Thursday, March 14: We didn't get up until nine. It was a mild, sunny day. After breakfast we took the subway to Plaza San Martin again to pick up our voucher for the trip to Salta. We paid Ines by check (for a $16 surcharge versus the $68 they wanted if we used a credit card) because we were concerned that we were using our travelers checks so fast that we would run out of money. (That was a major miscalculation. Since we were prepaying, this would be our last big expenditure in Argentina. We returned to the U.S. with $1,300 in uncashed travelers checks.) Then we walked to the Casa Pacifica, the place to shop on Florida Street. It was basically the same as the many upscale, multi-level shopping malls in the U.S. and, in fact, had many of the same stores. We bought some chocolates to take to Ruth's home that evening when we went for dinner.

We took a taxi back to the condo, then, after another lunch of empanadas, to the City Hotel, where we were to catch the tour to Tigre. This time the tour was very punctual, leaving at 1:45. The bus drove north through Olivas, the suburb where President Menem lives. We went past his house but could only see the wall and lots of trees. At Olivas we boarded the Tren del Norte, a modern electric train, and rode as far as San Ignacio. There we had 40 minutes in the modern mall built in the train station. We walked up the hill in the park across form the station to see the large cathedral. Our bus picked us up and continued on to Tigre.

The area around Tigre is a delta built up over centuries by silt from the Rio de la Plata. There are more than 5,000 separate islands, but so close to each other that it looks pretty much like a single land mass with a few canals and rivers through it. Our tour boarded a catamaran for an hour and 40 minute trip through the delta. We were served a snack on the boat as we cruised.

Tren del Norte

On the catamaran

A boat club in Tigre

Most of the houses are built on stilts because the river still covers the islands occasionally. They ranged from simple weekend cottages to almost palatial mansions. Like the Rio de la Plata itself, the water was very muddy. That didn't stop people from swimming in it, though. On the boat we got acquainted with a Filipino couple, now living in New York. Our bus returned to Buenos Aires on the Pan American highway, which is, or at least is in the process of becoming, a modern limited access highway. We were back to the condo before seven and had a snack of cookies, coffee, and fruit.

Carlo, Norma, and Marta picked us up at nine to take us to Ruth's for dinner. There we met Ruth's combination maid and cook, Elina, who prepared a delicious meal of shrimp salad, lomo, and a type of flan. Like Carlos, Ruth also had her collection of pictures with celebrities, always accompanied by her husband, who had been the Chief Justice of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. There was a photo of them with Pope John Paul II, one with Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, and another with the Queen of Denmark.

After dinner (and chocolates), Ruth put our tape of Iguacu in a U.S.-type VCR. By the time we got it adjusted, everyone but us was falling asleep, so I turned it off. It was midnight when we left. I had developed a head cold and wasn't feeling very well. It was one a.m. by the time we got to bed.

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