Tigre

The low, flooded land where the Luján River meets the delta was long known as Las Conchas. Floods destroyed its early settlements, and some of its people founded the neighbouring town of San Fernando de la Buena Vista with the support of the viceroy. Tigre itself, built on an island formed by small streams and rivers, was founded in 1820.

The town grew as the port of the delta, bringing fruit, wicker and timber from the islands and from ports upstream on the Paraná to Buenos Aires. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, later president, was among the first to buy island land, in 1855, and wrote widely in favour of settling the delta. The railway made Tigre a resort for the capital's elite in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: rowing clubs in the English style lined the riverbank, the Buenos Aires Rowing Club moved here, and the grand Tigre Club opened as a social club.

Fruit growing in the delta lasted until 1940, when a great river rise spoiled most of the plants. Tigre was absorbed into the spreading suburbs of Greater Buenos Aires, and the Tigre Club became the town's art museum. In the 1990s the Tren de la Costa opened on an old railway line and the Parque de la Costa amusement park was built, and the town is now a popular tourist and weekend destination.

Tigre calls itself the cradle of Argentine rowing. The Buenos Aires Rowing Club, founded in 1873, is the oldest in the country, and its clubhouse is one of many English-style rowing clubs that line the rivers. Clubs were also founded by members of the city's British, Italian, Swiss and Scandinavian communities. Rowing boats and kayaks are a common sight, and the town holds a festival of rowing.

The delta has a culture of its own. Islanders, the isleños, live in houses raised on stilts against floods, travel by launch, and depend on the river for shopping, school and work; the wooden commuter launches, built in a classic mahogany style, are part of local identity.

Belle-époque buildings recall the town's years as a fashionable resort, and the art museum in the former Tigre Club keeps a collection of Argentine painting. The Puerto de Frutos, once the landing place for the delta's produce, has become the town's crafts market, where wickerwork is still sold.

The city of Tigre had about 26,000 people at the 2010 census, but it is the seat of Tigre Partido, which includes the delta islands and large suburbs such as General Pacheco and Don Torcuato and had about 447,000 people at the 2022 census. Many residents commute to Buenos Aires by train, while the partido also has industry, gated communities and marinas.

On the islands, daily life follows the river. Launches carry children to school, bring shopping and post, and connect islanders with the mainland; houses are built on stilts, and flooding when the river rises is part of life. Recreos, island grounds for a day out, have long drawn visitors from the city.

In town, the rhythm is set by visitors: weekdays are quiet, while weekends and summer bring crowds on the trains, the boats and at the market. Basic services are uneven across the partido, and in 2010 about 83 per cent of the partido's people lacked access to sewers.

Tigre eats like the rest of Buenos Aires — the parrilla, with grilled beef, chorizo and morcilla (blood sausage), choripán from stalls by the river, pizza and pasta, empanadas, and coffee with medialunas in the afternoon. The difference is the setting: tables on the riverbank, on terraces along Paseo Victorica or on island jetties reached by boat.

River fish from the Paraná appear on some menus, grilled or fried, and many island restaurants and tea houses, some with their own jetty, cater to passengers arriving by launch for lunch or an afternoon merienda of coffee and cakes. At the weekend the stalls around the Puerto de Frutos sell snacks, sweets and drinks to the crowds.

Mate is shared on every riverbank and boat deck, and the town even has a museum devoted to it. The asado is the weekend ritual of island families and rowing clubs alike, cooked slowly over wood beside the water, with provoleta — grilled provolone cheese — and salads to start and a glass of Malbec or Fernet with cola.