Goin' to the 'burbs

On Tuesday we took the commuter train (as opposed to the nicer tourist train) to Tigre, a suburb about 45 minutes north of Buenos Aires. The tickets cost a few pesos each, so it was an inexpensive way to pass the time.

The experience was pleasant, but not something we would repeat in a future visit. We opted not to take a boat tour of the delta area, which is a big tourist draw. Instead, we roamed the shops, which tended to be heavy on items made in Indonesia. We saw many an item that would be right at home in Pier One or Cost Plus World Market. We did buy a wooden platter, similar to the ones used in almost every parilla restaurant worth it's salt, and three horse shoes.

The most interesting part of the trip was the view out the (unfortunately murky) train windows. We stopped in several suburbs that had lovely houses and cafes. Worth exploring on a future trip, we think.

Side note: We were amused (well, sort of) on the return trip by a North American father and young adult son. The father was a self-described "clay-court [tennis] specialist" who obviously also was his son's coach. Their trip was clearly tennis-related, and the father berated his son horribly for most of the trip. I can't repeat some of the names this man called his son. (I was tempted to ask the jerk if he had ever heard of the Menendez brothers, which would have had the side benefit of cluing his oblivious self to the fact that yes, other people on this train do speak English.) We could created a drinking game by tipping a glass every time he said "you have to hit the ball over the net 1,000 percent." Ironically, we've noticed several clay-court tennis matches on TV here. Apparently it's big in these parts.