While spending one month in Buenos Aires, I started to feel oppress by the big city. Thus I was looking for an escape to get nature and peace. I tried two journeys. One to Tigre a classical destination of Porteños (the nickname given to inhabitants of Buenos Aires) and a second to another country Uruguay. Here the one about Tigre.

Tigre

Tigre is a small city close to Buenos Aires and surrounded by nature. Both facilitate the city to be a great attraction for Porteños. I reached the city by train from Retiro-Mitre station. The journey took me around one hour. There is a train around every 30 minutes. And like every transport in Buenos Aires, it is cheap! (24$ roundtrip).

Walking tour

I wanted to do a walking tour for both visiting the city and learning about history. The flyer at my hostel said: “meeting point at 10:30 at the train station”. Although I was on time at the station I stayed alone… Yes, plan A failed. I didn’t get discouraged and I decided to do the walking tour in the city by myself. I found some good advice on this article. I walked from the train station to the Museo de Arte Tigre along El Rio de la Reconquista. And finally, I got back along the river Lujan. This tour is short and rather simple. The river banks are nice but not amazing and the Museo del Arte open only the afternoon. On the way, I also saw a maritime museum. I didn’t do it as I already did the big one of Hamburg.

Place to eat

Since I started to get hungry, I went to the market for finding something to eat. I was looking for my Sunday bife de chorizo. Being alone, I was looking for takeaway food. This was my second failure of the day. Firstly the market was not interesting, only made in china stuff. Secondly, the only food I found for takeaway looked poor quality and else only parrillas where you need to sit down. If the price for 2 is correct, it was too expensive for one. Thus I looked for a plan B. This time it worked better, I finished in a nice place called Alamcén de Flores. It was not a bife de chorizo but good vegetables well cooked and for a good price. I encourage also to visit the neighborhood around the restaurant as there are really nice graffitis.

Boat tour

The different tours

After a morning with a gray sky, the sun decided to show up. This good news motivated me to seek a boat tour. I heard a lot about nature here, I wanted to get it closer. I found 3 types of tour. One tour that take to the left part of the river Lujan. Since I already did a part in the morning, I preferred trying something else. A second tour that takes you to a restaurant where you can eat a parrilla. Having already eaten, this one didn’t fit also my expectation. The last tour is a loop inside the small rivers just north of the city.

My tour

I took the tour that does the loop north of the city. It is a one hour tour with a guide for 100 A$. First of all, the guide was useless since he told us only names of buildings… Next, I was expecting wild nature but I visited a neighbor with houses art the river bank. It’s nice but again not amazing.

Last few words

Bref… This day was not dreadful but far for being great. I found Tigre more as a city-dweller attraction than a real nature escape. Most of the Porteños, just went there to sit down in a grass garden and eat. This could be fun, but won’t satisfy the adventurer I am.