29. Buenos Aires, Argentina

29. Buenos Aires, Argentina          

      

Tango city of the World     

 I like BA, it has flair. I few years ago Carol and I spent a full month living in BA.

We spent another month criss-crossing Argentina by bus, going south to Ushuaia.

If you search on my blog you will find the old reports so you can read more details about Buenos Aires. 

The hop from Montevideo to BA was very short for the ship. I noticed the ship took on lots of supplies in Uruguay but not in Argentina. It must be cheaper for them to buy and restock in Montevideo, rather than here in BA. But when it comes to passengers, BA was the end of the first leg of the voyage. Today is the 24^th day of our cruise. Many people are getting off. They had their Caribbean stops, spent time in Rio, saw Carnival in Rio and now it’s time to go back to their regular lives. 

As I said before, about 450 people left the ship. And the ship received about 380 new folks. 

 

From here on, going south the weather will turn cooler. Not immediately, but yes, that’s what Buenos Aires means…. Better air, good air from here on south. I am ok with that; I like it cooler.

BA Is a Huge Container Port

We are in a huge container port in BA, this is not a nice, charming port, and it is a work place. 

To get into the city, we had to take a shuttle into the terminal, then a bus to downtown. The terminal in BA was a busy place, we were here before, and we know this port, this area, this location.

I talked to people and found out that H. Stern, the jewelry store, had a free shuttle going to their store, which is downtown, exactly where we wanted to visit. All we were

Sculpture Changes Color in Sunlight

asked to do for being given a free ride was to step into the store. We did that. Then we went window shopping along the large shopping street that starts right there in downtown BA.

It is good to know a city, it is nice when you come back and then know certain things about a city. On the other hand, there is no use taking a city tour, we’ve been here, done that. For BA I had a mission. I needed short sleeved dress

Buying New Shirts

shirt; a bit sporty, yet not a T or Polo shirt. I had something in mind that I had not found so far when I looked in other places like Rio or Montevideo. In BA however, no problem, I found what I was looking for at Glenmore, a Men’s Store with higher prices. The sales man was very good and attentive. Two shirts later we ambled along the shopping street (Florida Street), even sat for a bit in the Galleria, the shopping mall, but then took the same shuttle back to the ship. Yes, thank you H. Stern, nice customer service. Sorry we did not buy anything, but you should have modern stones like Tanzanite at reasonable prices.

Long Pedestrian Shopping Street

When we got back on the Ship we had a good time watching the ‘newbie’ crowd come on board. One could tell who had cruised before and who had never cruised. It is just the way the people looked around, walked, or even pushed their carry-on. 

He Told a Story, Acted Out In Music and Dance, of Rivalry  and Passion

For the night’s entertainment we had a local group of performers on the ship. The Tango School in BA (Escuela de Tango de Argentina) was hired to sing, play and dance for us. The various forms of the underlying feelings and passions of the Tango were demonstrated.

Absolutely GREAT!

A stunning performance, the audience did not want them to stop. They wanted more, more, and more.

 

Everybody loved it.

It showed us that what we have seen so far as ‘entertainment’ from the ship was really mediocre. This group of dancers, singers KNEW their stuff.   Fabulous performance, thank you!

28a Graffiti In Montevideo

28a Graffiti In Montevideo

Amazing art work.

28) Montevideo, Uruguay

28. Montevideo, Uruguay     

            

Thursday:   February, 15, 2018             

Day 23 of our trip 
 

I got my wish from yesterday…. We had a slow day off the ship for a while.

Ship Graveyard at Entrance to Harbor

The ship docked in the middle of Montevideo’s Old Town. We could walk off the ship and were already downtown. Very convenient.  No hassle from hucksters, no shuttle, really no passport control to speak of, we just walked off the ship and voila, we were in Montevideo.

I loved that.

The Old Town of Montevideo showed lots of old wrought iron balconies, railings and houses. People were walking

Lovely Old Town

about with their Mate cups. The stores were open but nobody pressured me to come in, buy this. It was very laid back. There is not a whole lot to see, it is more a place where you sit and watch. The lifestyle of Uruguay is not very hectic. 

Lots of Wrought Iron Railings

We walked through the old streets for about 3 hours, stopped here, there and beyond, but bought nothing. 



There were some modern knick knacks but we were aware that we would need to carry it all when we got back after the cruise and… we do not need stuff for the house or personally.

City Park

We found the old City Park and walked around it, looking at some homemade merchandise, some antiques that people offered, but again, we really don’t need a thing. 

Mate Cups

During our Enrichment Lectures on board yesterday, the speaker Humberto said to visit the Restaurant “Brazilian Café” for good WiFi. We did just that. Carol had 76 emails to go through, it took a while, but we were in no hurry. 

It was a nice relaxing day, a comfy feeling of being in a city with such a slow pulse.

Mate - The National Drink

Half of the population of Uruguay lives in Montevideo. For sure there are areas that are more hyper, more active, but I never saw them. To me, Montevideo is nice, but very laid back.  It is almost as if everybody had a Mate high.

For the evening we ate at a table with a single guy named David…. He had money… but….

I felt creepy with him around… David had a crush on our waitress, a girl from the Ukraine. I cannot imagine her being attracted to him, but he never saw it. He was very into himself, into ‘David’ only. I wonder what the crew is being told about how to behave if something like that happens. I felt for our waitress, she was good to keep her cool when David tried to make a date with her. She was polite but kept her distance. Good for her… I don’t know about this David, though.  

The entertainer for the evening was another David, David Mendelsohn. He sang mostly Beatles' songs and was not bad, but when he spoke every other word was “ahhhh….”

I hope you read this, David Mendelsohn…. You will not make it with a speech impediment like that…….

Take lesson in public speaking……. drop the ……. ahhhhs.

Good night

See you tomorrow.