This is my first trip report so bear with me if it doesn’t fit the right standards. I’m a student originally from South Bend, Indiana that lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’m a huge fan of amusement parks so even when I find myself in South America I find myself spending a lot of time in ‘parques de diversions.’
(Let me tell ya, South America is not exactly a hotspot for coasters. Except for maybe Brazil, of which Im not sure about other than that Americans need a visa to visit. Did I read somewhere that TPR is taking a trip to Brazil next year?)
I’ve been to this park about a half-dozen times as it’s only a half hour outside of the city by a train and a year-long pass costs a whopping $16USD. “Parque de la Costa” is Spanish for Park of the Coast and as such the park is located in the tourist area of Tigre a large, and quite polluted though beautiful system of river canals.
The general area of Tigre is stunningly charming and, at least to me, reminds me of Monticello, Indiana. There all sorts of little restaurants, food stalls and other mom and pop businesses lining the streets. There is also a very large market that sells South American handicrafts and a huge casino just outside of the park.
The park is the largest operating amusement park in all of Argentina. The key word there is operating. There is a slightly larger, government owned park within the city limits called ‘Parque de la Cuidad’ (I’ll let you guess what that means). That park has a Schwarzkopf Wildcat, a Jetstar is listed as in storage, three small kiddie coasters, a “Aconcagua” from Schwarzkopf, and a rollercoaster called Vertigorama for Intamin AG that was never completed because of the fall of the Argentine military dictatorship. All are listed as standing but not operating. I’m going to attempt to (legally) gain access to the park grounds to take pictures for University, if I able to and people are interested, I will post them here. (All coaster information is taken for RCDB)
Anyway, back to Parque de la Costa, there are three credits to be found. A Vekoma SLC, Boomerrang and one called Vigia which is apparently a Tivoli large model that goes through a fake mountain and around a pond. The Tivoli is probably the highlight of the coasters, it completes two circuits per ride and is quite enjoyable. Not only that, the thing is a capacity beast, holding 40 riders in a train which seems like a lot for a junior coaster.
The Vekomas are exactly what you would expect, although the SLC is smoother than others that I have ridden. Outside of the coaster there are about 15 flat rides or so including a Top Spin that was running one of the longest programs of any I’ve ever ridden. There are a handful of fairly entertaining shows within various venues, a huge kiddieland and four or five of walk-through dark ride type things.
The park is pretty enjoyable, everything runs fairly smoothly by normal standards (extremely smoothly by Argentine standards with the glaring exception of the SLC which regularly has two hour plus lines. For an SLC. Yuck. )For the money, it really can’t be beat. And it’s the best that Argentina has to offer.
Next month I visiting Chile and will be making a stop at Chile’s largest amusement park Fantasilandia. Give me some feedback on how I can improve on the trip report for when I write one on that park. Thanks, Gary.
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