Adventure in El Tigre and San Isidro, part 1

So for the weekend day trip to El Tigre (a touristy town north of BA) we had to meet in the Belgrano train station. María told me to take route 60 there. First of all, the first time I got on, the assholes said I was going the wrong way, but I wasn´t. So that cost me a peso and 25 cents, and a shit ton of running.
Then, when I did get on the right bus, I didn´t know how far of a trip it was. So basically, I rode the route about thirty minutes past where I was supposed to go, started freaking out, almot cried, and didn´t understand anything that anybody said to me because for some reason old Argentinians don´t speak clearly. The bus driver eventually ran me over to a bus on the same route going the other way, told the driver where I had to go and that I had no idea where that was, and I had to ride back. So I was about 35 minutes late for the train. And, it turns out, THE STATION IS NOT LABELLED. There´s no sign, no indication that it´s a train station, and in fact there are a ton of busses outside, so I figured it was a bus station like Plaza Once. Thankfully, the bus driver the second time was really nice, and one of the ISA people waited for me and took a later train with me. How embarassing, though, I was the last late person. Thankfully, I got there before our boat ride started, but only by like five minutes. So I missed getting coffee and hanging out, but thankfully the rest of the day didn´t have craziness like that. it very well might have happened though (more on this later).

Me and Emiliano, later

It was cold in the morning when we got there, but got warmer later.

El Tigre, I´d heard, is really beautiful. But when we got there, it was jut meh. We took a boat through the river and saw the houses that were right alongside it and used boats to get around, then we went to Puerto de Frutos, which used to sell fruits and veggies but now sells chinzy touristy stuff and random home goods and furniture. There were tons of redundant shops, of souveneirs, leather stuff, scarves and skirts, about six food stands that all sold the same thing, a ton of stores that sold LAMP SHADES (?) and wooden furniture that all looked the same. However, I did get Arianna her Batman comic! :D But I didn´t want to spend six pesos on a crappy little keychain when I have all semester to find a cheaper price.

This was originally the very first casino in Argentina, but now it´s basically a recreational center.

This is a grocery boat. It goes from dock to dock and delivers stuff. The ¨stuff¨was mostly booze.

Front

center

back

This is a recreation of President Sarmiento´s weekend home, the first one built in the area.

I don´t know why its in glass.

This stuff was everywhere between the houses, many of which were on islands. If you didn´t notice, they´re all lifted to prevent damage from flooding. Psh, yeah thatll work.

The police boats, that said Prefectura.

 Our program had us visit the Puerto for three hours, and after about an hour we all got really really bored, since it´s all the same stuff and only covers about 10 acres of land. So we went to a restaurant and chilled there for about two hours. I had a delicious Banana milkshake-smoothie. SO worth the fifteen pesos. Oh and before that I had Tutuchas, which are basically like the cereal Corn Crisps or Honey crisps.

a neat church on the walk on the way to Puerto de Frutas.

Puerto de Frutas. How exciting.

These are Tutuchas, at least I think thats how it´s spelled.

Left: Ana´s freshly squeezed orange juice (too sour for my tastes). Right: The delicious banana smoothie.

Wall of restaurant. Notice the flattened bottles; they also sold them as souveneirs.

The other wall.

there were tons of stray dogs just hanging out. This one had followed us from the docks to the Puerto. In the background are two dogs cuddled up together. The way to tell domesticated/pet dogs from wild ones is that the pet ones all have collars, and the domesticated ones also hover around one person whereas the wild dogs will just follow you. Theyre not feral, though; they eat human garbage and drink out of puddles in the street.

The stray dogs here have their friendships and packs and stuff. I´d love to spend a day just following them around and seeing what it is they do.

 Anyways, there´s more but it takes forever to get them on here so I´ll do the rest tomorrow and get some sleep now, since I was supposed to go out, but the front door is broken so I wouldnt be able to get back in. I am very disappointed, but at least I did this while I could have been napping. =/ lol