January 5, 2018

   As we approached the Buenos Aires harbour, this morning’s temperature was 22°C, the sky was overcast, with rain in the forecast, and there was a 33 km per hour west wind. This port is a cargo port so there are shuttle buses to transfer passengers to the passenger terminal. The Hapag-Lloyd Europa 2 and the MSC Poesia were also docked, so you had to make sure that you got on the correct bus.

    The area around Buenos Aires, Argentina, was first discovered by the Spanish explorer, Pedro de Mendoza and became the capital of the new Spanish Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata. The current Roman Catholic Pope Francis was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, when he was elected pope.  Buenos Aires has had a subway since 1930.

    One Canadian dollar is worth 15 Argentinian pesos. The price of gasoline at a gas station was 22.94 pesos or per liter or about $1.53 Canadian.  

    We walked around Deck 3 for an hour, watching the docking process, before breakfast.  We went up to Deck 8 Lido buffet for breakfast and met Jan and Doug. They had an afternoon excursion.        Steps 7,683

    Our excursion was a panoramic drive and a culinary walk through Buenos Aires. The meeting time was 10:30 in the passenger terminal where the group of 26 met to board a bus. Our guide was Silvina and the driver Louis.  The rain started as we entered the bus and it continued sporadically, sometimes pouring or just small showers for the rest of the six-hour excursion.  There are 24 provinces in Argentina. There are 47 barrios (neighbourhoods) in Buenos Aires Recoleta and Palermo are some of the wealthier barrios. We travelled through at least half a dozen barrios before beginning the walk.         

    The first barrio that we visited was Retiro where the old railway station was located. We passed the Air Force Memorial formerly known as the British (clock) Tower that was a gift to Buenos Aires over 100 years ago. There were no stops for photos and the windows were streaked by rain.  We passed the old Post Office Building, the restored Kischner Building, now the Cultural Center. In the San Nicolas barrio around the Plaza de Mayo was the pink Presidential Palace and the Metropolitan Cathedral where Pope Francis was archbishop. There is a protest camp on one corner of the square where the veterans of the Falklands War have been protesting for the past nine years.

     Next the bus turned on to Avenida 9 de Julio which is the widest street in South America.  Since we were here, almost six years ago, a bus transit way has been added to the centre of the boulevard, taking four former traffic lanes.  There are covered shelters for waiting and two bus lanes in each direction now.  The transit system is well utilized by the city residents, over 10 million people live in Buenos Aires and the surrounding area.  The traffic was heavy at times but since this is summer vacation time it is light by normal standards. The Colon Theatre, which is the Opera House, and the Obelisk in Republic Square, are located at the intersection of Avenida 9 de Julio and Avenida Corrientes. The Obelisk commemorates the fourth centenary of the first establishment of Buenos Aires. San Martin Square, honours Don José de San Martin, an Argentine general and hero, who led the people of the southern colonies of Spanish South America in their successful independence struggle from 1812 to July 9, 1816 when Argentina proclaimed independence. 

   In early May 1810, the Spanish population of Buenos Aires became aware that Napoleon Bonaparte had defeated and replaced their king.  They did not want to be ruled by Napoleon’s brother, Joseph, so on May 25, 1810, in what later was called the ‘May Revolution’, the citizens formed a junta which started their struggle for independence from Spain ending on 9th July 1816.

    The wealthy people in the 1880s moved into the new Recoleta and Palermo barrios to escape the yellow fever outbreak in their former barrios.  Along Av Del Libertrador we saw the Parque de la Flor, also known as United Nations Square, where a huge stainless-steel tulip opens and shuts depending on the amount of light.  Next, we passed the Horse Racing Track and the Polo Field.  The national sport of Argentina is a gaucho game translated meaning “Duck”. When it was first created in the Pampas by the gauchos, Argentine cowboys, a duck rather than a ball was batted around by horse riding gauchos as their entertainment.

   The bus parked on Av. Baéz and Republica de Estovenia for the group to get off to start our walking tour of four restaurants in the La Conita part of residential Palermo. A short two block walk, in a light rain, to the first restaurant “La Guitarrita” where we ate chopped beef baked empanadas and the traditional condiments, accompanied with Torrontez white wine, poured from a penguin shaped jug. Torrontez wine is from northern Argentina, but not Mendoza. The wine is made from the Mauzka grape, the same one used to make Pisco Sour. Also joining the group were two more guides for the walk, Herman and Mariano, who explained the food and wine and each stop.

    Two blocks away was the second restaurant “La Catina” where we enjoyed Chûripan (Chûri = sausage and Pan = bread).  These were sandwiches made from beef sausages with the traditional condiments (Chimichimi is parsley, garlic and bell pepper with olive oil and Criollcha is chopped onion, bell pepper, and tomato) and bottles sparkling water.  We were given a choice as to whether to stay and receive the same meal or continue in the almost stopped rain to the third restaurant four blocks away.  The vote was to walk on. There were some drops of water from the trees, but umbrellas diverted most of the rain. We arrived at Las Cholas to reserved tables in the crowded restaurant at a Friday lunch break. Already on the table was Chimichimi and Criollcha, large bread rolls and bottled water.  In a sizzling cast iron pan, grilled provolone cheese seasoned with oregano and olive oil was served as the starter to be shared by four people.  Next was another shared wooden platter covered in slices of beef, vegetable rice, French Fries and more grilled provolone cheese. An even larger wooden platter arrived covered in of beef, mashed squash, onion, French Fries, topped with a sunny side up egg, and more grilled provolone cheese. At none of the tables, was our group able to eat all of the food.  The food was accompanied by red wine - Alanis Malbec from Tropiche, Mendoza, Argentina. It was another three blocks for dessert at Persicco Helado.  The store was especially open for our group.  We could choose two scoops from two dozen kinds of Argentine ice cream. Most people chose Dulce de Leche in their combination.  It was delicious. The rain had stopped momentarily. It was a short walk to the bus and we went back to the ship.  We passed some of the same places that we drove by in the morning and got better photos.

    When we returned to the ship the temperature was 21°C and there was still the chance of more rain. We found out that we could not use the remaining ship credits to individually assign gratuities to our housekeeping crew and waiters, so we decided to buy Internet time on the ship’s Internet and spent several hours uploading two weeks of photos to the blog texts. We worked on writing today’s blog and started to pack since the luggage needs to be in the hall by midnight to be transferred to the shore warehouse to be collected in the morning when we go to the airport.

    This was the last night on the ship and six of us met for a 7:30 dinner in the dining room since Joyce & Shin and Violet & Jerry did the eight-hour excursion out to the Pampas (prairie) to a cattle ranch and only return after 6 p.m. Violet & Jerry already had told us they had other plans for this evening.

    Tonight’s dessert was a choice of Baked Alaska or Chocolate Ginger Mousse Cake. We started with Potato Soup with Shrimp, followed by Roasted Chicken with cheese Gnocchi or Prime Rib with whipped potatoes, carrot, broccoli and asparagus.  We bid farewell to our waiters Nyoman and Doli. One of the other waiters took a picture of the six of us with Nyoman and Doli.

    Tonight’s entertainment is Pampas Devils Gauchos for only one show at 9:30 pm. They are a group of three with a show of Tango Dancing, the history of Tango and examples of Gaucho dancing and drumming. Their performance was high energy. There are a lot of people either packing or out in Buenos Aires, since we are in the city overnight and the official disembarking in tomorrow morning.

    

We finished packing after the show to have our luggage in the hall by midnight.

Steps  13,128