Final Day

Since our flight is not leaving until 11:00 pm, we had time to tour most of the day.  We struck out into the main part of town, attempting to visit the Presidential Palace.  I guess the President didn't hear we were coming because she decided to stay at home today which meant it is not open to the public.  The museum was also closed because it's Monday.

We did find the shopping street, Florida, bustling with activity.  There trip had not had many shopping opportunities, so it seems fitting to get a little retail therapy in our last few hours here.  While not formal,  the BAers seem to have a pretty good fashion sense which translates to some nice clothing shops.  Adjacent to Florida Street is a large mall similar to what you might find at home.  Still decorated for Christmas, we were treated to  large tree adorned with Swarvaaski crystal stars that was quite stunning.  After browsing around the shops and grabbing lunch in the food court (they serve charcoal cooked steaks here, so pretty good fare) we headed back to our hotel for one more shower before departing for the airport.

We had been warned that BA traffic can be horrific, so we left with plenty (7 hours enough for you???) time to relax before our flight.  Because Argentina airport security is a little more lax than what we have in the US, additional screening will be done before boarding our flight.

Some advice if you're planning a trip to BA.  First, bring lots of US cash since you can get a much better exchange rate (12 pesos to the dollar versus the standard 8)  at the 'blue' locations (your hotel can direct you) which can make your trip much more reasonable.  Bring fashionable but not fancy closthes with you.  It's hot in the summer, so dress to keep cool and bring plenty of sunscreen.  Despite being told how unsafe it can be, we did not find it to be any worse than other large cities.  Try the beef - it's what they're known for.  Likewise, try the mate just to say you did.  Build in an afternoon siesta.  Some of the shops close in the afternoon and the city doesn't really get into full swing until after 9 pm.  Plan on 2 hours for any meal with table service.

Most of all, enjoy this bustling southern city.  The people are friendly, the skies are blue and the exchange rate makes it a very reasonable vacation.

Next: Who knows, but if I'm on the road, there's sure to be a blog.

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Sunday Market and an Afternoon Barbecue

Sundays, San Telmo is the sight for an Antique fair plus adjacent markets lining the streets leading to the square.  These are real antiques, not some junk you find sometimes in US street markets, and it kept us busy for a couple of hours.  We really didn't have time to explore the side streets.  This would have to wait for another visit. There were booths specializing in gaucho items, artwork, silver work, jewelry, etc.  It was really the place to be this sunny day.

This afternoon we had an in-home experience for lunch.  There's a website, EatWith, where people advertise for dinners prepared in native fashion.  We choose one that focused on outdoor grilling.  I think we all were a little interested to see what this might be like.  Our dinner was prepared by two young men, one a chef and the other a software engineer.  The house was in Palermo and had a bachelor pad vibe, perhaps not where we would have picked based on the appearance, but fun none the less.  We were shown to the rooftop where our meal was being prepared in a brick grill that is common place in homes in the area.  Several types of meat, some we don't often find like beef kidneys, were already on the grill roasting slowly and hardwood charcoal.

Our first taste was chorizo with chimichuri sauce and fresh baked bread.  It was delicious!  Susequent meats came off the grill and were passed along with potato salad, corn on the cob, beet salad and rip tomatoes, lettuce and carrots.  Also on the grill were eggplant, garlic and onions.  It was a lot of food but was tasty.  They prepare their grilled meats very simply.  Many families gather on Sundays and spend the afternoon and early evening gathered around the grill.  It seems like a great tradition.

We also got to try the local tea, Mate, which is very herbal and slightly bitter.  The mate is place in a gourd with a special spoon that the hot water is sipped through.  More hot water is added and it is passed around to anyone wanting a taste.  it is all about care taken to prepare and share it that makes it special.

All this meat meant we were ready for a little siesta before any evening activities.  It was a hot, sunny day so some in our group laid around the pool, while others refreshed with my new favorite, lemonade made with fresh mint, ginger and little or no sugar.  I vow to make this a regular at home.  

We found ourselves still quite full even at 8:00, so we walked to a local pub for a beer and light snack to top off our evening.

Tomorrow: Last day and final thoughts

Japanese Gardens and a Little Art

We had a much cooler start to the morning, so walking to look at the parks was a pleasant affair.  It was early on Saturday, so the streets had not yet filled with weekend activities.  Nothing seems to open before 10, so we had a chance to people watch while waiting for our first destination to open their gates.

The Japanese Gardens are a peaceful haven from the bustling city surrounding it.  Lilly pads fill the tranquil lake that serves as the center point for the gardens.  Koi that grown to enormous proportions, swan among the boulders looking for a fish food offering.  Bridges connect wandering paths.  Over a hundred plant specimens that survived the atomic bomb in Japan were transferred her and are thriving.  Some of the trees would have required several full grown men to encircle them.  What a beautiful gift to the Buenos Aires citizens.

Next was a visit to the Malba Museum.  The majority of the works currently being shown are by Antonio Birni.  This mixed media art was quite vivid, using industrial products to enhance the people and animals portrayed.  While very unusual, I found myself attracted to his works, fascinated by his creativity.  The exhibit is part of a continuing partnership with the Houston Museum of Art which was started in 2005.

With the weather still pleasant, we strolled back to our hotel.  The streets had filled with shoppers and bistros were feeding the awaking weekenders.  We stopped at purchased one of their best known products, empanadas to snack on while walking to The Mine.  An afternoon siesta seemed in order.

Dinner was at a "closed door" restaurant - basically a house where a chef prepares dinner for those guests that reserve ahead of time.  Casa Coupage specializes in tasting wine from Argentina paired with a tasting menu.  I chose the full tasting menu along with a sample of 5 wines (plus Proseco). The food was outstanding as well as the wines.  Santiago, one of the owners and a sommelier, led us through the wines, explaining the regions and subtle differences in the choices he made for us.

By this point, it was approaching midnight, so we all returned to our hotel a little better educated on the Argentinian wines and very full.

Tomorrow: The Sunday Market

Evita and All That Jazz

After an early morning thunderstorm, our group set out on our first full day adventure.  Again the humidity was imposing and we quickly became moist from sweat.  My normally straight hair had turned into a mass of curls.  We walked through several parks with beautiful, stately trees that had obviously resided in the city for decades.  Many of them were in bloom, this being the height of summer.

Lunch turned into a two hour affair which put us back on the street at the hottest part of the day.  We soldiered on, our final destination being Cemetery La Recoleta.  This may be the most elaberate cemetery I've ever visited.  Towering marble and granite structures serve as the final resting place to some of the most important families of Argentina.  Most had doors with glass so you could peer inside to the caskets adorned with fresh flowers.  They often went deep into the ground to accommodate generations.  The ironwork affixed to crypts was quite exquisite with many having bronze sculptures.

Did I mention that Eva Peron is laid to rest here?  Flowers are placed in the door as tributes to this woman who stole millions from the citizens only to relocate to Spain.  However, this shady past obviously hasn't tarnished her reputation here has witnessed by the throngs gathered around her tomb.

We walked to the church next door.  While not huge, it was a beautiful church with gilded statutes and soaring ceilings.  There were a number of people escaping the heat in the cool sanctuary.  We caught a cab to our hotel with its awaiting refreshing showers.

Argentina is know for its beef and tonight we were going to one of the best steak places in town, Don Julio.  The sidewalks were crowded with people waiting for the delights waiting inside.  A open coal grill cooked our beef to perfection and also seared our cheese appetizer, imparting a smoky flavor that formed a crust revealing a melted interior.  To top it off, we enjoyed figs stuffed with walnuts that had been cooked in a slightly sweet wine sauce. What a great start to our BA sojourn.

Tomorrow: Enjoying the city parks

into the Heat

Today turned into a long day of travel.  After eating a final shipboard breakfast, we were released to roam Ushuaia until flight time.  Having shopped in all the shops on our way in, we killed time wandering the streets, getting in some much needed exercise, until a slow-paced lunch killed just the right amount of time.  The airport and subsequent flight was filled with fellow shipmates including some of our expedition leaders.  Despite everything we had heard about Aerolineas, our flight was on time and our luggage arrived safely.

Back in the sweltering heat of Buenos Aires, we quickly missed the icebergs of a few days earlier. Trying to save a buck, not always a good idea, we caught a 'cab' into the city. Unmarked, the driver seemed a candidate for both weight reduction surgery coupled with a heart transplant.  He wheezed the entire trip, cigarette hanging out the window, running through tollbooths without paying the fares, and driving well in excess of the speed limit.  By the grace of God we arrived safely at our hotel only to have David realize he had left his jacket in the cab. The 'cheap' ride wasn't.

We're staying in Palermo Soho, a hip, cool slightly edgy part of the city. Mine Hotel, a cute little boutique hotel, will be our home base for the next four nights.  The area is alive with bars, shops and restaurants.  It has a 'cool kids' kind of vibe although the the weather was anything but.  The humidity was weighty, even more so considering where we started the day.

We met the rest of our geoup and walked to a corner cafe for hamburgers and beer.  Afterwards, two of  us walked to Cuban Bar to have a mojito before bedtime. So glad to be back in a city, although I do miss our penguin buddies.

Tomorrow: A walk through the city

Relaxing in Tierra del Fuego

After a much needed 10 hours of sleep, we set off to explore the main part of Ushuaia (you-swhy-a).  The town slopes from the mountains down to the waterfront, so going into town is an easy downward stroll.  Most of the stores are on the main drag of St. Martin which is a several blocks of cute shops, some more touristy than others.  The one thing you don't see here is any big US chains (no McDonalds in site!).

We stopped in a cute bakery to partake in churros that were filled with dulce de leche, which was delicious!  It also was enough to tide us over to our late lunch.  We bought our standard touris items (t-shirts, shot glasses, stone penguins, etc.).  We learned about the local tea, mate, that you drink through a metal straw that filters out the leaves.  We also purchased a couple of pieces of jewelry with the local stone of rhodochrosite.  This lovely pink stone polishes up to an almost translutient gem.

Our lunch was at Moustacchio which serves all the local delicacies. Of particular interest to us was the local crab that is caught in the Beagle Channel.  Fresh is best, as we proved here.  We also tried some Argentinian wine which was quit nice.

For the afternoon, we visited the former Prison that has been converted to several small museums that occupy the arms of the wings that housed the prisoners.  The first, the Maritime Museum, traced the colorful history of the region.  Many explorers have tried and more often than not, tried to conquer the South Pole.

They also have an art museum and you can visit the cells as they were during the time this housed the End of the Earth prisoners.  Allow a couple of hours to see it all. It was really worth the visit.

Our first official cruise meeting was back at the hotel.  This is all about sizing each other up.  We're spending the next week with these people, so there's the standard "who will I spend time with, who will I avoid" going on.  They all looked like nice, diverse (from China, to Africa, Germany and Japan) group.

We grabbed a quick dinner then back to the room for bed.

It may be several days for my next entry since internet may be scarce on the ship.  I'll post as I'm able.

Greetings From the Ends of the Earth

Our trip got underway on the 27th with a 6:15 am flight to Miami.  I love to start a trip tired from getting up at 4 in the morning, not.  We had a long day of flying ahead of us with another one on Sunday.  The 9 hour plus flight from Miami to Buenos Aires gave me time to read about the Shackleton exploration of 1914-1916.  Alfred Lansing's book, "Endurance" follows the fateful trip of 28 men who set out to circumnavigate the South Pole but instead spent almost 2 years trying to survive in the frigid Artic Circle after loosing their ship to ice flows.  If you like tales of humans overcoming incredible adversity, I highly recommend you give this book a go.

Arriving in BA at 10:30 pm, we had a very short night in a clean but very basic hotel near the airport.  Our 5 am shuttle meant we got less than 4 hours sleep, but that's what planes are for, right?  We arrived at the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia, Sunday afternoon.  The bustling little town of 60,000 seems like something you might see in Alaska, rough streets in places and cute little stores, restaurants and hotels off the main drag of St. Martin.

The approach into the airport was spectacular with snow capped mountains falling into the blue ocean.  I think this could probably provide enough entertainment for several days, hiking around the parks(this is part of Patagonia), boating the Beagle Channel and wondering around the town.

After checking into our Hotel, Las Lengas, (and taking a quick nap) we strolled into town to look around.  A lot of stores were closed since it was Sunday but we were so tired we probably didn't need to make any major purchasing decisions like whether we liked the pink penguin t-shirt or the gray whale.  On the street facing the waterfront, we found a very cute bar/restaurant for dinner and a local brew.  The place served as a general store for many years before becoming a bar and there's still remnants of its former life hanging and sitting everywhere.  We overcame the language barrier to order a Drake beer and a plate of the day.  It was delicious and just what we needed before heading off to bed.

Tomorrow we go full tourist