Tigre & Mi Hermano

Back in January I wrote about my first trips to Tigre, a small town north of Buenos Aires. I haven't been back to Tigre since the summer so when my brother came to Buenos Aires we decided to give Tigre a wintertime visit. This time around I was prepared with some specific recommendations from friends, so we had more direction than during my first visit.

Chris and I took the Mitre Train from Retiro to Tigre, a roundtrip that costs a mere $2.70 pesos (US$0.68). The train is easy, though it's not exactly a quick trip. We were only 2 stops (out of 15 or so) into our trip when the train was inexplicably halted for 25 minutes. This made our trip a total of 1 hour 15 minutes, which would not have been a big deal if the train wasn't completely packed the entire way. It was insane, the train was 100% full in the middle of a workday. This did help cut down on the number of entrepreneurs looking to sell items or provide musical entertainment for cash during the ride. Once we actually got to Tigre, things started really going our way.

Me and Chris with a self-pic

Me, insanely overdressed for the day

I was told that you cannot go to Tigre without visiting the Gato Blanco Restaurant, and since I had already done just that 2 other times, I figured it was time to actually make it to the recommended location. Tigre is a delta, so boat rides are a main attraction. Chris and I walked over to the main dock (port? I don't know what it should be called, the place where boats dock) and found the Gato Blanco information office, which is a really nice term for the phone booth that a receptionist operates out of. I was expecting information how to get to the restaurant, only to find out that it is accessible by boat only and you need tickets both for the restaurant and for the boat. Where do you buy the tickets? The phone booth. When is the next boat leaving? Um, that would be in 2 minutes...so Chris and I hurried to pay the $60 pesos (for two tickets), jumped aboard the taxi/commuter boat and were on our way.

The commuter boat is really interesting, something that I discovered with Lauren back in January. The main difference we found in June was that the boat was virtually empty, meaning less stops, which was just fine with us. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the ride was nice and relaxing. We rode for 25 minutes or so and got off right at the dock of Gato Blanco.

Gato Blanco is right on the water's edge and has a large dock that has tables literally on top of the water. It was virtually empty when we arrived, there was only one other table filled on the dock, and ironically, they were from the US. The menu had a little bit of everything on it, although it seemed to be geared a little more toward dinner than lunch. We both decided on stuffed pasta, and both dishes were delicious. Our waiter came by at the end of our meal with some lemon-cello, which is not my favorite but Chris was loving it. He drank his first glass so quickly that I had to laugh, and the waiter had to fill him up again. The commuter boat stops at the dock every hour on the hour to bring you back to town, so we had just enough time for a relaxed lunch and then we could catch the return trip. It was a great meal, and the train/boat adventure to get there alone is worth the trip. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that it was a great day trip.