Journey´s end!

The last day had been started, we were very excited and we had a lot of expectatives. We had a breakfast in the hotel and we went to Puerto Madero. In our opinion this neghborhood is the most beautiful of Buenos Aires. The houses are very luxury and the buildings are very big. We know the "Woman's Bridge" and some restaurants. Then we went to the "Sarmiento Frigate". We knew inside of this ship, very nice. The coordinators and the teachers had a surprise for us, because we ate in a catamaran! Then in the same vehicle we "travel" in the water to "Sarmiento's House". An old and genial place. Then of this we came back to the city and to the hotel. In our opinion one of the most school's trip we have.

Puerto Madero
Puerto Madero, also known within the urban planning community as the Puerto Madero Waterfront, is a barrio (district) of the Argentine capital at Buenos Aires, occupying a significant portion of the Río de la Plata riverbank and representing the latest architectural trends in the city of Buenos Aires.

The New Port of Buenos Aires was completed in 1926.

Every street in Puerto Madero is named after women. The Puente de la Mujer (Women's Bridge), by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, is the newest link between the east and west docks of Puerto Madero; a museum inaugurated in 2008, the Fortabat Art Collection, itself resulted from an initiative by Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat (the wealthiest woman in Argentina).

Numerous new residential high-rises of up to 50 stories have been built facing the Rio de la Plata since 2000. These include El Mirador of Puerto Madero Towers, Renoir Towers, El Faro Towers, Chateau Tower of Puerto Madero and Mulieris Towers amongst others. Many other high-rises that have recently been inaugurated include the Le Parc Tower and Hilton and River View Towers. Office and hotel high-rises are also being built such as the Repsol YPF Headquarters and the Conrad Buenos Aires Hotel & Resort, whose construction is slated to begin at the end of 2008 and completion scheduled for late 2010.

Woman´s Bridge

"Women's Bridge" is a rotating footbridge for Dock 3 of the Puerto Madero commercial district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is of the Cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge type and is also a swing bridge, but somewhat unusual in its asymmetrical arrangement. It has a single mast with cables suspending a portion of the bridge which rotates 90 degrees in order to allow water traffic to pass. When it swings to allow watercraft passage, the far end comes to a resting point on a stabilizing pylon.

Designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Started in 1998, it was inaugurated on December 20, 2001, and is the only one of Calatrava's works in Latin America. The architect has described the design as a synthesis of the image of a couple dancing the tango.

The 170-metre pedestrian bridge weighs 8 tonnes, is 6.20 m wide and is divided into two fixed portions, 25 m and 32.50 m long respectively, and a middle section of 102.5 m that rotates on a white concrete pylon, allowing vessels to pass in less than two minutes. 

Sarmiento´s Frigate

Sarmiento´s Frigate is a museum ship, originally built as a training ship for the Argentine Navy. She is considered to be the last intact cruising training ship from the 1890s.

The ship was originally built for the Argentine naval academy. The Sarmiento´s Frigate made thirty seven annual training cruises including six circumnavigations of the globe. The ship was retired as a seagoing vessel in 1938, but continued to serve as a stationary training ship until 1961. She is now maintained in her original 1898 appearance as a museum ship near the center of Buenos Aires. This ship was named for Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, the seventh President of Argentina.

A single torpedo scuttle using gravity expulsion exited at the bow. The scuttle has been removed and the exit port welded shut, but in the current museum configuration a torpedo is suspended in a position on the main deck ready to enter the former scuttle entrance. Additional torpedo storage is provided below this main deck.

Tiger

Tiger is a town in the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, situated in the north of Greater Buenos Aires, 28 km (17 mi) north of Buenos Aires city. Tigre lies on the Paraná Delta and is an important tourist and weekend attraction, easily reached by bus and train services, including the scenic Tren de la Costa. It is the principal town of the Tigre Partido.

The town sits on an island created by several small streams and rivers and was founded in 1820, after floods had destroyed other settlements in the area, then known as the Partido de las Conchas.

The area's name derives from the “tigres” or jaguars that were hunted there, on occasions, in its early years. The area was first settled by Europeans who came to farm the land, and the port developed to serve the Delta and to bring fruit and wood from the Delta and ports upstream on the Paraná river. Tigre is still an important timber processing port. The “Puerto de Frutos” (fruit port) is now a crafts fair located in the old fruit market by the riverside. The Naval Museum is also nearby. Antiques shops, riverside restaurants and pubs, the casino and Parque de la Costa, an amusement park and its renowned natural beauty make Tigre a popular tourist destination throughout the year.

Tigre is also the starting point for a visit to the Paraná Delta. 

Sarmiento´s House

In 1860, Sarmiento already had his house in the Delta. According to history books, he occupied his island by shooting his firearm, like the American conquerors used to as they expelled the Indians from their territories. He called it “Procida”, after the small island located off the shores of the Italian city of Naples, in southern Italy, and he built there a beautiful bridge which he called the same name as the famous bridge in Venice: “Rialto”. 
The house is a small wooden building with a tile roof. According to historians such as María del Carmen Magaz and María Beatriz Arévalo, the ground floor was a free space, whereas the first floor would hold the only room in the house. The walls, built with pre-built boards, give us the idea that this is a much more elaborated architecture than meets the eye.

Sarmiento died in 1895. Carlos Delcasse purchased the house and then donated it to a public welfare institution, which in turn donated it to the Education National Council. In 1966, a decree passed by President Illía declared it National Historical Monument and, therefore, today it is preserved in the same shape as the rest of the Delta wooden houses. Anyway, the fact that all of them were built after Sarmiento's house must be born in mind. 

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