Day 4- Tigre and the aspicious occurance

It got off to a rocky start. I had to be at my meeting point, the historic Cafe Tortoni at 8:45. Because I was also moving rooms, I had to be up, dressed, packed and checked out by 8:15. I was out the door and arrived at the cafe and bought a coffee and waited and waited... and got frustrated and left. I was going over in my head how I was going to tell the front desk clerk how I was going to convince him to give me my tour fare back.. of the 3 desk clerfs.. I find him the least sincere. Lucky for us both, he managed to get me booked back on a tour to Tigre. Except I had to take a 20 AR taxi to get to the meeting point!!

I had to go to Cafe Moderna and wait there.. he said to me. When I got there, there was a very slick ¨host¨who greeted me like I was his long lost waitress.. a kiss on both cheeks and a ¨here come with me¨. It turns out the bus was across the street and down the road a bit. I swear to god there´s an issue with directions, map reading and communication in general in Buenos Airies and it has nothing to do with me not knowing Spanish.

Well, I did end up in Tigre and the filty rivers thus forth. We took a long boat ride down the rivers and the first one is just completely disgusting with garbage. It´s phenomenal no one cleans it up considering the tourism. The other smaller rivers were less cluttered, but I did photograph someone´s front yard of washed up plastic bottles. The houses were all stilt houses like the ones around New Orleans.. with walkways to docks that even had mailboxes and addresses. I saw a boat laden with fruit and  other items.. it was like a floating grocery store. I imagine it went up and down the river docking at each house delivering or selling groceries. I took a photo of it as it had the same name as my mother- Anita. It was, despite the pullution of the water way.. really picturesque.

After Tigre, we came back into Buenos Aires and all of a sudden I saw these reams of colored cloth flying like tiny flags against the highway. It happened so fast I alsmots didn´t realize it was laundry and we were whizzing past a shanty town against the highway. It was remarkeable and I wish I could have gone and walked around. Colorful laundry everwhere against corraguated tin shacks. Small orange stands set up to do what little business you could. Then all of a sudden the bus is in Recoleta.. the richest part of Buenos Aires..

I am fortunate. Fortunate to walk freely inside a fancy cafe and afford a light lunch. Fortunate to stay in a budget hotel because I want to. Fortunate to travel to another culture and return to the safety, comfort and priveledge of Canadian society.

I decided to get off the bus in Recoleta to go to the Cemetary. I wasn´t going to go until tomorrow.. but I thought.. I am nearby.. so I´ll go today. It was most serendipitous to do so as well, as today is the anniversary of Eva Peron´s death. She was buried in Recoleta Cemetary and as a result of today.. it was quite a show of flowers, pictures, newspaper articles etc.. but for me.. most important was these two examples of Gothic & Art Nouveau architecture.. I took a zillion phots of these both.. these 2 images are from the web.

 Getting home from Recoleta was a nother matter intirely.. when I finally did find a metro station 12 blocks away, I found it CRAMMED full of people. The satreets were packed with cars.. is this Buenos Aiores rush hour?? This is NUTS. When I cam out into the street.. it was one of the major boulevards and there was a festival of some sort.. Flags were waviong and thousands (literally) thousands of people were carying torches and marching though the streets. I turned around to face the direction they were going in and a one giant building in the distance had a gaint flag of Argentina drapped down the length and inside the flag lit up was the image of Eva Peron. 59 years after her death.. she is still clebrated today.