Buenos Aries City Tour

    After sailing back and forth all night at the entrance to the Plata River, we finally landed in Buenos Aries. It turned out to be a warm humid day and probably the nicest day that

La Ricoleta

we have had as far as the weather. We had booked a city tour in the hope seeing the sights of the city. It did live up to our expectations. The city itself has about 10 million and as to be expected the traffic was very heavy even though it is “summer” vacation.

     The first stop was in the La Ricoleta area which is a very beautiful region filled with parks, embassies, etc. The attraction here was the cemetery. It is the place where Eva Peron is buried. The sites are very ornate mausoleums that can run into the hundred of thousands of dollars in value. She is interned in her father's crypt. Once a year they remove her body to insure that her embalmed body is kept up. Her casket is locked with a steel plate to guard against her body being removed.

Balcony Where Wva Perone Spoke

     The second stop (after crossing the widest avenue in the world) was the centre of the city which had the palace where Eva Peron delivered her speeches. It looked exactly like the movie. Also located in the same square is the cathedral where Pope Francis administered. The final stop was La Boca, a neighborhood with brightly painted houses, tango bars and many small shops. It was a very good place to have a cold beer after walking around in the warm weather.

    After the tour we disembarked at the terminal gate.

La Boca Neighbourhood

The port is so large that they have shuttle buses back to the ship. We chose to head to “Florida” street, a pedestrian mall area. Judy found a nice small leather purse which she had been looking to buy since the first days of the cruise. It is just big enough to carry her new e-reader. We also stopped for a quick bite to eat before walking back. We would have walked more but the time and heat of the day convinced us to head back. Besides we needed to pack and get ready for the trip home. Dinner was excellent and they served baked Alaska for dessert. We said our good-byes and then watched the gaucho show.

 

Judy With A Cold One

 We do not leave the ship until 1 pm tomorrow due to our 6 pm flight so we can relax here until that time. It has been an excellent cruise. It is hard to describe how different Chile, the Falklands and Argentina are from a physical and cultural viewpoint! Cheers!

Montevideo - Colonia Del Sacramento

     Up early this morning! Our tour met at 7:45! Our tour took us to Colonia Del Sacramento which was a 2 ½ hour bus ride each was. It is where the “original” settlement of the area took place. It had a fortified wall although most of it had been rebuilt in recent years. There was 1 rebuilt gate. The rest of this town had cobblestone streets and many old houses.   

Our guide, who spoke very good English, cond

Old Stree In Sacramento

ucted a very nice tour. She said that she had done this tour many times and was very familiar with the old town. There was influence from both the Spanish and Portuguese settlers. Most of the settlement started as early as the 1790's. The streets were built with a “v” in the middle to allow rain water to drain away from the houses. Many of the houses (buildings) now contain restaurants and artisan shops. Surprisingly there were very few tacky souvenirs shops. The church was very austere. It had been rebuilt after a fire ignited some

powder kegs that were hidden in the church. 

Old Lighthouse

Apparently the priest supported the revolution at that time. One of the most interesting sites was an old Ford coupe that has been converted into a 2 person table for a restaurant. Ruins of the military square, lighthouse, governor's house, etc. were scattered among the remaining structures.

    Lunch was served at nice restaurant in the main square. Wine was provided with the meal It was a local wine but it was not very good. The white was better than the red. The end of the meal marked the end of the tour except for the 2 ½ hour ride back to the ship. After the wine the bus was very quiet! I think they served the wine so that we would all sleep on the way back! 

Dinner In An Old Ford

We arrived just as they were getting ready to sail. We are just across the Plate River from Buenos Aires but it will be a long slow trip to the next port.

    We went to a magic show put on by a magician from Spain named Hector. It was very good. He did he card tricks, cutting the rope, girl in the box, floating table etc. Dinner was excellent again. After dinner, we were able to walk on deck as the temperatures are very summer like.

Humidity is running around 100%. We were ready for bed after the early morning

Old Wall

and long bus ride. Tomorrow is our last full day of the cruise. We do have a late morning tour scheduled.

Montevideo - Day 1

      We arrived in Montevideo Uruguay around noon today. The morning had the usual activities. However they planned 2 different activities in the same spot this morning. 

Zunba Time

Apparently they put out a Spanish list of activities as well as one in English. They forgot to compare the lists! We ended up with a 20 minute Zumba class and they canceled the line dancing class. I think the instructor did that as the room was basically clear by the appointed time came around. The result was that most of the morning was spent watching us come long side. The ship made a right hand turn at the end of the jetty to get to our berth. It was a very tight turn but the side thrusters help.

Wandering

     After lunch we went ashore to walk the town. Since we missed the port yesterday, we are here until tomorrow night. Our tour is scheduled for tomorrow and we will be gone all day. We are headed to the “original” settlement of the area.

Buying A Braclet

The first thing you see as you leave the port is a range finder from the German pocket battleship Graf Spee. It was heavily damaged by the British and was scuttled by the Germans. As we walked the town, you had a very distinct feeling that you were in Spain.  Some of the street performers

Graf Spree Rangefinder

reminded us of La Rambla in Barcelona. Judy found a very nice bracelet to add to her collection of those items that seems to

Wine Man

grow with every cruise. We also encountered wedding at the local city hall (?).

     Once we returned, we finally had a chance to get in the pool. The cold weather was responsible for that. A Gaucho show, the Tango dance couple performance and dinner completed the day.

      The composition of the passengers is different from other cruises that we have taken. There is a very large group of Spanish speaking people which is to be expected considering we are in South America. The ages of the passengers is also quite different.

Street Performer

There are lots of young people (and some kids). It is summer here which probably explains it.

Action Packed Day At Sea

     This should have been all about the best tour of the entire cruise. I should be posting pictures of sea lions and the largest colony of penguins to be seen anywhere. Highlight of the trip type reports. Instead we are still at sea having skipped the port because of a strike (protest?). The rumor mill was really going today as to why there would be a protest. Since Celebrity had canceled the port earlier was it really just an unrelated connection. OR did it have something to do with our visit to the Falklands. Perhaps the rapid devaluation of the Argentine peso? Was Princess negotiating to be allowed to go in. The announcement said that the protesters would allow the tours out of the port but not necessarily back to the ship. Lets see, 2 ships 5000 people on tours plus countless items being bought. I wonder how all the locals feel about the protest? I guess you win some and you loose some.                                                               

All Dressed Up

Because of the late notification of the sailing day vs a port day,on of the sailing day vs a port day, the cruise staff managed to put out a schedule that was filled with activities. I did manage to be up for sunrise and was snapping away for a few minutes before I went back to bed!

     What else but Rumba in the morning (9:00) followed by a 30 minute walk in the deck. It was the first time we could get out there without thinking we are in the really cold conditions in Windsor. Coffee and donuts in the atrium followed the walk. A quick change of clothes (after and hour of Rumba we needed it) we went line dancing (yes hard to take the dances!), then the hour lecture on the origins of chocolate. That was very interesting! A pub lunch of prawns and chips; and then the champagne of the final art auction.

        Then the fun part. We did go to the wine tasting earlier in the cruise when we made a mistake about the date. Well, today because of the change in date for the tasting, we got another invitation. 2 wine tastings in one cruise. We must really be Elite! After all that we needed to be back in our cabin to be there when the chocolate covered strawberries arrived. Tonight is formal night and we have the cocktail party for the Captain's circle. Princess now has 2. The first was simple held in the Princess theater early in the cruise. No drinks. Apparently the ones with more cruise days actually get a drink!

   

 The Captain's Circle party was nice. 

It Was Delicious

The passengers with the most sea days had around 350 days. That is not nearly what we have seen in the past. Dinner was lobster and king prawns. They were very good. After dinner we too in a production show. We had seen it before. Tomorrow we are arriving around noon. We will have an overnight in Montevideo. We hope to go ashore and explore tomorrow and then tour the day after.

Lazy and Disappointing Day At Sea

      What a difference a day makes. Last night we started of trek north west from the Falklands. This morning it is sunny and it getting warmer. We do not see as many parkas, gloves, etc. as we have seen for the last few days. However it is still very windy. The temperature is around 60F.

Morning line dancing class (still basic basic basic) was followed at 10 by a lecture on Eva Peron . It was part of a series on South America. It was more historical but you could see where the musical took parts of the life of Eva and used it along with some great music. Since we had a very light breakfast, we went to the dining room for lunch but needed to leave by 1 to catch the last port lecture.

      It was also announced that there were more tours available for Puerto Madryn. Originally we tried to book a tour into an UNESCO site but it was all sold out in November. We never found a tour that we liked. Now apparently the Celebrity ship that was suppose to be in port at the same time is not going to be there which frees up buses and guides We put our order in for the same Valdes Peninsula tour.  Just before we went to dinner we received our tickets for the tour. It seems like a stroke of good luck to finally get on the one tour that we wanted!

    

Lazy Day At Sea

  The afternoon was filled with the last port lecture followed by Zumba. The lecture was overflowing and the lounge where Zumba was held had more people in it than we have seen. It ran for over an hour. The rest of the day was filled with finishing a bottle of wine! In the evening we went to a show with Dan Riley, a comic. He is the entertainer that takes popular songs and puts his own lyrics to them. We have encountered him before on other Princess cruises.

     It was Italian Night at dinner tonight featuring Italian dishes. Everything was excellent and we once again remarked that the food seems especially good on this tour. The Captain just came on with an announcement. Since we have already finished dinner it was extremely unusual to hear him broadcast everywhere

South Atlantic Sunset

on the ship. The news was that because they are expecting a strike in the port tomorrow, we will not be going there. The ship has been informed that the strikers will allow the tours to leave but not return! As a result we are headed to the next port and will be in there from noon tomorrow until the afternoon of the following day. So as of now we have no idea what type of schedule we will have. We were suppose to have a sea day the day after tomorrow. Now we will be in port. I hope that the cocktail party is still on!  Who knows?   The photo shows that it was a much better day today in terms of weather.

Gypsy Cove and Stanley, The Falklands

    When we looked out this morning this thought occurred to me:

WW 2 Naval Gun

Why would anybody want to settle here and further why would you fight a war over it.(See photo!) The war seemed to be all about the Argentinian military trying to distract the country from the poor conditions at the time. That seems to be the official word. However, there were signs when we were in Ushuaia the other day talking about these islands as rightfully belonging to Argentina and not Britain.

     We left the ship around. We were tendered and when we went to get our tender ticket, there must have been 200 people waiting to go to shore. Another perk of being in this Elite Princess category is that you have tender priority. No 

Minefield Area

ticket required for these passengers! We were on the next shuttle out. We had 2 objectives – see the town and see penguins. As soon as we got off the ship, we booked a tour to Gypsy Cove. The cove is not far from the town of Stanley and has Magellanic or Jackass penguins. They are not the big ones (Emperor) but smaller versions. They are similar to the ones that we saw in Australia. We were at the cove in about 20 minutes as it is only 7 miles by dusty bumpy road from Stanley. Along the way we passed Shipwreck Cove , so named because of the wreck of the 3 master Lady Elizabeth.  

     The wind was really blowing as it did all day. However we did get to see the penguins hanging around their burrows. We did

Penguins At Last

see 2 that at exactly noon decided to either go for a swim or that it was time to eat. It was a highlight of the trip to see then walk down the steep slope and head into the water. We also say a mother? And 2 babies out in the open just looking around. As we walked around the point we did see Rock cormorants on the lee of a rocky outcrop. They were probably smarter than we were by staying out of the wind. In fact at least 29 different species have been identified in the area. There was also a Naval Gun from WW 2. We did see some interesting scrub flowers and some interesting vegetation.

     We could not get close to the penguins as the entire area was fenced. The area was 

Falkland Vegetation

heavily mined during the war in 1982 and although the area has been “cleared” the signs were everywhere. It was a bit amusing that one sign said it had been cleared but a mine may have washed in from the sea which would have been quite a feat as we were well above the shoreline.

    Once we returned to Stanley, we walked the entire town of 1400 people. As expected besides the souvenir shops, there were many interesting houses. All the roofs seemed to be a different color. We got to the edge of town and stopped at the Malvina House Hotel, a quiet place to have a beer

Original Settler's Cottage

and tea. The beer was locally brewed (as was the tea!) We also saw the Whalebone display, Whalebone arch and some of the original houses that go back to the 1830's. Then it was the 35 minute tender rider back to the ship. In fact the ship was in the next bay. The harbor of Stanley is too shallow even for a ship like the Golden Princess.

    After returning to the ship we cracked a bottle of wine and ate pizza on our balcony. Tonight's dinner was prime rib, the second time we have had it and it was perfectly done again. We did attend a 

Overlooking Stanley

theatre show with a singer and then the Tango demonstration by the instructors from Argentina. They are world champions and did a beautiful job. Sea day tomorrow! As you can see from the photos, after a gray and overcast beginning, the day turned sunny and bright by afternoon.  It was a very good port visit!  We could not have imagined it when we first learned that this was one of the stops.