The river trip
Through the delta.
Roberto Fiadone — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Estany3 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ministerio de Cultura de la Nación — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Roberto Fiadone — CC BY-SA 4.0 · CHUCAO — CC BY-SA 3.0
Martín García is a small rocky island of about 168 hectares in the Río de la Plata, near the Uruguayan coast, with some two hundred residents, belonging to Buenos Aires province. Its position at the mouth of the rivers made it a military fortress for centuries, then a prison and quarantine station, and stone quarried here paved old Buenos Aires. Several prominent Argentine politicians were held in its prison during the twentieth century. Today the island is a nature reserve and a quiet village: dirt streets between old houses, the remains of fortifications, cannons, the quarantine station and the prison, a small theatre and a riverine forest full of birds. Getting there is itself a lovely river trip through the Paraná delta. It is visited on organised day trips from Tigre of about ten hours, with a morning departure, a crossing of about two hours and a guided island tour; book ahead.
Through the delta.
Cannons and walls.
Quiet dirt streets.
Río de la Plata, about two hours by boat from Tigre
On an organised boat day trip from Tigre, about two hours each way; the whole trip takes some ten hours.