Argentina - Tigre, Arroyo Santa Rosa

The little town of Tigre - 30 km northwest of Buenos Aires - is located on the edge of the immense delta of the Paraná River, also known as the Islas del Paraná. It was already a small harbour town around 1770, but it was not until the early 1800s that it was given a village centre and from 1880 the wealthy inhabitants of Buenos Aires spend their weekends and holidays and built beautiful mansions.

Nowadays it's still a place where many of Buenos Aires' residents love to come and relax for the day. Tigre is also famous for its rowing clubs and regattas. Most of the clubs are housed in stately clubhouses. In the town you can still taste the atmosphere of the past with all those elegant buildings.

The delta - about 26,000 km2 - consists of about a hundred small rivers with many islands in between. Where these are not too swampy, the porteño's (residents of Buenos Aires) have built holiday homes, with a jetty or on poles. The village was originally named Las Conchas after a local river, but became popularly known as 'Tigre' in the 19th century. Tigre was also the name of a stream and is thought to derive from the tigres (jaguars) seen in the area when it was first settled. In 1952, the name of the village was officially changed to Tigre.

We visited the area on a public riverboat (PiP1), made a walk around one of the island with lush flora and fauna and had a lunch in one of the restaurants.