Tigre

It turns out that one of our new friends, Leo, here in Baires (new to me) has some land in Tigre, an island suburb north of the city. He's been working on the place and said that we could come stay for the weekend if we would help him out with some things. Score!



In order to get to our destination we need to take the Subte to Retiro station, the train from there to Tigre, and then the shuttle Ferry to the island where Leo's place is. We meet up with him and another friend, Fran, outside the train station up there, get our tickets, and jump on the boat.




The weather was better than perfect (sorry you guys, "winter" down here is the best time of year!) and while the ride was about an hour long, it was plenty enjoyable.






There was a fair or some sort of amusement park on the side of the water... we didn't get too good a shot of it. Sorry. But you can also see that there are a lot of old, run down ships just sitting out there in the water. Go ahead and grab one!







Once we got out of the main waterway though things were starting to look much more peaceful and it actually reminded me of where I used to live in Venice, FL mixed with more nature. Already loving this place!







So, yeah, those pictures do the area no justice. How can you portray that feeling of pure relaxation? After the dock we walked a little ways through the trees to where his land actually sits. Turns out that the island has a lot of houses that people rent out to vacationers for weekend and the such. But Leo has a little bit of a different idea. Let me show you...






As you can see this is not your normal weekend getaway! Leo is a bit of an 'Eco-nerd' and has the idea to create a sustainable community on his land where people can come to work and learn strategies for sustainable management. Staying there is totally free, he just asks the participants to contribute to the community either through donations (money, equipment, supplies, knowledge) and/or by working on the property while there. At current it is still in the development stages but it turns out that was one of the reasons he wanted us to come up... to see if we could get things kick started. And boy, did we! We got the camp site under control, did a bunch of work on both the inside and outside of the house, and laid down plans for future trips back such as trails and clearings in the back pasture, an organic garden, compost pile, rainwater collection unit and cistern, solar water heating unit, and more... all using recycled materials! Leo has a great many very cool ideas for this place...





(This is our improvised door handle...)



The cabin itself is quite small, but when you are looking to get off the grid, small is good!








Along with the ideas that he has for the property, Leo is wanting to network with other likeminded groups and help to spread the ideas and knowledge of sustainability as far as possible so please check out his blog: echo-village.blogspot.com (much of it is in Spanish, but there is some in English and you'll find some great information) or check out the Facebook group "Echo-Village." I am headed back there in just a few minutes to spend another weekend of relaxing work. I hope that everyone else can help do there little part for the planet and this project in any small way possible... even if it is just to send us some 'kudos' or share ideas and information.

Remember kids: 1 Life - Live it, 1 Planet - Love it.
Jumpn2nsanity