Tigre Adventure

Tigre & Mate (Ma-tay)

Sunday night at about 11:58pm I got a text from one of the IFSA staff asking if I was interested in joining the Tigre biking/kayaking trip the next day. I emailed him earlier that day asking if someone cancels if I could go (IFSA has cupos-caps, on how many students can go on trips offered by them). I was stoked to go! We met near a subte stop and then headed over to Retiro- the train station on our bikes. We boarded the train and got off 25mins later at Santa Lucia, where we biked along the mar de plata and had a break filled with alfajores (amazing chocolate sandwhich dessert) and mate (pronounced ma-tay).

It's a popular cultural drink that has tons of caffeine. It is made by someone who has a mate, and is filled with yerba mate-greenish herbs of somesort, and is drunk through a filtered bombilla- straw- usually piping hot. The maker of the mate always tries the mate first before handing it to their right. When that person is done (you should hear a noise from the straw when there's no more liquid), they give it back to the mate maker and they fill the mate up for the next person to drink. You never say gracias when handed the mate- unless you are finished- gracias here means 'thanks I don't want any more'. Mate is drunk usually with friends or alone. It's more cultural- students drink it during breaks during classes or when studying, and many have it in parks or their casas while conversing with friends. People bring mate in their bags everywhere- they bring water in a thermose and the yerba mate in a seperate container. There are few people who don't like mate, and I for one love it!

After our break we biked for about 2 hours taking one break, and stoped for lunch when we finally reached Tigre. Tigre is the main shipping area - Puerto de los Frutos- is where many fruits and other food and products get shipped and imported. Its the mid point between BA and other cities. Our bike ride was absolutely beautiful! We got to see a lot of the barrios-towns- leading to Tigre, as well as the Rio. The ride was a bit rough with mostly cobble stoned streets, but they added the old worldand European flare. We then picked our life jackets and headed off to choose our kayaks. I for one have never been kayaking, so I was really excited to learn. It was really pretty navigating through small ravines in the river. We even stopped for a few minutes to take a dip in the water. My arms got a pretty good work out, and I was exhausted by the time we were done- and then we had to carry the kayak back to the shop- phew! We then headed to the train station a few blocks away with our bikes and took the train back to Retiro (it was a great opportunity for the nap I needed before class).

Today I started the last teir of my Castellano class- which will go on for 10 weeks. And found out I have tons of reading to do! Oh dios mio! but I'm excited to be learning more about spanish grammar, because I'll actually be using it everday. After my classes Nora and I met up with another Cser named Lucia. We ended up going to her house to chat and drink mate on her balcony, which is on the 13th floor overlooking BA(amazing!), and she was delightful! We had a great conversation over mate, and were able to practice Castellano, and she was able to practice some of her English.

This will probably be my last post till next week after my trip to Igauzu Falls and Corrientes: ) I plan on going for a jog in the morning and doing some homework and Parque Cetenario in the early afternoon. I get out of my internatinal marketing class super late tomorrow, not looking forward to that, but interested in the material.