11/30/2022

Dawn on Rio la Plata   

Sunup looking aft

Position of the Ship

Port day so there are many excursions going on.  (One is a plane ride to Iguazu Falls, 17 hours and $1400a pop!  Our friends from Franklin are going on that one.)

 

Bob and Ann will go on the Gaucho’s and Pampas tour, 7 hours total – bus to outside of town and then to see gauchos do their thing and eat a fine Argentinian steak.  Paul and Shirley will shuttle into town and have a more sedate day.  (There is shopping to do and the exchange rate is quite favorable.)

We saw a lot of security in the port area.  One shuttle brought us from the ship to the Port Terminal building where we caught another shuttle (after passing the requisite opportunities to buy tours and souvenirs) to the Downtown drop off point.  We were told that only water could be carried into Buenos Aires (no food etc.). Paul counted  at least 25 people in uniform directing cruisers to the various buses.

 

Buenos Aires has a lot of traffic, a lot of buses, scooters, bikes and pedestrians and all the wheeled units were fast and (apparently) in control.  Some jaywalking was witnessed, but by young and foolish people (or bicyclists).  We were dropped off at San Martin Plaza, the terminus of a very nice park area with a lot of trees that required SEEKing (several new species were registered).  Summer blooms were all over in purples, oranges, reds, yellows, and lots of green.  Very pretty.  We saw some homeless sleeping in the park and in doorways.  We were panhandled (asked for money) three times in the brief park visit.  They all took no for an answer and continued on their way.

 

We wound our way past a political demonstration parade to the Avenue of the 9^th of July, the widest street in the world, supposedly.  It is very wide and very busy.  At the obelisk in plaza de República we turned up Florida avenue and shopped.  They like US Dollars.  A credit card purchase would have been $100, but they were eager to take $50 in cash.  We stopped in an upscale mall, Galleria Pacifico which is very nice but not 5^thAvenue.  We then strolled back to San Martin Plaza and waited for the next shuttle. 10,951 steps were logged.

 

 Political Demonstration          

Inside Galleria Pacifico.    

Spice stall on the Avenue of July 9 

Evita at the end of the Avenue of July 9

 

The Obelisk          

sustainable sculpture         

inside Galleria Pacifico  

in the park of San Martin

Purple trees                   

more purple trees          

a fig tree in the park.    

 

Back on ship after 20 minutes of shuttling we ate a nice lunch and talked with our friends Michelle and John from Marietta.   At 6 PM the Star Theater put on a Tango show featuring local entertainers that was totally professional and amazed all who saw.  After dinner we finished packing and had our luggage out of the room and in the hall by 8 PM (2 hours early).  We are scheduled to be off the ship be 8 AM tomorrow to go to a hotel where we will have another Viking tour before we are ferried to the airport.

 

Then next blog activity will be after we get home to Chattanooga and Gigabit Internet.  Thanks for traveling wil us, keeping up the blog has been a lot of fun.