Argie Bargey

Sunday is market day in San Telmo, and we wandered the area with wallets clutched tight to avoid pickpockets. There were some fine entertainers, street bands, puppeteers (one portraying an inebriated alcoholic with such skill he must have done some research in the area), a classy jazz guitarist, and some Tangoists. A great lively area, the main street (La Defence) had more than a kilometre of happening things.

We returned to the area that evening to have dinner in the Piazza as a some mass Tangoing occurred. Thirty or forty dancers at times showed their stuff in the Smirk and Slink Forward, the Spin Away Spin Back, and the suave I´m Going to Rub Up And Down Over Your Body And There´s Nothing You can Do About It. Good times.

We went out to a place called Tigre to stay a night or two, in the river delta area. This is a massive area of rivers and canals an hour from the city, and a large population live along the delta with riverboat their only contact with the outside world. A quite unique piece of country.

The place we stayed at had a pool, bbqs, tennis court, and a lot of great outdoors equipment, and had been set up as a Hi-De-Hi mini-holiday camp. Sadly the last time the pool or tennis court had been used would´ve been before man touched down on the moon, it really was verging on ruin - but that itself lent a certain atmosphere to it all.

Reaching the hotel proved a challange though; when we got to Tigre and followed the web's instruction to call them, the only person there spoke only rapid incomprehensible spanish, such that we got the lady at the phone booth to translate for us (she spoke only spanish too, but could at least explain simply what we had to do). All round I think we were the first international backpackers they´ve had through, but it certainly made for an interesting experience. And going for a several hour cruise and seeing the islanders way of life was well worthwhile.