During our side trip to Uruguay, fire was on my mind. You could smell it everywhere, which, for me at least, was a comforting scent, wood and embers and smoke brings up pleasant memories: campfires, fireplaces, barbecues, candles. Now, obviously fire doesn’t always have such nice connotations, and I do realize that in this case, the fires were usually started by people huddling around trash cans. Nevertheless, the idea of flames was somehow comforting during what was a truly whirlwind trip.

Of course, I am getting ahead of myself, as we spent our first day in Tigre, a hour by train away from Buenos Aires (the ticket was less than a peso!) Tigre is probably way more fun in the summer, as you can kayak out into the Delta and see islands and wildlife and all that. Yet even with freezing temperatures at night, we still saw people out on the river, members of the various rowing clubs in the town.

And while they braved the cold, we walked around in a storm, becoming hilariously wet. Cars splashing water off the roads flooded from the Rio de la Plata all over us was really funny somehow, as well as the fact that all of the locals appeared to be in Tigre’s central landmark (McDonald’s) or the TRILLENIUM CASINO. And so we were pirates of the Sudestada, the southeastern wind from Patagonia, here to seek our fortune!

Unfortunately, after three floors of slot machines and 10 pesos in change, we admitted defeat, truly overwhelmed by the blinking, flashing, ringing, smoking, grumbling insanity of it all. It was flashier than I could ever describe, having never been in a real casino before, so I will let the photo speak for me.

I had also never been in a hostel before. Posadas de 1860 was truly the nicest one of our trip. It had just opened in March, was completely devoid of other guests, but everyone that worked there was really attentive and sweet. It was $12 for the night, and sadly cold, like everywhere else, but that may have been because of the lovely balcony in the room. I grabbed blankets from the other beds, and dreamt of the fireplace, always in the other room.

P.S. Since my blogroll is still having a nervous breakdown, and I can’t figure out how to get the pretty flickr link on the side, here is my flickr page, which has pictures from all over, not just Argentina. Have fun!