Buenos Aires, the Parana Delta and Santiago

12/30/16

We are not leaving for the airport until 6 PM, so Nicole arranged a short day trip for us to Tigres Island with Carla.  It was a great day for our adventure - sunny, warm (again) and quite interesting on many levels.

On our way to the boat, we stopped for more photos of the steel "flower", (Floralis Generica), an incredible sculpture created by Eduardo Catalano upon his completion of university.  It is a marvel of architecture - made of the same metallic metal as an airplane fuselage and designed to open up during the day and close during the evening (with a light inside, which changes color daily). Apparently, one of the petals often gets stuck, and since Eduardo is no longer among the living, engineers continue to struggle with the repair).

While it was being built and assembled in the large park area it now occupies, Eduardo would use taxis to commute back and forth to the structure. Each time he would ask the cab drivers what was going on in the park, and then record their responses - of course none of them realized who he was.Then he compiled these stories into a book. 

Our morning tour continued with a trip to the area where the Parana River emptied into the Rio de la Plata on its way to the Atlantic Ocean, forming a huge delta of approximately 20,000 square kilometers. While this incredible area encompassing the Tigres River is only 30 minutes from the city, and the vacation spot for locals, it seems like another world. Most of the houses are built on stilts, the vegetation is lush and boats are the only vehicle for transportation. 

Speaking of the boats...there is a bus boat for the schoolchildren who are among the 3,000 permanent residents of the delta (there is an elementary and high school on the delta; taxi boats for getting around and visiting your friends; AND even a supermarket boat for groceries! (complete with a pick-up window if you're too lazy to get out of your boat). 

The supermarket boat.

 A couple of these boats appear not to be seaworthy but they were worth a photo. 

The house enclosed in a glass frame (middle photo) is a former home of one of the governors and is now a museum.

The delta even has its own amusement park.

Tigres is hopping...this is the last day for school and work until February for many families. They arrive mostly by train and bus with multiple coolers, huge containers of bottled water and groceries for an army. People jockey for hand trucks that are as precious as luggage carts in an airport, since they have to get all their belongings onto a boat so they can get to their rentals or homes. It is chaos, but in a good, festive way.

Carla, our local guide, shares some very interesting cultural insights about Argentina in general as we head back to our hotel to pack for our journey to Santiago and Easter Island...

1. School summer vacation break is January 1 to mid February, with the rest of the calendar crisscrossing 2 different grade levels in each calendar year.
2. The government is also closed for the most part during this time, and the politicians - being the savvy and crafty people they are - make all their controversial decisions during this time when the people are singularly focused on their own vacations.  Then the people return to find all these changes and additions to laws that most never saw coming. 

Someone in our group asks Carla about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, and we learn that there are approximately 300,000 Jewish people living in Buenos Aires - the 2nd largest Jewish population to Israel. Buenos Aires even has a kosher McDonald's!

For Christmas, the family assembles at whichever house can accommodate them. At about 9 PM they begin their feast. There is always some kind of suffocating, heavy wool Santa Claus suit that must be donned by whichever poor adult male draws the short stick (remember, this is in 80+ degree weather).  Said "winner" goes off secretly to get into suit close to midnight while wild children, who are bouncing off the walls from copious amounts of ingested sugar ask their parents what time it is every 5 minutes. (One thing all Argentineans question about our Christmas culture is, "how can American children sleep when they know that Santa is coming at midnight?" (great question you must admit). 

At exactly midnight there is a knock at the door. Santa has arrived with all the gifts. Dinner is still being eaten, but now the gifts take priority. It is bedlam to say the least. Everyone eventually returns to the table to continue eating and drinking - until about 4 AM - when the family finally crashes from all the excitement. 

On January 6th, the feast of the Magi, a more low-keyed celebration takes place. Children put out a pair of their shoes and awaken to find 3 little gifts inside. Since most of the people are still on holiday and recovering from New Year's day, this is simply a continuation of a solid month of vacationing.

When we arrive back at our hotel we scatter in different directions for lunch.  I want another white pizza with green olives so I grab my netbook and head to Cala's for a leisurely lunch and some blogging. Something was lost in translation when I ordered (my Spanish is non-existent, but then I started using a translation app on my phone and things improved). I believe my waitress and I knew I wanted a small personal pizza of 4 slices, but I received a large 8-slice pizza. She assured me they would only charge for 4 slices and told me it was "happy hour" - not as we know it, but they were just happy that this would be their last day of work for 2016 and thus would be closing earlier than usual. (Made sense to me). 

So what to do with half a pizza?  Couldn't take it to the airport because we were flying to Chile and it would not be allowed into the country. So, I dealt with the issue by having another Quemes beer and blogging. And just like magic, Nicole arrived, with Shelley minutes later. They finished the pizza, we enjoyed more beer and wine - problem solved):

We said goodbye to our fellow travelers, Paul, Sandy, Pamela, Marge, Dave, Brian, Vicki, Preston and Donna - who were not going on the post trip. We intrepid remaining 15 travelers continued onto the most remote place on earth - Rapa Nui (Easter Island) - the main reason I picked these dates to travel to South America.

While we waited in the lobby to drive to the airport, everyone was working their electronics right up to the last minute. Thanks to George and Pam for their incredible array of adapters, cords, computers, etc.

The flight across the snow-capped Andes was only 2.5 hours, but we were pooped and it was almost midnight when we arrived at our hotel, so we just crashed for the evening. But tomorrow morning would bring us to Easter Island.