tigre

i was ready to go this morning at 10am when i got a text message from my argentinian friend reminding me that today is the day we change our clocks (we 'fell' back an hour). since i had an hour to spare and i was already to go, i went to my favorite cafe. i walked in the door, grabbed a newspaper and sat down. 2 min later, a coffee with milk and 3 medialunas were on my table. i didn't even order them, the waiter just knew what i wanted. ahhh, that made me feel so happy.

10am we caught a bus to the barrio chino (or china street) to catch a train to tigre. the train car we got in didn't have any seats and it was way crowded. 40 min later we were in tigre. i didn't expect much so maybe that is why i was so impressed. the train station appeared to be newly constructed and the outside surrounding area looked new and clean.

(tigre is a small town up north where a delta forms.)


(photo below: buying a train ticket from 'Belgrano C' to 'Tigre'. 1.10 pesos (30 cents) for a 40 min ride)we bought some medialunas and hot water for some mate and just laid out in the sun chatting for quite some time.
(photo below: orange flavored mate)
afterward we walked along the water and then headed to a large market. i really enjoyed looking around but i didn't buy anything. we had some lunch, talked some more and then headed back to capital federal (the city) around 5:30pm. again, the train stopped because it didn't work so everyone had to get off. (can't remember if I already wrote about this same thing happening on the subte this week). so, everyone piled off and waited for the next train. it didn't take long. around 6:15 we were back home.

throughout the entire day together we spoke 98% spanish. my spanish still is not good, just good enough to get by. i honestly don't know how i did it or what we talked about or how she could understand me? i love that she was so patient with me and we made due. only twice did we abandon a topic because we couldn't explain. at times i just didn't feel like talking because it was too difficult and my brain was too tired, but she was so sweet and had so much positive energy she kept me going.

once i arrived at my apartment i quickly cleaned up and headed back out the door. i was invited to an exclusive alfajore tasting party. ahh, my friend was so cute! she purchased a variety of alfajoes, cut each of them in 6 pieces, placed one each on top of a plate and put the wrapper under the plate. it was a blind tasting. i made sure to try them all (around 10 varieties). I didn't care for the ones that didn't have chocolate and also i didn't care for the ones with jam in the middle. a good alfajore, in my opinion, needs chocolate and dulce de leche. i'm still deciding if i like the cookie one that crumbles when you eat it or the soft cake like ones. i'll need to continue to conduct some more testing to determine a conclusion.

watch a short video of tigre: http://www.welcomeargentina.com/tigre/videos_i.html