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.

                                                   Bottom of the World

Here are a few pictures that should have been in Blog 3.  The first is of sheep shearing at Olga Teresa, then Betty before she dried out for dinner after glacier watching, and then a shot of Betty's favorite dessert.

I think I have solved my internet issues.  It seems that the signal in our stateroom is considerably weaker than on other places on the ship.  Perhaps it's because we live with some other peons down on Deck 7.

After an all day sail we reached Cape Horn early Sunday evening.  Normally the weather is terrible and the seas next to impossible.  For some strange reason the seas were calm and we got a good view of the rock.  Actually there is nothing at Cape Horn other than a big rock as well as one lonely lighthouse keeper, with his wife and two children.

 

After Cape HORN we sailed overnight to Ushuaia (most southernly city in the world) where  we took a catamaran for a sail down the Beagle Channel.

There we saw sea lions, penguins, the occasional tail of a humpback whale, and lots of birds including the infamous albatross.  The tour was scheduled for 4 hours but took 6.  We didn't get back until 3:00.  We were starving and the last restaurant closed at 2:00.  We were greatly surprised when we were told that the buffet had remained open for stragglers such as us.

Despite it having a land mass equivalent to the State of Connecticut the Falklands have only a population of 3800.  The majority live in Port Stanley with only 400 living in camp (the countryside).  The land is barren with no trees but there are mountains (where most of the 1982 battles occurred) in the far distance.  Most of the tourists come to see penguins, but as it would have taken us hours on a bus, we decided to pass.  Thus, the only sights available

to us were shipwrecks and monuments.

The houses in Stanley all have metal roofs.  Shingles cannot withstand the high winds.  Because the ocean temperature never reaches higher than 8 degrees, the wind is very cold.

The people of the Falklands revere Margaret Thatcher and I think one would have to be very cautious in suggesting she were other than a near god.

 

I mentioned my homicide detective buddy in an earlier blog.  He is very competitive and takes part in every silly game that happens on seadays.  He currently is doing well in collecting points for some sort of prize.  He weakness however, is in putting.  Today, I stood in for him in the putting contest and was able to add to his point count.

                                        Chilean Fjords

Tuesday (Feb 21st) did not have good weather.  Nonetheless, a catamaran picked us up from our anchored ship and we sailed for an hour in heavy rain to Laguna San Rafael where we stopped at the San Valentino Glacier. 

We went out on the deck and stood in the rain for about 20 minutes in awe of the beautiful blue ice floes that were breaking off the glacier.  As you can see Betty was dry by the time we went to dinner.

After another day of sailing in the fjords we stopped on Thursday by the huge Amalia Glacier in the Sarmiento Channel.  This had not been a scheduled stop but we thank the Captain for this little extra. 

On the return we sailed by a shipwreck from 1969.  Apparently the American Captain said to his crew, as he passed some dangerous waters: "we're alright".  Unfortunately, what they heard was "turn right" and that was the end of that ship.

Friday was a great day.  We docked in Punta Arenas, a city of over 100,000.  Punta Arenas is extremely isolated and the next town/city is a 32-hour bus ride away.  From Punta Arenas we had a tour across the pampas (prairie) to visit Estancia (ranch) Olga Teresa.  This ranch has 7,000 acres, 3,000 sheep, 1,000 cattle and 6 working dogs.  We had a demonstration of sheep herding, a demonstration of sheep shearing, and then a lovely lamb bar-b-que.

Each evening (in addition to chocolates on our pillows) we receive a 4-page "newspaper" which summarizes news stories from Canada.  On Wednesday we were pleasantly surprised to find an article on our son Matthew.

Our very first cruise was in 2008 when we travelled around the bottom of South America on a Celebrity ship (from Bueno Aires to Valparaiso).  We thought that this trip would be essentially a repeat, but to our surprise, almost none of our stops are in the same places.  This is neither good nor bad as we are seeing some very interesting places that we didn't see before, but are not seeing places that we fondly remember.  We have friends who will be taking this journey on an Oceania ship next winter.  I am now most interested in examining their specific itinerary.

                                                            Regent Voyager 

On route to boarding our ship in San Antonio we visited the city of Valparaiso.  Valparaiso (Paradise Valley) is a very hilly town but I managed to climb many stairs to the upper level prior to returning via the antique funicular. 

Once we had checked in to our ship a beautiful orchid as well as a bottle of Champagne (the French stuff) awaited us in our stateroom.  In the evening we dined at Prime 7 (steakhouse) where we were served wine in cut-crystal glasses

 

We are meeting lots of interesting people (mostly Americans).  We lunched with a retired military type who noted that he and I were similar in age to Biden.  He wanted to know if I felt that I could deal with that kind of responsibility at my age.  He was a life-long Republican until switching once Trump became President.  He noted that only after he knew that we were Canadians did he feel safe to ask a political question.  He then told a story about biking in Nova Scotia many, many years ago.  He fell and smashed his hip.  However, his commanding officer refused to allow him to have surgery in N.S.  Instead, a hospital plane flew from Vietnam to Greenwood in order for him to be evacuated.

Saturday night was “formal” night and we were invited by a New York heart surgeon and his wife to join them for dinner.  He was born in India and did his training there.  I asked him if it was difficult getting accredited in NY.  Very easy, he responded, just two easy tests.  Fortunately, he didn’t want to practice in Nova Scotia. 

On Sunday we had an unexciting tour of two lakeside towns (Puerto Varas and Frutillar). 

Then at 6:00 p.m. everyone was asked to take a wine glass and leave our rooms.  This was a “block party” and we spent a fun half hour getting to know our neighbours up and down the corridor.  We then had a leisurely dinner in Sett Mari (Italian restaurant).  In fact, we went through so many courses that at the end of the meal it was too late to attend the evening show (a comedian). 

Monday we drove through a relatively isolated section of Patagonia.

This area was not settled until 1921 and now is primarily an area of salmon farming. Scenery was very nice and we stopped for a short walk along the Rio Simpson.

Although we had missed lunch we made it back to the ship in time for high tea.