Tigre

Visiting Tigre for a day was like a mini holiday from the bustling city of Buenos Aires. Tigre is a little town in the North of Buenos Aires about 50 minutes train ride outside of the main capital, its main attraction being the deltas that you can take scenic boat rides on. At first, however, our day didn't get off to a good start. The plan was to spend a nice relaxing train journey up there and arrived refreshed. The train turned out to be very run down and very busy - to which we did not get a seat - this makes sense as to why it was 30p then! 

Tigre train station:

When we got there it was a different story, the sun was shining and the town was really pretty and peaceful. We booked a boat trip for later that afternoon and set off to explore. We wandered down some back streets and along the river noting a place to come back and have lunch later before we began our boat trip. Turns out our boat trip was also so cheap because the entire commentary was in Spanish - doh! We tried to use our limited Spanish to understand but also it was just nice to look out of the window and see why the portenos of BA come here at weekends and for holidays. 

The delta:

After our boat ride we went for another yummy steak before setting off back home to BA.

Dinner in the sunshine:

La Bomba de Tiempo & Cacerolazo

Monday night rolled around and this meant only one thing - bomba de tiempo! We were excited to find out if the time bomb could be as good as everyone claimed. Walking to the venue we were filled with nervous anticipation and after an extortionate 50 peso entry fee we were in. The venue was a large concrete konex with both indoor and outdoor standing areas and a stage at the front. 

The venue:

We heard the banging of the drums but decided to head to the bar first for a much needed drink - bottle of red and a beer (pretty standard drinks for us these days). Turns out a bottle of wine means a huge plastic cup full of wine and a litre of beer, about the same size - a good start to the night then! We went inside and were greeted with people bouncing up and down and a drumming band making its way through the crowd. The drumming and dancing was infectious and it was only 7.30pm (an early night for BA), the night was already getting going and this was just the warm up act. 

The warm-up:

Later in the night the main act were to come. This was a bunch of seriously talented musicians - the group take in turns for one member to go at the front to lead the drumming based on more than a hundred different hand and body signals that they've created to enable them to conduct the music - amazing! In the second hour of the concert they also have a special guest come which when we went was some jazz musicians and a singer, however we preferred the beginning when it was just the raw drum music.

The musicians: 

Fun times:

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As the concert finished we made our way out, grabbed a pizza from a street seller and started the walk home. As we were on route, however, we started to hear some more drumming but this time on pots and pans and coming from balconies all around us. It seemed to get louder as we got closer to the apartment. Once we got to our flat we got out on the balcony and the banging was so loud, even our neighbours were taking part so not to be out done we decided to get out on the balcony and get stuck in! After a bit of searching it turned out this was a form of protest in Argentina called Cacerolazo which consists in a group of people creating noise by banging pots, pans, and other utensils from their own homes. The protests at the moment seem to be about the restrictions put on Argentinians to purchase foreign currency (impossible with pesos) and the way the economy seems to be going (massive inflation of over 25%) which does make it pretty expensive here which must massively impact upon the portenos of BA's cost of living - a lot of things are more expensive than London!

Protesting with the portenos:

Feria de San Telmo & La Boca

Since our course finished last week we've been really getting in to the spirit of buenos aires - siestas at 4pm, dinner at 10pm and the manana attitude. Weekends here are great, we were really lucky on Sunday to get 24 degree sunshine (and it's winter!!) for our visit to San Telmo market and La Boca. San Telmo is a barrio (neighbourhood) in BA that has an amazing Sunday market with antiques, vintage clothes, jewellery and other nick nacks. I really wanted a vintage camera (and loads of other tat) but Joel reminded me that whatever we buy we have to carry so less is more!

Feria de San Telmo:

Mate cups for sale:

We spent a few hours wandering around and we found an amazing little choripan cafe (basically bbq'd chorizo in bread - yuumm) for lunch with live music. 

Choripan lunch:

After lunch it was off to La Boca to take in some of the colourful buildings and lively atmosphere - we had to get there before 4pm though as after that the police disappear and it becomes quite a shady neighbourhood but during the day it seems like a tourist haven. After having a look around it was time for a quick cerveza before heading back to San Telmo to finish off our shopping trip.

Hand of God:

Caminito La Boca:

 La Boca:

In the evening we went to see some street artists perform tango music in a little bar in San Telmo where we drank lots of vino tinto giving us the confidence to have a good natter with the taxi driver in Spanish on the way home!

Tango musicians: