We had originally planned to tour the Tigre Delta on our
own, but we were really glad Pablo was available to lead us today. After this
long intense trip we needed not to think of how to get from point A to point B.
Plus, he’s a wealth of information and got us around with ease using the local
taxis & trains.
He also remembered there were a couple of areas we didn’t
cover on the city tour and we went there first. One taxi driver did not want to
be used for our tour, so we got out of his cab and found another. He gets paid
the same either way, but he didn’t want to do it.
Eva Peron & Pope statue across the street
Galileo Galilee Planetarium
statue of Little Red Riding Hood in Palermo's Garden's
El Monumento de los Españoles
"slow down, I don't have roller blades...."
tour of the Jardines de Palermo
bee in the rose
bridge over the water
paddle boats for rent
Hipodromo Argentino de Palermo (horse racing venue)
geese in the park
Then we took a taxi to the Retiro Train station to get to the Tigre Delta, passing by China Town. The Tigre Delta is a unique suburb built around the swampy land and meandering waterways that empty from the Rio Paraná into the Rio de la Plata. Former Argentine president Domingo Sarmiento encouraged settlement in the area during the mid-1800s and lived there himself for nearly three decades.
China Town archway
even Pablo didn't know what these were...
What a lovely relaxing day it was! Life on the Tigre was
quite interesting and left you wishing you lived on a boat.
Sarmiento´s House (enclosed in a glass box) - now a museum
Grocery store boat
After the delightful boat ride on the Tigre Delta, we walked to the "Fruit Market". While there are some fruit stands, it's more of a local market. We passed by the beautiful Art Museum on the way.
Art Museum
Fruit Market
anything normally in a store is brought by boat to those that live on the Delta
out to lunch sign
We also had a yummy steak sandwich lunch. A big sandwich
filled with lots of cow as Pablo put it. They also had pork sandwiches so we
could choose Pig or Cow. It was Cow all around. Much better steak this time.
lunch!
me following Pablo
we stopped at the casino for a restroom break
Then, we walked back to the train station to take us to San Isidro.
San
Isidro Cathedral
Pablo leading the way to the train station
It was a very nice train station
After Pablo dropped us back at the hotel we went in
search of a gelato place he recommended. It was good, but we really preferred
the one we found the first day. Determined to find a good ribeye steak dinner
we walked by a few restaurants that all had touts trying to get you to come in.
We noticed one had way more people eating there so we choose that one. Plus,
the tout spoke English as he used to live in Arizona. We chatted about areas of
Phoenix and assured him we would be back later for dinner.
We were very glad we made that choice. It was to die for.
Ribeyes cooked perfectly, tender and flavorful. They had good sides as well. We
got a roasted onion and fries with roasted garlic.
Our Panama friends understand that we just don't get good beef here, so it was important to us to find some!
gelato
Clark's Restaurant
kirchen
inside the restaurant
we sat outside on the patio
We then decided that we needed to go back to the good
gelato place for dessert and we got there about 10 minutes before it closed.
Then as we were walking back to the hotel we ran into the tout from the
restaurant we ate at and he asked how dinner was. He just beamed when we told
him it was the best meal we had on our trip. Full and ready to explode we got
packed up and turned in for our last transfer to the airport with Fabian at
8:40 the next morning.
January 14
We arrived home not knowing if our tile floor would be fixed or not. (a whole bunch of them just popped right before we left) They were almost done. A huge mirror was blocking the entrance to the master bath and several baseboards still were off. It was late in the evening and we just wanted to relax a bit and go to bed. Instead, I found our bedspread wadded up on the floor and the top sheet wadded up in the laundry room. The pillows were buried under a pile of stuff on a credenza. So, I found everything and washed the bedding.
Someone had been in and cleaned which was nice as I'm sure it was a dusty mess from all the tile work. However, the TV and all related electronics had all been disconnected and we couldn't even watch TV until Greg got it all hooked up again. They also moved everything in every room and so we had to move things around to not trip over them in the night.
We are only renting, but if we were owners we wouldn't have accepted the poor job that was done. I still trip over the replaced tiles that sit a bit higher than the rest of them. Some don't match well, but are in the same color family. One tile has always had a big chip/hole in it and I hoped they either would throw it away or put it under something so it wouldn't be seen, but they put it back almost in the same place right in the doorway where it's quite visible. No worries.....not our place, we were just tired after such an extensive trip and it was frustrating. Such is life in Paradise!
I'll do a short recap of the trip in another post. (things we would have changed and did we bring the right clothes etc.) Phew! What a wonderful experience it was!
