August 23: Tigre

We still had never experienced the train in Argentina. Many of them in Retiro station were heading to Tigre. It was the perfect occasion to visit a lovely area and enjoy the funky train. Tigre is a nice little town built in 1820, located on the Parana Delta and just an hour far from north Buenos Aires. The main parts of the town sit on an island created by the river and numerous streams. The port was especially developped to serve the Delta. We could tell by the popular "Puerto de frutos" (fruit port) and the riverside crafts fair (wood and wicker are a most) the port was still quite active. The town knows violent flood desvastation though. As a result, most of the houses are heightened and that surely gives a particular charm to the island. Children go to school on boat, the trees grow in the water among the twigs and there are boat gaz stations lying all over the river. That is certainly not a good advertisement for Greenpeace but it's fun and surprising. We visited the island with a lovely boat tour and spent some time on the "continent". Back to Buenos Aires, we enjoyed a friendly gathering over an electro-chacarera concert in "La Catedral" underground milonga for our farewell night in Capital Federal.

August 16>24: Back to BUENOS AIRES

Our trip to north Argentina developped new desires, emotions and point of views. We had forgotten what a different world Buenos Aires was. Capital Federal totally felt like another country. The moment was perfect as the colourful tango festival had just started for the whole week. We kept ourselves busy with a great deal of activities the city was offering for the occasion: concerts, shows, tango lessons, singers, dancers, outdoors and indoors exhibitions, museums and a lot more. We visited a few cafés "notable" (ancient, historical and very popular cafés in Buenos Aires) such as "Las violetas", "Café Tortoni", "Los angelitos" where we delighted in seeing older elegant generations drink their coffee while reading their daily newspaper. Charming spirit indeed as it really reminded me one of those 50's tango-mafia-dolce vita movies. Museo Larreta was one of the final discoveries in our argentinian trip. We slipped into a very spaniard environment (some interesting clues to understand the context where all started) since andalusian garden, masterpieces and architecture are enclosed in this beautiful museum. Olé!

August 15-16: Back to SALTA

The "gauchos" (argentinian cowboys) are very proud (and macho) of who they are as the community truely believe in the strengh of its land (Salta) and identity. They are not wrong on that point since most argentinians suffer from the mixture (colonists' children) they represent. When we arrived in Salta early morning, we came across a national ceremony in the main square "9 de Julio". Curiously, it was all about gauchos posing with their horses and a few patriotic speeches pronounced with a very convincing tone (I admit). Trumpets were begging, tambourine was crying, music was pretty much expressive. I was amused by the show and it lasted quite some time since we celebrated our ultimate Salta night in a charming chacarera bar!!