tigre

If you take the train all the way north, past Belgrano (where Indra Devi has a yoga foundation and where the small—literally two blocks—Chinatown is located), past Olivos (where Valerie and the president of Argentina live and where you can find the best gelato in the world), past San Isidro (where the old money of Buenos Aires keep their quintas), you'll reach Tigre.

Tigre is the name of the town at the delta of the Paraná river. It used to be farmland and timber port. Now it is home to wealthy Argentines who can afford a weekend home or two, artists, and hundreds of poor who make their living from weaving the tall reeds that grow in the delta.

Once at Tigre, you can take a tourist boat that will show you different sights. You can also take commuter ferries that pick up and drop off passengers at docks, located in someone's backyard, instead of bus stops. Along the route, you might see supermarket boats making house calls or gasoline stations with boats parked in the water waiting to fill-'er-up-super.

We booked passage on one of these commuter ferries to Tres Bocas (Three Mouths), an area 30 minutes upriver, where we strolled along the bank, battled mosquitoes, and played with dogs before the taking of cake and tea.

On the way, we sailed past the house of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, a president during the Argentine Republic's early years. (It's just my opinion but with a name like Domingo Faustino Sarmiento you've just got an obligation to amount to something high and mighty.) It is a quaint little yellow wood-framed farm house—enclosed in a gigantic glass and steel box. Now that's a sight!