30th November: Navigating the rivers of the Parana Delta

We woke up a few hours earlier than our usual laid-back schedule. After a few months traveling around South America, it was great to be able to empty our backpacks and settle for 2 weeks. The apartment was very comfortable, and we made the most of it by enjoying a few lie-ins and spending some time in the morning planning our next steps.  

We walked to the metro station, which was already bustling with people at 7 am, to catch the train to the Retiro train station, where we hopped on a 1-hour train to Tigre. All of it was very smooth and we arrived in Tigre much sooner than expected (around 8 am). The boat to the island we were going to would not be leaving before 9 am, so after buying the tickets (interestingly, the man behind the counter knew the place as "lo del Suizo", or "the Swiss guy's place" better than the actual address), we waited at a cafe.

The colectivo boat was a beautiful wooden vessel, full with residents and a few tourists. The skipper was skilfully manoeuvring the boat to drop passengers close to their homes' piers. The 45-minute ride was very pleasant, taking us through a few of the numerous Delta rivers. We could imagine the life of this community from looking at the houses, the Church and the school. On our arrival at "lo del Suizo", we were warmly greeted by Ana and Ralph.

Colectivo picking up locals from their home

Ana gave the six of us (we were joined by Swiss and Texan couples) a tour of the house, while Ralph finished preparing the breakfast. The place had a great history; it used to be the guest house of the ballroom next to it (now unfortunately decayed). Early in the century, it was a lively place and Ana showed us pictures of parties that took place there.

View of the old ballroom

The enthusiasm of our host was very contagious. She gave us a quick geographic lesson about the Delta and the location of their house. We realised how immense it was (third largest in the world, I think) as our journey from Tigre to the island was only a minuscule part of the Delta. It was also very interesting to learn that the formation of the Delta was only quite recent, and continued every day. It had first started to form only a few centuries ago through the accumulation of sediments coming from the mountains of the altiplano in the North of Argentina and in Bolivia (added to by construction materials dumped in the river). It used to be a dynamic area, the major economy being the cultivation of fruits, but they were destroyed in the 1950s by an important flood and the industry was transferred to another region (the north of Patagonia). Nowadays, only 10% of the houses belong to permanent residents, while the majority are only inhabited on the weekends or during holidays. People on the islands mainly work as gardeners, housekeepers or teachers. The town is only a boat ride away, but in addition a few so-called "supermarket" boats come several days a week.

It was then time for breakfast. Ralph brought us home-made bread baked in the huge brick oven that once belonged to the restaurant of the ballroom. They had also managed to keep an old, wood-panelled refrigerator. The delicious bread was served with aubergine jam, honey, and dulce de leche.

We then embarked on the charming wooden motor boat for a cruise on the nearby rivers. As we were sailing, Ana was telling us about the local flora and fauna. We spotted some herons, a kingfisher that flew in front of us for a while, and some other birds. Apparently, small turtles, huge rodents, and swimming deer also inhabit the Delta, but we did not see any of them. After sailing along narrow rivers full of water grass and joncs, we arrived at the Rio Parana, a very wide river that large cargo ships can use to reach Rosario, the export hub for Argentina's greatest export, soya bean.  The river is quite shallow due to the deposit of sediments, so large ships have to keep to the centre of the river, which is continually dredged.

View from the boat 

The nest of a hornero, Argentina's national bird

Stand-off without much room for manoeuvre; the other guy yielded, thankfully

Lunch was served on the side of a narrow river, in a very quiet setting. We enjoyed a glass of Malbec while Ana set up the table and Ralph started cooking. As a starter, we were offered a tasty salad and were asked to help ourselves from among the many tasty appetizers: empanadas; a delicious curried butternut squash tart; fresh vegetables; and cheese (morbier or goat cheese from Cordoba) on a wooden stick with olives and sauces. Then Ralph served us some chicken which was very tener and melted in the mouth. We did thankfully have a bit of room left for the tasty and very juicy beef. For dessert, Ralph had prepared pana cotta with orange marmalade. It was a delicious and gargantuan lunch. Thankfully, we had been warned and had skipped breakfast at home in the morning.

Ana and Ralph preparing lunch

The aperitif

John in the lovely fleece he was loaned

Pana cotta with orange marmalade

Fish eating the bread we threw from the boat

After lunch, we continued our journey through narrow rivers, admiring the surroundings and enjoying the tranquility of the backwaters. There was not another tourist is sight, the delta was empty apart from us and a few locals. On the way back, Ralph dropped us a few hundred metres before reaching the house and we finished the tour on foot. Ana showed us the remains of the ball room that they had started renovating and their impressive bamboo forest.

Pretty house in traditional style

Back at the house, Ralph had prepared some delicious ice-cream with surprising flavours: ginger & wasabi, and mate herbs. He had also baked a nutty version of the traditional Alsatian kouglof. We sat outside and shared Argentinian mate with Ana, Ralph and the rest of the group. It was very convivial and we shared a few stories of our travels in Patagonia. We were also visited by a humming bird, which was drinking the sweetened water that Ana had just poured in jar on the tree.

Tea time with kouglof 

Greedy humming bird

Unfortunately, time had flown by and at around 6pm we took a private taxi-boat back to Tigre. On the way back we noticed that the level of the water had increased significantly and that it was being swept on people's properties by the waves coming from boats.

High level of water

For some reason we thought that taking the bus back to BA would be more fun than taking the train. It was definitely an adventure: it took us about 2h30 to reach Plaza Constitution (10min from the flat); the bus was stopping every 2 blocks. Back at the apartment, we cooked some vegetables and had an interesting conversation with Romana (also staying in the apartment) before collapsing in bed.