Tigre & an Estancia: Buenos Aires Day Trips

Our vacation to Buenos Aires was easy to plan because we basically stayed put. We booked accommodations in only one city, and we had no planes or trains to catch mid-week. It was relaxing.

I did, however, plan three day trips that took us out of the city limits. Uruguay was one. The other two: Tigre and San Antonio de Areco.

Saying we had no trains to catch was just a tiny white lie. In fact, we had to catch a commuter train to get to Tigre, a delta town about an hour outside the city. But round trip tickets were only a couple of pesos apiece, and there were several trains an hour going back and forth. Extremely low-stress.

Tigre is known as a good day trip from Buenos Aires because of its delta and scenic waterways. We took a one hour tour on a boat crammed with about 60 tourists. Although the commentary was in Spanish, the tour was worth it. The delta was a maze with branches in every direction, beach houses lining the shore. Each house had its own deck and stairs leading into the water -- some nicely maintained with benches and hammocks, others in various states of disrepair. Quite a few people were on the decks, watching, chatting, fishing, eating. Each deck and house also had a name -- a point of pride, I imagine -- and many had boats.

After the tour we walked along the river and eventually made our way to a market called the Puerto de Frutos. Although this was only the third day of vacation, this was already our fourth market, so we explored only a fraction before we were hot, tired and marketed out.

We sat along the river before we made our way back to the train station and back to Buenos Aires. Total time, including the train trips: about 7 hours.

The next day we were off to La Cinacina, an estancia (or ranch) just outside of San Antonio de Areco. San Antonio de Areco is a rural city of about 20,000 residents a couple of hours outside Buenos Aires, in the Pampas. Paul called it the Defiance of Argentina.

Paul and I booked transportation to La Cinacina, and a tour bus carried us and a couple of other dozen people to the estancia. It was every bit as touristy as I expected, but it was fun and we both left with full stomachs. It was impossible not to. We were greeted with empanadas, and about an hour later had an appetizer of half a sausage in a roll. Then the bell for lunch was rung.

The guests -- maybe about a hundred of us -- sat along tables filled with salad, french fries and bottles of wine, water and pop. Then they served the meat. Every five minutes or so they placed another piece on our plates -- short ribs, sirloin, strip steak, chicken, roast beef and maybe another cut or two. Then dessert (ice cream), and a jelly-filled pastry and mate right before we left.

The day wasn't just about food (although truth be told, it mostly was). We had a little free time before the meal to look around and take a short horseback ride. During the meal we were treated to traditional songs and dances, and afterward a show of horsemanship. Total time, including bus rides: about 7 hours.

The bus ride, too, was interesting, if only for its familiarity. It was much like rural Ohio -- lots of fields. It was odd seeing corn nearly knee-high in November. The guide on the bus told us that Argentina is a top producers of soybeans but eats almost none. About 80 percent is exported, mostly to China and India. Because of the high prices soybeans yield, farmers have turned away from raising cattle, leading to a meat shortage. Now meat prices are rising and no beef is being exported.

Needless to say, we saw no shortage of beef in our one week in Argentina.

Day Tripping to Colonia, Uruguay

While family and friends at home were gorging on turkey and pumpkin pie, Paul and I spent our Thanksgiving in the small Uruguayan town of Colonia del Sacramento.

I awoke shortly after 5 a.m. Thanksgiving morning so we could catch a taxi at 6 to be at the Colonia Express ferry terminal at 7 for our departure at 8. Our passports were stamped at the ferry terminal -- cheating, I think, since we were still in Argentina.

Colonia is a popular daytrip from Buenos Aires, only an hour ferry ride across the Rio de la Plata. Our $50 (US) ferry ticket included an hour tour of the town, which was more than enough time to get acquainted with the old town, with a diameter of just a few blocks, surrounded by water on three sides. We learned about Colonia's joint Spanish and Portuguese history, but Paul and I both decided independently not to visit the city's several tiny museums.

We did, however, climb about 120 steps up and down the winding staircase of a working lighthouse. We walked along the river. We browsed the many shops. We ate empanadas. We loitered at a waterfront restaurant with a glass of beer and a piece of chocolate mousse pie. We took it easy.

My only souvenirs of the day are a Uruguayan bill and a single coin. Every place accepted and gave change in Argentinian pesos. At the last minute, we stopped at a gas station convenience store so we could buy a bottle of water in Argentinian pesos and get change in Uruguayan pesos.

Visitors to Colonia can just barely make out the skyline of Buenos Aires across the river on clear days. It was a clear, hot day when we were there, and an easy, scenic way to get a page full of stamps on my passport.

Buenos Aires: The Sights & Sounds

We visited Buenos Aires to see the sights. Some of the best views, however, were from the place we stayed.

Instead of getting a hotel room, we opted to rent an apartment for the week. With a bit of research, we found the perfect apartment -- a studio on the 19th floor of a year-old high-rise apartment building in a vibrant neighborhood, with a private balcony, fully-stocked kitchen and a heated outdoor pool on the ground floor.

Like almost everything in Argentina, the price was the icing on the cake -- about $75 per night.

The view was amazing, and we spent several mornings eating breakfast or reading magazines on the balcony. One of my most pleasant memories of the week is ending one evening with a bottle of wine out there, watching the twinkling lights.

The view:

Paul swimming in the pool, 19 stories below our balcony

You can see more pictures of the apartment from our rental company.

We didn't spend the entire time on the balcony. In fact, a couple of the most memorable sights came on our first full day and last full day in Buenos Aires.

At the beginning of the trip, we explored La Boca and San Telmo, two neighborhoods just south of the city center that are experiencing a kind of revitalization. La Boca is known for its bright buildings with corrugated roofs -- particularly the short street of Caminito, an area crowded with tourists, tango dancers and souvenir shops.

On the last day we made a point to walk by the Palacio del Congreso, which my guidebook says was inspired by the United States Capitol. It's easy to see the resemblance but difficult to decide which is more impressive.

We saw one of our favorite sights of the entire trip, however, on a sunny Wednesday afternoon: the Floralis Genérica, a giant flower sculpture made of steel and aluminum. The petals open and close with the sun, and red lights illuminate the interior at night. The sun was high and hot when we were there, though, and I took photos from every angle.

The sounds of Buenos Aires were almost as interesting as the sights. This was my first visit to a Spanish-speaking country, and I was curious about how well my four years of high school Spanish would hold up. Well enough, especially with Paul along.

Paul lived in Mexico for 10 weeks in college, but that was nine years ago. He was understandably nervous about his ability to communicate in Spanish, but he had no problems. OK, so he wasn't about to discuss the literary themes of "War and Peace," but his language skills were more than adequate to joke around with the security guard at the apartment building, ask our waitress questions about how much food came with a certain meal (too much!) and speak to our taxi driver.

The pronunciation is different than that in Mexico -- and for that matter, what most Americans learn in high school. I could pick up words and phrases, and by the end of the week I could understand at least half of what our waiters and waitresses were saying. Even easier, though, was reading. And this was my favorite sign:

Every cat needs a video on YouTube.