Thirty kilometres north of the city, where the Paraná River splits into hundreds of channels before meeting the Río de la Plata, lies the Paraná Delta — a 14,000-square-kilometre labyrinth of islands, willow trees, and waterways. The town of Tigre at the edge of the delta is reachable from Buenos Aires by suburban train in about an hour; from Tigre, lanchas (river taxis) run into the delta along the main channels.
The island communities of the first section of the delta — within about 20 kilometres of Tigre — are a genuinely different way of life: residents travel by boat, children take boat-buses to school, and the landscape is almost entirely flat and green. Day trips from Buenos Aires by train and boat are easy to organise; overnight stays in delta lodges are available for those who want to go further in. The Tigre Art Museum, in a converted casino on the river bank, is worth a look before boarding the lancha.