Buenos Aires cartography does not usually notice the existence of that intense green patch dotted with villas and simple houses. constructions supported on stiltsposed facing the Silver riveron one side of the straight cut that the Santiago River traces on its way to the port of La Plata.
That is why it is convenient to conceive an imaginary map based on the Berisso pieras if to be attentive to the almost ghostly appearance of Paulino Island and prepare to discover its charm, at the end of a trip of no more than twenty minutes on a collective boat.
But it is not necessary to wait for the disembarkation to take the pulse of this place in the bowels of its impassable ball of willows, ceibos, hydrangeas, anacahuitas, chalchales and laurels, where at night – like a silent irruption illuminated by the stars – it opens the white flower of the lady of the night.
The ship Ciudad de Berisso leaves the departure dock behind and that seems to be the indicated signal for the voice of the pilot Claudio Martinoli to review the most salient milestones in the island’s strong history, an epic of solitary men facing adversity intimately. linked to the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese immigrants arrived on the island since the beginning of the 20th century.
The two shores are moving further and further apart and the signs of a new world are evident.
While the slight movement of the rudder slowly straightens the course, the captain’s story focuses on the decades of the 40s, 50s and 60sthe golden age of production of apples, pears, plums, chinche or American grapes and coastal wine.
His father Benito and his grandfather Reinaldo loaded the canoes with the freshly harvested fruits and they took them to sell in overflowing crates at the Central Market of La Plata. The island, then, was a pilgrimage without pauses of fruit and vegetable producers blended in with the tourists, who used to share the bustling trips offered by more than forty boats.
The decisive impact of major floods -already anticipated by the great flood of 1940- added to the ravages of abandonment, apathy and other evils of these times, they would be in charge of writing the most recent chapter, the traumatic passage from splendor to decadence.
However, not everything is lost: the island still preserves the welcoming spirit of the inhabitants and the natural corners less traveled the suggestive charm of its most genuine attractions.
Crossing a siding a few steps from the island’s pier, part of that time of glory still longed for flies over the worn-out facilities of the Lo de Coca recreation area.
From the gardens of that modern, barely modified version of the historic hotel La Alicia managed by the Tosti family, a path less than a kilometer long takes off that leads to the sandy beach, the clearest panoramic viewpoint of the Río de la Plata and a breakwater.
Towards that long tongue of loose stones the pilgrims fishermen in search of the best location to take advantage of the varied bite of silverside, boga, doradillo, armed, smooth and – on a more than lucky day – the precious specimens of surubí and croaker.
A timely cool breeze sweeps the thick strip of pale sand and stirs the waves to the shore, the territory occupied by flocks of biguas, seagulls and black herons.
The immensely clear postcard, with the horizon of the river and the fishing boats in the backgroundcontrasts with the closed green blanket that blooms on the sides of the dirt path that links the plantations of the quinteros and their houses built on stilts with the coastal confines.
Halfway there, amidst the knotted branches of ceibo trees, lilies, willows and hydrangeas and some boat abandoned to its fate on dry land, Juan Peralta and his wife Gilda Runca share the secret of their well-being through single phrases.
“Here we are used to being alone and in the greatest tranquility all year round”, “we feel that the island is all ours”, “there is a sense of belonging to the place where our parents came as boyfriends” makes clear this couple from the south of the Buenos Aires suburbs formed six years ago on the island.
In the Don Peralta’s kitchen -the parador she runs with her husband-, Runca kneads a pizza without losing sight of the schnitzels she prepares for her guests. Her strong roots in the place she chose to live takes distance from the island without a future that the writer Haroldo Conti envisioned in April 1976 after having set foot in Paulino three months earlier.
The author of the novel “Sudeste” and the book of short stories “Every summer” had headed his chronicle about that experience on the “ghostly” island with the title “Sorrows of coastal wine or the grim death of Paulino Island.” in Crisis magazine.
Heading to the last farms that still preserve the shade of the vines and sustain a minimal production of local wine – such as La Quinta de Miguel and the vineyards of Renzo Ruscitti -, some neighbors scattered among the gaps in the vegetation cover take precautions not to be surprised by the next sudestada, while they offer visitors their battery of fresh fruits, homemade sweets, liqueurs and pickles.
The glare of evening sun In retreat they sneak through the vegetation curtain and warn of the imminence of the boat’s last departure back to the continent. It is the opportune signal to speed up the passage along the narrow path.
The slightly hasty retreat is punctuated by the disturbing sound of someone’s footsteps. Wildcat o one hidden capybaraanother unfathomable mystery in the eyes of outsiders that, at least this time, cannot be revealed.
How to get to Paulino Island
- From the city of Buenos Aires to the pier of the Ciudad de Berisso Nautical Club it is 63 kilometers along the Autopista a La Plata, avenue 122 (route 11), avenue 66 and street 7 (former Génova) to the end.
- Train Roca de Constitución to La Plata, $420 one way; with SUBE, $208.
- La Nueva Metropol Bus (line 195) from CABA to La Plata by highway, $1,764; Buenos Aires Mission micro, $1,700; for Camino Centenario, $1,080.
- From La Plata to Berisso buses 202 and 214 arrive.
- Collective boat from Berisso City to Paulino Island (arrives in 20′), $3,000 round trip; up to 5 years, free (0221- 155377397).
Where to stay
- Recreo Lo de Coca: double room with shared bathroom and shower with hot water, $12,000; triple, $16,000; camping, $3,000 per person.
- Cabin for 4 with wi-fi at the Don Peralta parador, $15,000; mobile home for 4, $12,000 (155-7457376).
- Campsites on the beach (very precarious), $10,000 per tent site; double room, $15,000.
Where to get information
- (0221) 464-7092 / (0221) 155941673
- www.berisso.gob.ar
- Facebook: Berisso Chamber of Tourism