We arranged, through our local travel agent, to have a boat ride up the Rio de la Plata see the Parana Delta. The Parana Delta is an area of some 21,000 square kilometres where the rivers that flow down from the Amazon River Basin of Brazil have dropped their silt for the past million years or so. The delta has hundreds, if not thousands of little islands divided by some 5000 small waterways. The city of Tigre has sprung up in this area and is one of the summer play areas for Buenos Aires. The rivers are lined with cottages built on stilts (as it floods every time the winds blows up the river) and docks that extend out into the river. We saw some children waiting to catch the “school boat” as in some parts of the delta the only way to get around is by boat. Our tour guide, Paula, spoke English well so we pumped her for information, not only about the delta, but other things we should see and do in Buenos Aires.
Food continues to a key part of the experience in Argentina. For those of you who know me, you would find it hard to believe that I am getting tired of meat. Don’t get me wrong, it is great, but enough is enough. Find me a salad, or some broccoli. How about a handful of raw carrots? And please, use a little portion control when plating the food, as I have none. Last night, we went to a Spanish restaurant that Paula (the tour guide) recommended. It was nothing fancy, but the food was good and inexpensive. We shared a bottle of Los Arboles (see wine.lbmx.com for it’s rating). Yoli had a Hungarian chicken dish, Chris had a ¼ chicken dinner, Tom had Calamari and I had fish. The menu had no English, no pictures, and our waitress spoke no English. With our Spanish English dictionary sitting at home, choosing and ordering from a 10 page menu was challenging to say the least.
The night before, we went to a restaurant “La Cabrera” which is recommended in most Guide Books and weren’t disappointed. It was a traditional Argentine Bar-B-Que. We took a series of pictures of the courses that we had. (see attached) From appetizer to the main courses, everything was delicious. We shared the main entries and still ended up bring enough home for lunch the next day. It was the best food we had in Buenos Aires and was reasonably priced.
Today we went on a trip out to the country with Nestor (our local travel agent). We went to a small town call Lujan, which about 70 kms from downtown Buenos Aires. The town is famous for its Catholic Basilica, which started construction in 1891 and was completed around 1936. It was fashioned after Notre Dame in Paris. It was interesting how “tourist friendly” it was. No problem snapping pictures with flashes even when the mass was going on. Tourists just mingled among the devoted, snapping pictures. Even the confessionals (confessions in progress) were open for all to see.
After the tour of the Basilica we stopped in at little museum that featured early transportation in Argentina. They had carts just like the Red River Carts of our prairies, lots of stage coaches (which historically were also shot at by Indians and Bandits) and the first plane to fly the Atlantic from Spain to Argentina (See picture) among other things. We then headed further down the road to little town called Tomas Jofre.
Tomas Jofre is a town like I have never seen before. It is located about 7 kms off the highway and about 15 kms from any other town. The whole town is contained within about 5 blocks by 5 blocks with a park in the middle. The towns sole purpose is to be a restaurant town – with a little over 20 places competing for your business. All are fairly simple Argentine Bar-B-Que establishments and offer an all you can eat and drink affairs for about $17 CDN per person. As we drove through the town, we were stopped at all most all the places, where a person would try to encourage you to come into their restaurant.
We settled on a nice place and sat outside under the shade of a tree. We spent almost 3 hours enjoying course after course (even a salad) before coming home. The house wine, which was included, was good. We also tried “mate”, which is best described a type of tea that is served out of a communal cup, and drank through a steel straw that has a filter on the end to prevent the tea leaves from being drunk. All and all it was a very good day. We did not go out for dinner this evening, as we were still full. Only Thomas, the eating machine was wondering when dinner was going to be.
Hope this finds you well,
Ian
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| Buenos Aires - Day 8 |
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