Day Trip to the Delta

For years I’ve dreamed dreams about waterways, interconnected rivers, streams, pools and currents swirling around islands, into coves, and through jettys where people live, swim; drink, dive and sleep on their porches or rooftops.

I’ve dreamed of two styles: One that’s filled with close-mouthed people and well-ordered houses, and one that’s not. Both are places to get lost. The memories of these dreams are so vivid, and emotionally redolent, that I’ve sometimes believed I’ve actually been places like that, places where boats are taxis and houses tilt on stilts. You eat fish; you dangle your feet in the water off the frontline of your property; you live a bit wild, a lot slow.

Last weekend I found a close cousin of one of those dream-places: Tigre in the Paraná Delta, just 30 km up the coast from Buenos Aires. (Take la trena de la costa.) Despite the fact that it’s a tourist destination, with several boat-tour companies operating on the water, plus an amusement park with roller coasters and cotton candy, back in the delta, among the islands, a soul could get lost.

José says the same. He tells me that not only are there are some trashy places to visit with some iffy people to drink and do drugs with, but that he once squatted there in someone’s stilted house for over six months. Not even the owners themselves could evict them. Sounds like an interesting place.

The video below is just a sampling: I ran out of SD space before we got very far back into the backwater, and then we only skirted its edges. Clearly, there’s a lot there the tourists never see. What we did see was quite beautiful, and alluring.

I want to live there, if ever I can.

Sorry. I should have edited out some of the abrupt camera movements.

Day Trip to Tigre from Rick Powell on Vimeo.

Some more pix in the Every Day in BA! photostream on flickr.