Tigre with Liliana

Last Sunday, I was taken to lunch by Liliana, my first friend in Argentina, at her country club in the city of Tigre. Having spent almost a year and half in Argentina and travelled around a bit, I am appalled at myself that I never made it to Tigre, only thirty kilometres from the centre of Buenos Aires, before this. It is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. It is situated over the first group of islands at the mouth of the Parana River Delta. It is a study in green. Tigre seemed to me to be mainly populated by trees, surrounding picturesque houses, many of which were built during the Belle Epoque, when the porteño aristocrats, writers and politicians made it a favourite summer retreat. Tigre was home to the first casino in Argentina and there are hotels, restaurants and nautical clubs galore on the banks of rivers and streams.

We had to take a launch to get to Liliana’s country club, a magnificent nineteenth century edifice of stone and timber, situated on the banks of the Lujan,a tributary of the Parana River, amid palm trees, boat houses, canals for rowing, tennis and volleyball courts, picnic grounds, parillas, a swimming pool and countless other delights. I was given a grand tour of the splendours of the building by Liliana’s friend and was left with an impression of rooms, vast and cool and dim, with chandeliers and trophies glinting in the dancing lights reflected by the river below.

I’d like to explore Tigre further, soon.