Celebrating Life with Friends!

We thought it a great idea to take the train to the city of Tigre, an unusual river community an hour north of Buenos Aires.  It  was the weekend/summer destination of high society during the end of the 19th century who then abandoned it for the beaches of Mar del Plata.  Today it is still a popular destination for locals and tourists and the gateway to the 10,000k of waterways and islands which are all part of the Delta region.

An unaccompanied dog waited with us on the train platform, jumped on with us when the train arrived, stretched out to sleep on the floor in front of the doorway and then was booted off at one of the stops by a train conductor.  We guessed he then had to wait for the next train.
















One guide book touted the rivers as "coffee-colored", which we thought was quite a romantic description!  And looking back at the photos we took (and the great quantities of cafe con leche we have drunk in 3 months), we thought it a fine alternative to "muddy" water!   Many types of boats provide transportation of people and things, both public and private ... and we saw it all.



Here's the typical "taxi" which takes folks around the delta.  The ONLY means of transportation is boat.  So people, building materials, groceries and whatever are moved and sold from boats. 

We had a one hour taxi ride to the restaurant.  The boat stopped constantly, to deliver people to their homes or to guest houses and other restaurants.



























The pleasure boats ranged from the typical ski boat to the 75+ foot cruiser with three crew (in matching golf shirts).

























Crew is a very popular pastime as well, not only for teams and friends, but also for families.  Lots of rowing clubs and rental places.

Here's one of the merchants -- the local plant store.  We saw two grocery boats.



























All of the expats we know head by water taxi to Gato Blanco, probably the best known restaurant in the Delta for lunch.  We had a lovely time dining indoors that day and, although we would have loved to have eaten outside and watched the river traffic, it was the cold day of the month!  A parting gift in most Italian style restaurants in Buenos Aires is a complimentary shot of limoncello, the lemon-based liquor.

Sunday proved a warmer day and we headed for the infamous San Telmo street fair and lunch at Amici Miei again. Our friends Dave and Jamye joined us and then we walked to their house afterward to continue the party...dumpster diving along the way.  G found some great pieces of  old oak flooring, each exactly 1" by 4 3/4", which I quickly scooped into a plastic bag (awaiting an inspiration)......Jamye found an antique rusted biscuit tin with glass portholes...another great find!  Here's J attempting  the bandoneon......


Gad zooks!  Someone knew we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary!  Well, not really, but we found it serendipitous that this calendar commemorating the date was in front of the police training station, on our way to the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo.  Since the Museo didn't open until 2, we first went to a Peruvian restaurant, Francesco, for lunch to celebrate.  Wonderful ceviche and a favorite of J's guitar teacher!  And a fitting goodbye lunch to celebrate friendship!








And their last day in town, the guys played golf while the girls shopped and lunched at the French restaurant, Rabelaise.





Thursday's concert was at the recommendation of J's Spanish teacher.  Madrid flamenco singer, Diego El Cigala, was in town to perform at Teatro Gran Rex.  We had no idea what to expect and how we ended up so close to the stage on short notice was sheer luck, as the theatre held 3300 people and was completely full.
Having just heard so much flamenco while we were in Sevilla last fall, we were familiar with its plaintive, raspy wailing, but when it was accompanied by such great musicians on piano, violin, bass, and drums, it really became entertainment!  Diego was a soft spoken, thin man with shoulder length black hair dressed in what looked like a shark-skin suit and black patent leather shoes.  He is a polished entertainer who knew how to woo the audience!

Then Diego was joined by an Argentine pop singer (Andres Calamaro, extremely well known to the crowd), a local tango guitarist (Juanjo Dominguez) and a bandoneon player (Nestor Marconi).  The bandoneon is the essential haunting voice of tango, an accordion-like squeeze box with buttons rather than a keyboard.  Flamenco merged with tango and magic happened!  It brought down the house!  Well, 2 1/2 hours later and after 4 standing ovations and uncountable encores, we emerged from the theatre at midnight feeling very lucky to have experienced Spain meets Argentina!