The flooded village

Heart To Heart

By Dr. Muhammad Hafizullah

The place was unique, it did look like Venice as it had water every where; it looked like a hill resort as it had small compact houses and pine trees; it might have resembled Sri Nagar as it had boat ambulances and boat markets; but no, it was distinctively different than all these places. We boarded a catamaran, on second leg of an exploratory trip to a small village Tigre - a thirty minutes bus ride from the hustling and bustling city centre of Buenos Aires. The large three-storied boat, with glass walls with table and chairs all over on the ground floor much more like a restaurant, offered us a most memorable trip of Rio Sarmento.

The water in the river Tigre was muddy and the whole place looked flooded. On both sides small ravines joined in which appeared like side service roads, but big enough to allow the entry of medium sized boats.

There were beautiful houses on both sides erected on stilts. The ground floor was largely either unoccupied or had objects which water could neither take away nor harm. First floor was on the average seven to ten feet higher than ground and every house took pride in have a distinctive facade and a fine-looking stair case. Every house boasted of its own jetty for a motor boat and an equipment to elevate the boat and park it. Logs were dug in to provide ample place for anchoring the visiting boats. More like what ground houses have for cars - these houses had parking area, gates and reception.

The arrangements corresponded with the area of the house, quality of construction and garden. The bigger the house the larger was the jetty, perhaps corresponding with the status of the owner. A house on the corner had tall pine trees on the front, with multi hue flower beds in the sprawling garden. Hiding behind the trees was a house built in red bricks - small but elegant. It had a big jetty for boats - perhaps the owner had a large boat and it went well with the house. A house on left side had a nice wooden staircase from the jetty and connected to first floor of the house. It seemed like a nice walk way adorning the beauty of lawn. By and large all houses had nicely maintained landscaped gardens.

Every house had a theme for the garden. Thoughtfully pruned plants in different shapes provided the house a plan. Meticulously cut hedges in different styles -rolling, wavy or blocks revealed the enthusiasm of the occupant and hard work put into it. Grass was lush green and it rolled up and down. There were no boundary walls - meticulously planted trees in a row served the purpose. Every house was an art piece, set in a museum and a source of pride for the village and owner.

There was a large restaurant in the middle of the village, with lots of sitting areas and a big jetty to receive and accommodate lots of guests. Living in the serene and tranquil people come here for a chat and laugh.

On the way to Tigre village, our bus crossed what looked like a sea. Though the water was muddy brown, the waves were majestic and the other side could not be seen. Our guide took us down the memory lane to seventh class when we were taught that Argentina has a river by the name of Plate, which has the widest estuary.

The river is locally called Rio de la Plata meaning Silver River. The basin drains almost one fifth of all Argentina besides Chile and Uruguay.  Rio de la Plata is joined by tributaries like Uruguay and Parana river and starting from the width of 48km becomes as wide as 220km as it drains into south Atlantic at the junction of Argentina and Uruguay.

For practical purposes it behaves like a sea and has a transport system of a sea. Argentina is also very proud of the widest road in the heart of Buenos Aires - called 9July Avenue, getting her name from the date of birth of the country. The avenue is 142 meters wide passing through the heart of city. It is beautifully landscaped and has 24 blocks representing 24 provinces. In the centre, it has a large round about with a tall proud needle like structure called Obelisco. The avenue has huge sign boards on both sides on top of large commercial plazas.

Argentina is one of the biggest producers of soya, wheat and fruits. She has the best beef in the world and boasts of a well advanced leather industry excelling in leather products like shoes, purses, jackets and other leather goods. 

Argentina has the unique pride of blessing the world with some of the finest players of football, tennis, hockey and polo. Diego Maradona rules like a king on the hearts of all football fans. A trip to Boca Juniors stadium unveiled the immense love people have for him.

Gabriela Sabitini made a big name for herself in 1985 at the tender age of fifteen - the youngest in the history to enter French open semifinal. She was the first tennis star to bring glamour to Tennis and earn fame for her country. Argentina is proud of 49 extraordinary athletes who won gold medals for their country. Many among our generation can never forget the hockey match between Pakistan and Argentina. Argentina can be rightly proud of producing some of the best polo players of the world who won gold medal in 1936. Players like Adolfo Cambiaso are folk heroes and are revered every where. Besides Adolfito eight more polo players are fondly loved as heroes of Argentina .

Our catamaran would rock from side to side as another large boat would cross us from opposite direction. Deck of the boat offered a more unrestricted view and a unique opportunity to feel the ambience. There were people rowing boats leisurely and others riding on fast motor boats. Some enjoying the lonely boat ride and others were busy in worldly chores scurrying on jet boats. A large hotel on an island invited our attention; it had many blocks of rooms, nicely landscaped lawns with multiple sitting areas in the open consisting of wooden tables and benches and a large jetty to welcome many guests. The place was very tempting and I tried to learn the name, note the phone number and memorise the web address to visit this most enticing place, whenever luck brings me back to Argentina.

Tigre is a small village, deriving her name for being inhabited by tigers once upon a time. River Tigre gets her name from the village. Shower of rain in the morning had transformed the weather as very pleasant. The breeze on the deck was most enjoyable. During the ride the width of the river increased as it was joined by another river called Lucan River. Later it arborised in a delta as it pours into Atlantic. We sailed by Costa park which has been developed as a theme park offering various rides some of them quite scary.

A freshly brewed cup of coffee and unending jokes of Dr Mansoor, Bilal, Saulat and Aqil rendered the trip most memorable.

The ride back to the town was made more interesting as it included a train ride from San Isidra to Maipu where the bus was waiting to take us back to our hotel. San Isidra has a nice shopping area offering local produce and a big church. The train ride was smooth and a sure nice way to beat the gift of the last decade -traffic mess. The trip impressed us with the well developed tourist industry and infra structure of the country. All this augurs well for a very bright future of the country.