April 23, 24, 2018
After a wonderful day yesterday, we rested well and got up a bit earlier than we would have liked to make sure we were able to get the things in that we wanted. Our goal was to travel to a train station and take the train to a place called Tigre. So at about 8 AM, we headed to Kelly and Zella's hotel. They had already been walking to and from a place where they loaded a bit more money on their bus card. We immediately headed out to get on a bus that would take us to the train station. We arrived there fairly easily and boarded the train with the rest of Buenos Aires. It was really full.
Kelly remembered the trains being old and scary. But that was 8 years ago when they were here. The trains were very nice, very clean and comfortable...once you were able to sit down. The ride to Tigre took about 40 minutes. The train moved pretty slowly through the city. So I don't think Tigre is all that far away.
Tigre is an interesting place. It is in a delta of water ways that look like fingers. Getting to and from the homes in this area appears to only be done by water taxis. When we arrived, we headed over to an area where people were lined up to get on a boat. We thought this might be the one for us. However, I think this was a bunch of school kids headed out to school or some type of 'field trip'. We ended up going into the information booth to inquire how to get a ticket for a 1 hour tour. On travel days, I'm a bit paranoid on time. I'm sorry...I don't know why. So I wanted to make sure whatever tour we took, we would be back by noon and headed back into the city. We eventually bought tickets for a Catamaran boat...a large boat...to take us up one of the fingers of water in this delta area.
Our delta tour in Tigre was awesome. I'm amazed how people adapt and live in such interesting areas and circumstances. The homes on this part of the delta were ok...not fancy...but no slums either. You felt like you were in the jungle though as you looked up small river ways to see other boats and things moored closely to other homes you could not see. We saw boats that looked like mini markets that would stop at little piers in front of the homes and people would come out to purchase what they needed. All in all, it was a nice relaxing trip.
After our tour, we headed back to the train. They ran every 15 minutes or so. And getting on first, we were able to sit down the whole ride. Once back in BA, we decided to go get some lunch at one of Kelly's favorite places...Kansas. Wow, what a nice place to eat. Loved it. Very American though. I had a nice salad and Denise ordered a yummy chicken dish.
After completing lunch, we walked back to our apartment. We visited with Zella and Kelly for a bit. At about 4:30 PM, we called for an Uber...or 'Buber' as Kelly kept calling it. They were there in about 5 minutes and off we went. Our driver was Juan...a nice fellow with 3 children ages 20 down to 13. While driving the crazy streets of BA, we saw some of the same places we had visited and some new areas. The highlight was that we went right past the Buenos Aires temple, a site we wanted to visit today..but had to cut out. We are sad about that.
We arrived to the airport to see the longest line for getting checked in on United. They are not very efficient in how they do things here...at least with United. Once we got to the desk, after about 45 minutes, we were told to stand aside and wait. They would tell us in 30 minutes if we could go back to the gate. We had checked in to go to Newark. After an hour, with about an hour before the flight went, they finally came back and said, go...they are boarding. Now when we got upstairs, the security line was backed up so far. We would have never made it. I saw a family with a disabled person being ushered through so I followed them...and we went to the head of the line. Makes me smile thinking about it now. We had a United employee with us too. She was helping us along as she was trying to get on this flight as well. Once through security, we then had to go through passport control. Long lines again. I got close to one of the officers and asked if we could cut in. He said no. But this line was moving quickly. The funny thing was that once we were assigned an officer, it was the guy that turned me down. He was a nice fellow and we just laughed about it.
We arrived at the gate only to watch seat go, and go and go. Our friend, the employee, got the jump seat....there were no seats for us. I'm glad we had listed ourselves also for the Houston flight. But the gate agent said it was going to be really close again with us. So dejected, we went over to some seats and began to form plan B. We even tried calling the temple to see if Patron Housing might be available should we need to stay the night. It was pretty close by. But...it was Monday...nobody home at these temples on Mondays. So I started looking at hotels while I swore out loud that I would never fly stand by again because Tuesday night, both flights were double digit oversold and we were going to have to buy tickets to Santiago, Chile and fly home from there. They had around 50 seats open with few stand by's. But after waiting until the plane was loaded, our names were called out by the gate agent. She knew how sad it was that we did not make the first flight. She was all smiles to give us the tickets. We wanted to kiss her. We got business class too!
I'm finishing this in SFO waiting to depart to SLC. We bagged the direct flight due to no seats all day and came to SFO knowing there are lots of seats to SLC from there.
Well, another great trip ( if you throw out the anxiety of traveling stand by). It was fun to have Kelly and Zella give us tours and hearing about their time down there.
Until we hit the road again.....
This is our apartment building where we stayed. We were up on the 6th floor. The US Embassy was just down the street. Safe area....
Pot belly me heading down to the entry point to catch the train to Tigre. Zella had a card that we put money on. You had to have this card for all mass transit methods except Taxi and Uber. And...after our first failed attempt with Uber at the airport, it worked well the rest of the times in Buenos Aires.
Kelly resting before we head over to the river to buy our tour tickets in Tigre.
This is the Catamaran that a few of us boarded to take a 1 hour excursion. I think it cost us each about $10 for the tour. Pretty reasonable.
Tour mates....good times!
Tigre had a pretty large amusement park that sat at the rivers edge and went inland. It looked like a nice park that mixed standard amusement park rides along with lots of water rides. I'm sure it is hot and humid in the summer when this park is going.
More amusement park pictures...
This is one example of one of the nicer homes on the delta. The only way to get to them was by boat...that we could see.
This looked to us like a little tienda.....but we're not too sure.
While touring, they cam around with empanadas for $1 each. They were really good.
I think this was a museum where an original home was covered in a glass house. To the right (not in the picture) were other buildings and a sign that said 'museo'....but not sure what of.
I think this is the supply barge that takes food out to people for purchasing. It is loaded with all the basics if you look closely. Tigre had lots of 'camp grounds' and such. I'm sure it is buzzing during their summer. But they were entering fall and getting ready for winter.
No...that's not us on the sidewalk due to being exhausted. But we were jealous that they could plop down and sleep anywhere.
Kelly smiling as we wait for the order to board the train back to BA.
After leaving the train, we walked about 3/4 of a mile to this really nice restaurant called Kansas. Very American like...kind of like a Cheesecake Factory. Really good food. It sat on the border of the large polo grounds. I mean large. I think polo is a big deal there.
This photo is taken from our standby waiting point. For two hours, the line started way under where you see Assist Card...all for United passengers. Up above the Assist Card, you can see a long line for security. Boy I wish you could have seen me navigate past that line to get through security fast. We were given little time to get back there. But in the end, we did not get on anyway.
Really fun trip. But stand by flying...not for the faint of heart!
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