Buenos Aires

At dinner the last night of our cruise, we noted that the main dining room had run out of several wines.  Guess us old folks got the empties to a very respectable number

On Sunday morning we disembarked and had a nice bus tour of the city prior to checking in at our hotel.  We visited La Boca, an immigrant slum where a section is made into a "street museum". 

We had the compulsory walk through Recoleta Cemetery to visit the tomb of Eva Duarte Peron (Evita).

After an afternoon nap we were ready for dinner.  Most restaurants turned out to be a little beyond Betty's walking limit from the hotel, but we found a very nice place under a highway overpass.  We were the only diners eating outside, as the locals chose to sit where there was air conditioning.  After empanadas and salad we each had what the waiter called his "smallest steak".  Despite having skipped lunch, and despite the steak being vastly superior in tenderness and flavor to anything available in Canada we couldn't finish.

Monday was one of the most pleasant days of our entire trip.  We left the hotel at 8:40 a.m. for a 120 km bus ride to the Estancia el Rosario de Areco.  Leaving the city on a 12-lane highway we noted a 20-km traffic jam coming into the city.

The ranch breeds horses for polo players, and is owned by a couple, their 9 children and 13 grandchildren.  There is one architect, at least two lawyers, and three professional polo players in the family, but they all work whenever available on the ranch.  In addition to horse ranching they have been entertaining tourists for 25 years.

Upon arrival we were escorted by gauchos to a park-like setting where we were served incredible empanadas and a glass (or three) of wine.  

After the leisurely reception we walked (Betty was driven by a grandson) to a covered set of bleachers to watch the gaucho show.  The six gauchos who work on the ranch did a series of difficult skill competitions, and Betty got chosen to clang the brass bell to start each event.  The gaucho who was the overall winner was given the next day off work.

We then went to an air-conditioned dining room for the traditional asado.  The first course was chorizos, then came a salad course, followed by a chicken course, a veal course and finally a steak course.  By tradition none of the meat courses have any vegetable accompaniments.  Perhaps this is why rates of heart disease are lower in Argentina than in Canada.

Wines (and beers) flowed very freely.  The white (Torrente) and the red (Malbec) were from the same winery.  Reading the labels I saw that the white was best paired with empanadas and the red best paired with asado.  Perhaps this is a coincidence, or perhaps our host is a major shareholder in the winery.

During the meal we were entertained by folk dancers and singers and by 4:00 we were served Champagne to accompany our dessert.  Both Betty and I enjoyed sleeping during the entire two-hour ride back to the hotel.  Needless-to-say we did not go out to dinner, instead settling for appetizers, one glass of wine each, and large coffees.

On our last night in Buenos Aires we went to the Michelangelo Theatre for dinner and a live show.  Malbec flowed freely with with steak (what else?) dinner and then we left the restaurant area for comfortable seats in the theatre itself.  The orchestra and singers were excellent, but were outshone by the absolutely superb tango dancers.

This is our fifth trip to South America and probably our last.  My one regret is that we never got to see Iguazu Falls.  We had a visit planned but it got cancelled during Covid.

                                                                                              Uruguay

Just before dinner on the 13th night of the cruise the Captain told us that we (the 600+ guests on board) had to that point drunk 5189 bottles of wine.  We then went to dinner hoping to raise that number a bit.  It turned out that I was the youngest at a table for six.  I talked golf to the 85-year-old British woman next to me, as she matched my wine refills glass-for-glass.  At some point I mistakenly referred to her dinner companion as her husband.  She very emphatically told me that her husband had died five years ago.  I did notice, however, that she and her companion were holding hands as they walked off toward their stateroom.

We had two days in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay (do not pronounce the "r").  Montevideo has a population of 1.4 million although the population of Uruguay is only 3.3 million.  However, for each person there are four head of cattle.  Beef production is the number one industry, and all the cattle graze on grass while being herded by gauchos (cowboys).  This is a very different system than in Canada where (at least in Alberta) hundreds of cattle are crammed into stock pens where they stand in knee-deep shit and eat dried fodder.  Uruguayan beef is considered the best in the world (and also gets the highest prices) and most of it is exported to countries where the consumers have sophisticated tastes.

Montevideo is consistently rated as the the most livable city in Latin America.  Uruguay has a very low crime rate and is rated as the 10th best country in the world in terms of civil rights.  Canada ranks 11th.  The USA is way down the list.

On our first day we took a longish bus ride of the city. 

 

The tour ended at a brewery where we tasted four beers.  As the temperature was above 30 degrees this was a great end to our tour.  

On our second day Betty stayed on board, shopped, and had a massage at the spa.  All this was an attempt to use up our non-refundable shipboard credits before we disembark the ship for our time in Buenos Aires.  I walked from the ship to the old part of the city.  

After beef production Uruguay's next source of income is tourism.  Most of the visitors come from Argentina and Brazil to visit the 500 miles of white sand beaches.