Buenos Aires--Saturday January 10 to Monday January 12

Saturday we landed in BA at about 8:30 to a magnificent sunset!

First off we went to collect our luggage that we  had stored in Terminal A at when we first arrived so we wouldn’t have to drag it all over the first week.  Then we got in line to get a cab…..a very good system through a kiosk inside the terminal where you pay a set rate before you get in the cab….so you don’t get inundated with people calling at you “taxi taxi” and worry about being ripped off by an unofficial taxi. 

Downtown is about 30 kms from the airport mostly on tolled freeway. Our hotel room El Conquistador was small and clean and came with wifi and a good breakfast. 

Sunday morning we left the hotel to explore the city to find  the caches in the area…..which led us to a beautiful theatre and the obelisk on Ave 9 de Julio (9th of July Ave….Argentina’s independence day)  a wide boulevarded main street in the city.  And another cache that was located on a side street that had tango steps in the pavement! We had a little trouble retrieving and returning that one!

The streets are very narrow are all one way streets……no parking, lots of balconies and wrought iron decorative features on the sides of the buildings. Being Sunday morning there wasn’t much traffic nor were there a lot of stores open.  We did manage to find a grocery store that carried wine…we bought a couple of bottles each to put in our cabin on the ship.  Not all grocery stores carry wine….I couldn’t really tell why some did and some didn’t.  There were lots of homeless, passed out people too.  

After a couple of hours of walking we went back to the hotel and checked out and had them call a cab to take us to the cruise ship so we could check in.  We left the hotel about 11 and by 12:30 we had our balcony room!  (from when we first booked this cruise last year for an inside cabin we have upgraded twice….to an unobstructed window view (a free upgrade) and then last week a balcony (for a few dollars more)….so we are really excited to be able to open a door and get air flow and to see the view)  Lori is a master when it comes to working the system….and she has been a lifesaver with her Spanish knowledge, I am happy to say. One of the things I have found here different from Europe is that not a lot of people have any English and I am the worst at languages so my Spanish is non existent.

We had  a little lunch on the ship and then grabbed our cameras and gps we went back out by about 1:30. We walked another 3 km finding a few more caches and seeing some new parks, statues a market…..with a stop at a Starbucks to cool down and get more water.  I think the temperature was about 33 and very very muggy.

We also passed the French embassy…..with flags at half mast, flowers and notes stuck to the fence….for the people who died in the terrorist attack a few days before. 

We made our way back to the ship about 5 and spent the rest of the evening on board walking and exploring the ship.  There was prebooked trip off the ship to a tango show that I heard was really worth seeing and I wish I had gone to that…..

Monday we left our floating hotel about 8:30 trying to beat the heat of the day…..we grabbed a free shuttle to the downtown sponsored by Hstern, a German jeweler to their store.  They offer a shuttle to and from their store and the ship every 15 minutes and a free gift.  We made use of their services and picked up the free gift and then found a cab that would take us to the east side of the city to La Boca district to Caminita Street with pretty coloured houses and shops, tango dancers (trying to get photo’s with you) ….kind of like a Gas town.

As in China (see the blog about China where they stuck a hat on my head, poles on my shoulders and were snapping pictures with their hands out for money as we were getting off a boat) here they had a hat on my head and were posing with us for tango pictures….and then they had their hand out.  We managed to sneak by that one…with pictures!

We did a little shopping on Caminta Street, found a cache and walked a little way but it was already starting to get hot.  So we grabbed a cab and went back across the city to the Recolta district.  The cab driver giving us a little tour of some of the other districts as we made our way towards the cemetery that Eva Peron (Evita) was buried in.  It is a beautiful cemetery with lots of people flocking here to see her crypt….kind of like the cemetery in Paris that everyone comes to see Jimmy Morrison’s burial site….just follow the crowd.

By then it was 1:00 and we were getting very hot and so stopped at an air-conditioned café for a light lunch and a reprieve from the humidity.  We were due back to the ship by 4 so we headed back by cab and then the shuttle.

Six o’clock was sailing time…..but at 5:15 there was a minatory emergency drill.  They sound the whistles for the different stages of a drill/situation and we make our way to the muster station beside the lifeboat we are assigned to….and they take roll call.  If people did not show up for the drill they would not be allowed to sail! 

 We were at dinner in the dining room before we actually sailed…..leaving late because of a medical emergency….someone was taken off the ship before it ever got  started….that would be horrible!

After dinner our first show, the Pampas Devils Gauchos, Argentinian dances including a folk dance using the bolas (Argentinian cowboy lasso) and the tango.

Tomorrow Montevideo, Uraguay