The River People of Paraná

Today we got on a train and went to a port town called Tigre. From there we took a boat tour of the Paraná River, a river that leads to the enormous Rio de la Plata. It was interesting because there is an entire community that lives on this river- There are houses, churches, schools, parks and recreation spots along the river, and people navigate to and fro on their boats.  There's a gas station, grocery boats that you can buy groceries from if you don't want to go to the mainland, boat "buses" that function just like the buses in the city, except for the fact that it's a boat. I was very impressed by this culture of these river people.

Our Tour Boat

The Police

"Bus"boat. Stops in certain places for
people to get on and off

Grocery Boat

Gas station 

Convenience store

Museum that used to be a house

The delta had many small waterways that people navigate through
as with cars on land.

We turned right before actually going into Rio de la Plata, and eventually made a circle that took us back to Puerto de Frutas in Tigre.  We ate milanesa (like country fried steak, but rather, its a thin meat...it's good).  Elsa told me that United States Americans eat too fast, and *showed* me how to eat like a French person.  Afterwards, we took the train back to Buenos Aires.  We had free time for around three hours before going to a Tango show, and all of us were tired, so most of took a nap. When I woke up, there was still time, so I walked to the Obelisk, where I heard some of the others were headed earlier.  I met them there, and we watched as a lot of people were gathering with flags and wood.  That's right. A manifestation in the making.  We thought they were going to light the wood on fire, because they were making a big pile. However, it was almost time to meet up at the hostel, and nothing had happened. As we were leaving, I asked someone working on the protest and it turns out they weren't going to burn anything anyway.  Apparently, this morning, the police violently kicked homeless people out of municipal territory, and so the people were going to build a shack and live in front of the Obelisk to protest against police violence. Hmm. ok. so we went back and got ready for the Tango show tonight.

To be continued...