An Afternoon in the Country

Of course, having just had 45 minutes in my room from one tour to the other, and this mornings tour being over half an hour late to pick me up (I was anxiously waiting for them in the lobby), it would only figure that the guide for this afternoon showed up early. Anyway, Gladys and Gustavo the driver picked me up first, naturally, and we then picked up four people from Ecuador, a husband and wife from Quito and two women, and then two more women from Rio de Janero in Brazil. And on the bus everyone introduced each other and once more I am Kah–Nah–Dah. Only one women from Brazil spoke a bit of English as she struggled to tell me her son lived in Calgary, working for an oil and gas company. Gladys decided to say everything in Spanish, English and Portugese, but to tell you the truth, I understood her Spanish the best. Because we were such a small group and were together for five hours, we became quite friendly, and I just chatted in Spanish with everyone the best I could. It was muy fun.

First we drove through Olivo City where we saw the residence of the country´s president, Christina Fernando. She only works in the Pink Palace, but she lives in this residence. There are 23 provinces in Argentina, of which Buenos Aires is the capital. Within the city, there are eleven football stadiums, all of which are privately owned. None belong to the government. What a novel concept. Imagine not having to pay for repairs to BC Stadium all the time!

For a long time we drove down Avendia del Libertador. The street starts in downtown Buenos Aires and is thirty–three kms long. We drove through many different municipalities, and saw large signs across the street saying (in Spanish of course): Don´t drink and drive, Don´t use cell phones while driving, Concentrate on the road, etc etc. We saw gorgeous old ficus trees, some hundreds of years old. They are related to acacia. They are always green, but in December, they have yellow flowers.

In San Isidro, we got off the bus and had forty–five minutes of wander time before we reconvened to board a train. Gladys had explained that later we were going on a boat, and we should go into the supermarket to get a picnic for the boat. With a great deal of care, I picked out, in the supermarket, two perfect apples, two mandarin oranges, some almonds, and some brie cheese and a bottle of water. Such a picnic. However, when I went to the cashier, she confiscated my fruit and almonds, because I had neglected to get them weighed in the produce section. Like I knew I had to do that! So I went and reselected all over again, and found a produce guy to weigh them. All this transpired in Spanish. I returned to the same cashier with my goodies. She looked very surprised. I´m sure she never expected to see me again.

Gladys explained that we were getting on a tren (train) regular and not a tourist one. It only stopped for one minute so if you miss it, tough. Kind of like the bullet train in Japan. Anyway, we boarded the train for Tigre and then Gustavo met us there with the small bus and drove us to the dock to get on a boat. Tigre is about thirty miles north of Buenos Aires.

“Why Tigre?” I asked.
“Two reasons,” Gladys explained. “Firstly, if you fly over the Delta, it is supposed to look like a tiger´s head. Secondly, in the wild here are American Tigers, or Jaguars. There are not many, they are not protected, they are hunted for sport, and they will likely soon die out. However, they were indiginous to this area.” Okay, she didn´t really say indigenous, I put that in, but she meant that in our conversations.

We boarded a boat, more of a launch, really and “sailed”, as Gladys said, around the Parana River Delta, which is really an area of 14,000 kms and contains thousands of islands and little islets, most of which have houses on them. On the mainland is a large market from which supermarket boats leave and service all the houses on the islands. People swim and fish in the water in summer – it is winter here now – although it is not potable. I am not sure how they manage to swim and fish as the colour of the water is pure mud. I guess what one is used to is what one does.

After the boat ride, we drove back to the city, and I was the last one off. They dropped me off in an unfamiliar area. “Don´t get lost.” Gladys smiled. “ Your hotel is on the right.” And she gently pushed me down the road. I had no idea where I was, but I kept on walking and looking right and sure enough, I soon came to the NH Lancaster, where, exhausted, I retired early to get ready for my conference starting tomorrow morning.

Well that rest didn´t last long. I am only here for such a short time, I figured I should go out again this evening. This morning Nestor told me that most Argentinians never eat before 10 pm and even that is considered fairly early. I thought I would try to go out for dinner but it was only just after 9 pm. However, I didn´t want to be out all night as I want to be in good mental shape for the conference tomorrow. I found a steak house not too far from the hotel, and it looked as though about half the tables were full, even though according to Nestor, they shouldn´t have been. I went in, and entirely in Spanish, ordered my delicious steak dinner, replete with wonderful Argentinian red wine. But I must have been a little tired, because I only had one glass and I could definitely feel it. Oh, for the days when I could drink bottles! I guess it´s cheaper this way, anyway. The steak was perfecto, and I might even go back there later this week. In fact, the Spanish was better than the English– the waiter tried to say something to me and I didn´t understand him. He kept repeating it and I just didn´t know what he was saying. Finally I realized he was speaking English and when he switched to Spanish, I understood him immediately. It was a good meal and I was back in my room just before 11 pm. But now for sure I´m going to bed because tomorrow is a big day for all of us.