I was picked up from my hotel lobby by Cynthia, our excellent tour guide: insightful, funny. It took about 40 minutes to pick up the remaining guests from their downtown hotels, and then we hit the road to El Tigre.

We drove through the city into the Province of Buenos Aires, and for some reason we stopped in San Isidro. There was a small mini-mall of souvenir shops and a cathedral, but really this is just a tourist trap. I would have rather gone straight to El Tigre.

Because I was the only English-speaker on the tour, I felt as if I got a customized tour just for me. The boat ride on El Tigre was interesting: you see the riverside communities, floating amenities (such as a grocery boat), vegetation. The boat operator's guide was multilingual and well-informed. They served free alfajores as snacks and sold bottled water and beer. The boat ride lasted just under an hour.

Each tour bus has a camera operator taking video of the tourists in the group, hoping to sell videos. I don't think anyone in our group bought one. The cameraman was entertaining, though, and helpful as he took photos for people.

On the bus ride back, we took the autoroute; so it went much faster. There were 3 drop-off points in central locations. Roberto was an excellent driver.

A half-day trip to El Tigre was enough. In retrospect, I think I would have saved time taking the train myself to El Tigre. But Cynthia made the experience worthwhile.