El Tigre!

This past Saturday night I spontaneously met up with a friend Joanna (who's from Alaska) and we went with her Argentine friends to a party on an island in El Tigre - a town about 17 miles north of Buenos Aires that sits on an island created by several small streams and rivers!

First we took a long bus ride to a suburb in the outskirts of the Capital Federal - the city of Buenos Aires - and as we hopped off the bus on the side of a highway, in the middle of nowhere, it strangely felt as if I was traveling in Israel. It's really an amazing feeling to leave the city every once in a while...

Off we trekked into a quiet neighborhood with beautiful houses and soccer fields - where it was quite dark outside. Soon we arrived at their friend's beautiful house (whose name is Ary - shout out to mi hermano Ari!). After hanging out in his house for a while, we drank some coffee to wake up a bit (mind you it was already 2 am), then drove out to El Tigre blasting a mix of Latin music and of course some Bob Dylan and Beatles to add into the mix. The car ride felt like a blast from the past...as if we were in some other decade!

We arrived at this quiet street, parked the car, and walked off to a deserted port. The clear and starry sky reflected off the shimmering water, and an overwhelming feeling of calm washed over me. We wandered around the port area, called “Puerto de Frutos,” expecting someone to magically appear, but not a soul was to be seen! Eventually our Argentine friends made some calls and we began walking to a different dock when all the sudden these two guys appeared at the original area and called us over! We turned back, paid for the boat ride and party, and hopped in to a little motor boat - that served as a shuttle to and from from the island. Though this was the epitome of all sketchy moments in my life, it wasn't until I arrived on the island that Joanna and I looked at each other and realized how sketchy this random boat ride really was. It was probably because, as we rode along the river, in the dark and starry night, with these goofy Argentines, the calm feeling I had multiplied tenfold. We all leaned back and stretched our necks to gaze at the bright bright stars that spilled across the sky for miles on end.

After about just 10 minutes, but for what felt like an eternity, we arrived at the island, hopped off the boat, walked through a marshy pathway that led us to a run-down building with about 60-80 people crowded around outside watching a guy juggling fire! It was absolutely surreal - being on this island in the middle of a jungle! It wasn't until about 3 or 4am that they started the music and we danced through the night and early morning hours...eventually arriving back at my apartment in Buenos Aires at about 9am!