ingredients:

1 part sugar

2 parts nuts (raw almonds or peanuts)

8 parts water

Method:

Place all ingredients in a saucepan (or copper wok, as in the picture) and bring to the boil. Keep boiling and stir occasionally until the water has reduced to just a small amount. Keep the pot on the heat and stir vigorously, making sure the nuts don't stick to the bottom, until all of the water has evaporated and the nuts are looking quite dry (I noticed a bit of a burning smell, but not overpowering). When the nuts are looking mostly dry, a tiny bit of moisture left, tip them into a cold pot and remove from heat. Let them cool and then enjoy!!!

Candied nuts, the finished product!

Making Easter Eggs!

We may, or may not have eaten spoon fulls of melted chocolate in the process....

Tortas Fritas

An Argentinian delicacy. I didn't catch the recipe as it was all thrown together pretty quickly from memory, but you can find a recipe  here... Tortas Fritas. 

They were delicious.

Rolling out the dough.

Deep fried delicacy!

And a few treats from Australia!

Mmmm Pavlova, this one was almost perfect!

It was Julias Birthday while we were there, so we treated her with our
Australian family favourite... mud cake... yum!

We had such nice, relaxed time in Tigre it really was hard to leave. But here we are now in Rosario for a few days, and I have quickly fallen in love with this city too...

Paradise

Today I made this!!! A Bamboo fence! My first attempt and I think I did okay!

We are volunteering with a NGO called 'Chacras de Buenos Aires' (translated: Farms of Buenos Aires), it is a fairly small organisation that has big aims and goals. Four months ago the organisation acquired control of a decent sized piece of land, complete with the shell of a grand old house that was abandoned and came to ruin during the financial crisis that happened in Argentina 10 years ago. It is hard to believe how nature has reclaimed the house and how much disrepair it has fallen into in just 10 years. I am sure people scavenging for materials may have had something to do with it though. The house was the residence of a very wealthy man, who sold it to the bank days before the recession hit, he had signed the papers but the bank went broke before he was paid. It also hosted gatherings for the local elderly people, I can just imagine them having high tea on the pattio and wandering through the gardens. Check out a few photos, you can just imagine the grandeur and luxury that it originally held...

Check out the beautiful bluestone floors!

The land is located between two small villages, neither rural or suburban, they are kind of a nowhere land (a little like Lysterfield, though nowhere near as posh!) It is surrounded by small hold farms growing various organic produce. The eventual use of the property will be to house a shop where the local growers can sell their produce at a fair price. The locals are an odd mix, mainly Japanese and Bolivian immigrants who are pretty tightly monopolized by an individual 'entrepreneur' who takes all of their produce but pays them for only half of it, claiming the other half was spoilt or unable to be sold, and keeping the profits. The farmers don't have any other options, they don't have the wealth to buy a truck to take it to markets to sell it themselves, nor the ability to sell it to someone who will give them a fair price. The aim of Chacras de Buenos Aires is to provide fair trade to the growers, allow them some independence and fair wages for the work that they do. 

Some of the stories we have heard are horrendous. One lady who we saw, though she was very shy so she refused to be introduced, looked about 40. When we got back in the car our host informed us that she was actually 17, her husband is 40 and very strict. She was married when she was 12 and has four children. It is an entirely new world to us. This used to be common practice however it is apparently slowing down, the government has made laws preventing it though they are rarely enforced.

Our little horror story is nothing in comparison.....

Our first day here volunteering was Saturday, we drove out to the farm with the head of the organisation, a couple of other volunteers and her dear little 5 year old son 'B'. As we got to the gate, B jumped out of the car and yelled out (in Spanish!) "We are in Paradise!!!"

And at first glance that is what it was, a humming bird by the fence, giant stands of bamboo, green grass and the shell of the house, some beautiful gum trees to remind us of home.... Paradise...

We enjoyed our day, drinking mate, eating food cooked on the fire, laughing and joining in the conversations where we could. We unpacked, we found our room and were a bit apprehensive about the state of it... but we didn't say anything, afraid to offend. At around 5pm we said Hasta Manana to our new found friends, saw them off, locked the gate behind us, ready to settle in for the night. I'm not going to type all of the details, but the night consisted of terrifying spiders (more so as we do not know anything about the spiders here) a profound amount of mosquitos, roaring music from the property next door, barricading the room against the stray dogs that generally used the bed we were sleeping on as their own. We did not feel safe, we did not feel comfortable, we did not sleep. I can't describe how scary it was. Bumps in the night that you know logically are nothing to be afraid of is one thing, bumps in the night when you don't know their language, are surrounded by stray dogs, you are the only gringos in 20 kilometers and do not have a door to lock are another thing. Really we weren't in any danger, but had that feeling of being totally out of control and out of our depth with no lifeguards on duty. It was awful.

Below is a picture of our room, no door, some mesh over the window, and a smell that I can't put words to... 

Needless to say, the next morning when the little family arrived to see how we are going and to do some work on the property we quickly made it clear that we couldn't stay there for another night. They seemed surprised, offered to clean the room for us. We told them there was no way we could stay another night, no matter what happened. They were so so kind, so understanding and so damn accommodating they made me want to bawl, I held myself together though. So instead we are staying in San Telmo, Buenos Aires, at the office and headquarters of Chacras De Buenos Aires, where they have a loft upstairs with a bunch of beds for their volunteers. The bus ride to the farm each day is long, but interesting to see the different suburbs surrounding the city, and how the dynamics change the further out of town you go. 

We are enjoying our work there, but really not working too hard. Today we spent some time playing with the goats. Blanco, the male, is super cheeky. He is a clown.

Very shortly after him hopping on the table, the whole thing fell over, spilling a flask of near boiling water down one side of me... I feel a little sunburnt! 

 Travel is so much about the places you see, but it is even more about the people you meet who will go out of their way to help you out, the stories you hear that seem to belong to another world, a wold a million miles out of our own comfort zone, which I guess is where we are, but are we not all but one and the same? Don't we all deserve the same rights and freedoms? 

This is one of the most civil, most wealthy countries in South America, I don't know how we will cope when we see real poverty...

Every single day I am realising more and more how good we have it in Australia, how damn lucky we are to have all that we do. We are here and seeing hardships, but at a click of our fingers we could be back home, warm and safe.

And how lucky I am to know that, if I have had enough, if I have seen enough, if at any time I need to feel a bit more safe and secure, if  I need to fade back into oblivion and shield my eyes from the pains of the world, I can jump right on a plane and be back in Paradise. Because that is what Australia is for me... 

Paradise.

What a day. I'm tired!

Ahhhhh. Thank you Brenna for another wonderful dinner.

We have just finished dinner with our room mate Enrique, who is an awesome guy from Mexico.

Today we went back to Villa San Luis to volunteer for the day. It's one and a half hours there by bus from BA and an hour back to BA. Needless to say we are very tired after a big days work looking after the goats and making fences and cutting bamboo. We have a wonderful torte to have for desert.

Anyhow, this is just a very short entry as I'm tired...........and yes, I know I have to make at least one big one!!!!!!!!

Don't worry, it's coming!

Bye for now, James.

Hola, or is it Adios?

This will be our last sleep in BA for a while. I will miss this city, as it is very interesting. Our spanish is getting better everyday and we can now order properly and ask for directions, but we will still get some more classes when we can. The best part will be talking to other people. We will learn more that way.

Tomorrow we are going to Villa San Luis, which is located about 30 Km's south of BA. There we will be helping to make mud brick houses and working with an organisation that provides welfare and assistance to a community in need of essentials, like building products and some spare hands to build. They also have some goats, which I am looking forward to help look after!

Today we ate lunch at the Obelisk. It is in the very centre of BA. We ordered lunch from a take away that charges on the weight that you buy. As we sat in the shade of the obelisk Brenna pointed out some homeless street kids, playing by themselves. I looked and felt very guilty, that I had food and that they didn't. Their father was happily watching on. I got to the point that I couldn't eat any more, I felt too bad. Brenna looked at me and she came up with the same thought as I did. We walked over to the children and gave the three of them our food. We also took out two bananas we had and gave them to them too. The children said thank you, but to be honest it didn't mean anything to me. The thought that I had possibly fed them once today was much greater. As we walked past their dad he gave us a nod, and I gave him one back, knowing what he meant to say.

I felt like crying.

Last day in BA

We have spent this week at our Spanish classes in the mornings, and wandering the town in the afternoons. Yesterday was no different, except that we met up with our wonderful guide from Cicerones, Marcella.

We wandered from Av. Florida, a little like Melbourne's Burke Street, too Plaza De Mayo. Each Thursday afternoon the Madres de Plaza De Mayo march around the square, as they have done since their children first disappeared during the dictatorship that ended 20 years ago. During the dictatorship any gathering of more than 3 people in public was banned, so the mothers would walk around and around the plaza in groups of 3, wearing old cloth nappies on their heads, demanding that their children are returned or justice be served. These women have still not found what has happened to their children, but they are discovering grandchildren who were adopted out to various government officials and the like when their parents were, presumably, executed. These children have come to the organisation who has then genetically tested them to prove who their real family is. It is an amazing story.

At the same time the entire square was being overtaken by fanaticos, fans of the San Lorenzo Soccer Club who are demanding that their stadium be returned to them, after it was taken by the government during the years of the dictatorship. This rally went on well into the night, though had a very festive vibe with a stage with music and dancing, food stalls, street vendorrs and oh so many team flags!!! We walked  back by there later in the evening, when the streets were all blocked to traffic and so many people were joining in the fun. You would not want to yell out 'Go Boca Juniors', you would probably be jumped and murdered!!!

We then headed down to Puerto Mardero, BA's version of South Bank, with a very similar atmosphere though not quite as big and noisy. There is a beautiful old sailing boat in the water, that is still used as a Navy Training Vessel, yet it is set up as a museum and open to the public. It is a beautiful area with outdoor bars where we sat and had a drink and watched the moon rise and wonderful tango dancing, we walked over the Women's Bridge, down the opposite side of the river where there are many roller bladers, perhaps it is the only place in the city where the foot paths aren't cracked! A lovely area.

From here we headed back to Plaza de Mayo to see la Casa Rosada in all of its beautiful lit up glory, surrounded by riot police and a temporary fence that is permanently in place across the plaza for when there are rallies, protests and celebrations in the plaza, as was the case last night with the soccer fans!

Today is our last day in Buenos Aires, and while we have enjoyed our time here we are, in all honesty, so so glad to be leaving. The smog and pollution are killing us slowly, I don't know how people can live here, but in the same time it is beautiful. The architecture, the many plazas and beautiful statues, and most of all the passion of the portenos, who take to the streets to celebrate, commiserate and advocate at any given opportunity. 

We aren't too sure when we will have internet access again, I'm sure it won't be too long, but Hasta Luego until then!

La Casa Rosada (The presidential house)

The start of Plaza de Mayo

                                                                                Puerto Marido

A helecopter going to land at la Casa Rosada to take the president home, to her house 30 kilometers away from the city.

 A poster featuring Cristina, the Argentinian President, on the fence of La Casa Rosada. 

"There is no love like that of a woman. Celebrating International Womens Day"

Soccer fans demanding the return of their stadium

Cicerones: http://www.cicerones.org.ar/index_eng.php