After we left Montevideo, Uruguay, our last stop was Buenos Aires which meant disembarkation.
We have a few more photos on the ship including this delicious lobster dinner.
This report projected on the screen in the huge theatre room showed that we traveled over 5,000 miles.
Below is the exercise room where I went for morning stretches and core strengthening.
This was our favorite waiter from the Ukraine, Kristian. He has worked for Celebrity for 20 years.
Three level theatre where we gathered for performances and presentations.
Steve pointing to Antarctica on the world globe in one of the reading lounges.
When we arrived back in Buenos Aires, we were scheduled for several events including a tour of city highlights, an evening Dinner/Tango Show, and on the final day a boat trip of the Tigre and Parana Delta.
This giant sculpture made of steel and aluminum closes at night and opens again every day. It's called Floralis Generica, and it symbolizes a synthesis of all flowers and hope reborn as it opens each day.
Above is the famous Plaza De Mayo. At the end of the plaza is La Casa Rosada (Pink House) where the president of Argentina works.
The plaza is a place where people gather to make their wishes known to the government.
La Boca is a very colorful neighborhood where artisans can sell their creations and tango dancers dance on the street. There are many shops and lots of interesting food choices. The Boca Junior Football stadium is just a few blocks away so there was a lot of congestion and excitement as people made their way to the afternoon game.
We enjoyed the La Boca neighborhood very much. Our tour dropped us off at a mall a few blocks from our hotel. It was a beautiful mall with very expensive designer stores and items for sale.
Fortunately there was a food court in the basement level. We didn't really know what we were purchasing. Eventually, with the help of an English printed menu with pictures and an English speaking employee, we were able to settle on some food we could recognize. Argentina is famous for it's meat but to make it healthier, they add salad items to the menu. Steve ended up with an amazingly good steak and salad. I had delicious pork chops. The food was excellent and very reasonably priced. I think that we paid about $12 for both of our dinners which included drinks. The only drink we recognized was orange Fanta so that is what we drank.
That evening we were picked up at our hotel and driven through town to a dinner theatre. The building has been a theatre since it was built in the 1940's and has been maintained in it elegant splendor. We expected a mediocre dinner especially since the price included wine, which of course we declined, and a show afterwards. Steve absolutely LOVED his Argentinian steak! My meal was also good. Steak is what they are famous for and they delivered.
This is the well known Obelisco in the center of town with about 12 lanes of traffic going each way!
The evening entertainment was fabulous. We enjoyed the dancers, singers and live accompaniment very much. We were very satisfied with our day's adventures and felt that we had received a very good value from our favorite tour broker Viator.com.
Our last day in Buenos Aires, we took a river cruise up the Parana Delta to Tigre, a small weekend and tourist town in the north of the BA Province. It is reachable by bus, train or boat. It sits on an island created by several small streams and rivers which have deposited their mud for many years. The name is derived from "tigres" or jaguars that were hunted there in its early years.
Delightful homes and boat docks line the river. Many of them are on stilts due to periodic flooding.
The river is their lifeblood and their mode of transport. There are boats that do everything--taxis, buses to carry children to school, stores to bring goods to residents. Even the mail is collected and delivered via boat.
Taxi Boat
When we arrived at the town of Tigre we got off the boat and continued in a small van. We were taken to the Puerto de Frutos, which was originally a fruit market. Now they sell everything, but most of the shops were closed because it was Monday.
These amazing murals, made of what appears to be cut glass, lined a couple of the streets.
We had a choice of drop off points. One was a couple of miles from our hotel but would allow us to walk back and see the amazing Recoleta cemetery. Many of the rich and famous citizens of Argentina are buried there in their above ground vaults which are beautifully ornate and very unique. Eva Peron is buried there. After a few challenges, we finally found the cemetery. We enjoyed seeing it but decided not to take the time to find Eva's burial vault.
We saw this huge (banyon-like) tree in a park not too far from the cemetery. It was "hot" so we appreciated the shade.
Here is Steve standing in between rows of vaults in the cemetery. I was hoping for a higher viewpoint where I could take the photo from an elevated angle. I couldn't find a way to do that.
Out comes Steve's cell phone with his "Here Now" app so we can figure which way to walk to return to our hotel. We were later cautioned that we shouldn't have our cell phones out as they would be easy for someone to grab one and run. I never felt unsafe in BA but we did hear a story from a fellow cruiser how a couple of friendly guys stopped to help a help him with photos and ran away with his backpack of expensive camera lenses.
We made it back and on the way stopped by our favorite restaurant in the mall food court. This time we splurged and bought 2 steak dinners for $15. We wanted our stomachs full of good food for our return flight home. We passed the inspirational Buenos Aires LDS temple on our way to the airport. Goodbye beautiful Buenos Aires, Argentina!
No comments:
Post a Comment