And it certainly was “the thrill of the fight,” well that is, the thrill of fighting the cold. Yes, the cold has finally set in here. It’s not that it is actually that cold. Really it’s in the mid 50s and windy. But this past week, we had a sudden drop in temperature from the high 70s and 80s to now the 50s and 60s. My new go-to phrase is “hace frio” instead of “hace calor.” 🙂

Anyway, my point is that my trip to Tigre was rather cold. It is located about an hour outside of the city of Buenos Aires and very easy to take a quick day trip to. When I arrived at the train station in Tigre, I was about a half hour early for my walking tour. And man, did that chill just run through my body at that point. The train station was very open to the outdoors and the only way to escape was Starbucks. So of course I had to go get myself a coffee. You know, you never appreciate a hot drink so much as on the first day of the year that you feel super cold.

Once it was time for the tour, it was also time to brave the cold. Tigre has two main parts, the City of Tigre and the Island of Tigre, which are separated by a river.

My walking tour was around the city part, and I actually never ended up getting to go to the island/delta part during the day. Anyway, it was generally pretty interesting. Going back to my post last week, I am not a fan of listening to a tour guide. This tour wasn’t any different. While maybe I kept my distance from the group, our tour guide took us to really interesting places.

We walked around local neighborhoods as we moved from the river to one of the main ports. We walked through a really cool craft market along the way too. Once the tour was over, I had about 3 hours of free time to just explore this huge market.

Honestly though, I just wanted to go to a nice warm restaurant, get a cup of tea, and sit. The group I was with picked a restaurant that I wasn’t too fond of, but I didn’t care. I needed to get inside. We spent a good while warming up and then walked around the market some more before our last excursion, which was a boat tour along the river. It was cool to see some of the more rural parts, but honestly it was just more of the same over and over for 45 minutes.

It is kind of funny to me because this whole time I was in Tigre, walking around freezing, I kept thinking again how much it reminded me of Australia. I know, again I am reminded of that trip. Who would have thought? When my family and I were in Sydney, we really underestimated how cold it would be. On the day we toured the Blue Mountains, I was freezing like I never felt before.

And again, it wasn’t even that cold. It is just that I wasn’t expecting it and didn’t have the right coat. Also, my favorite part of that day was when we got to go to the restaurant for a nice, long, warm lunch.

Regardless of the cold, it was nice to get out of the hustling and bustling capital of Buenos Aires and go to a quieter part of the province. And now the next time I am planning to be outside all day, I will be better prepared and bring a better coat. Fall is now officially here and I need to be ready for it.