The town of Tigre on the outskirts of the city is only 45 minutes by train from downtown, and is a great place for sightseeing or a riverside lunch.  There is an amusement park, a produce and handicrafts market, a casino, places to rent canoes, kayaks, or boats to sail along the river, and many different water sports schools, including rowing.

A lot of people upon arriving in Tigre go directly to the Casino.  It has more than 1500 slot machines.  I used 20 pesos, under $7 US and won enough to pay for lunch for my husband and I!  We ate at the 'all you can eat' buffet at the Casino that includes made to order omelettes and grilled beef steak and sausages.  The dessert bar was my downfall.  There were at least eight different types plus ice cream.  I tried half of them ...plus the ice cream.  Perhaps I should mention that I won 30 pesos, about $10 US but that was enough to buy a large meal for both of us.

We picked up free maps and information in English from the Tourist Information Office in Tigre.  There are several different walking routes around the town to show off impressive buildings over a hundred years old.  Tigre was the summer playground for the wealthy people in Buenos Aires during the last part of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. 

One of the walking tours follows the street, Paseo Victorica, with its beautiful street lamps, benches, bars, restaurants and many of the  more extravagant buildings in Tigre.  It follows the shores of the Luján River.  We saw families having picnics, dogs playing, and speedboats, catamarans, and rowers going up and down the river.  It was quite an entertaining stroll.

One of my favorite places in Tigre is only three blocks from the Casino -  the Puerto de Frutos, or Fruit Market.  It is a quay where, in the early part of the 20th century,  produce from the Delta was unloaded and  taken into Buenos Aires.   Today the warehouses on the quays are stores that sell furniture and handicrafts in wicker, rattan, and flax, fresh fruit and vegetables and dried flowers.  There are also leather goods, candles, lamps, and plants.  We found very reasonable prices  compared to those in downtown Buenos Aires.  In fact, there are few tourists in Tigre.  Most of the shoppers are Argentines looking for bargains.
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When we got thirsty, we stopped at the juice bar in front of the catamaran at the Puerto de Frutos.  Only fresh fruit, in season, is used for these natural fruit juices and they are delicious.  One of my favorite was the mixture of honeydew melon and pineapple.  They only add water to the juice, but will add ice and/or sugar if you want it. 
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The town of Tigre is also the departure point for what seems like another world;  the Delta, a maze of islands and rivers about 10,000 square kilometers or 3,860 square miles in size.  We took the local public transportation around the islands in a boat called lancha colectiva in Spanish.  It was a long, narrow, wooden boat that holds almost 100 people and has large windows - essentially a water bus to transport people around the islands.  A three hour trip cost under $5 US each and we saw a part of the Delta that few tourists see.  In the Delta area there are no roads and only a few footpaths with narrow bridges between the islands.  All supplies and the mail are delivered by boat.  Even the paramedics operate bright orange motorboats.

Six thousand people live in the Delta area.  If they do not have their own motorboat, they use the local public transportation, the lancha colectiva, to get between the islands and back and forth to the town of Tigre. 

Taking just one of the lanchas colectivas, we saw one of the several elementary schools, a few of the stores, and one of the several churches.  There is only one secondary school.  All of these buildings and the houses for the six thousand residents are only accessible by boat. 
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Tucked away on the islands are places to eat, drink, and stay.  There are recreational areas with sandy beaches, playgrounds, swimming pools, and volleyball courts.  There are hotels with private docks, restaurants, and even heliports.  There are hostels and campgrounds for young people.  Friends of mine stayed overnight, renting a private cabin without electricity.  Another day my husband and I took a taxi boat to a restaurant for lunch and it picked us up a couple of hours later when we had finished our meal.  It is wonderful having an escape from the city so close at hand. 
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