Good tour, good food and excellent wine

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Geo: -34.8939, -56.1568

Wednesday, the 26th, was an onboard day. However, we enjoyed it thoroughly. At 11am we went to the Mariner Society brunch. This group is the loyalty club of Holland America Line. We were welcomed by the captain and then had a great 3 course meal accompanied by champagne and were given coasters of the ship at the end. Very enjoyable.

We went to both quizzes for the day winning the afternoon one and then at 7pm our whole group gathered in the Italian restaurant on board, Canaletto's, for a celebration of the 5 members who arehaving birthdays on the trip, including Fletcher. They were all given a special cake and, of course, were sung to as a group. Good food, good company and good wine!

The next day we had our first landfall in Argentina, when we landed at Puerto Madryn. We were originally heading to the Falkland Islands at Port Stanley. We had been really excited about that but two days ago this had to be cancelled due to the poor weather forecast. We were then very disappointed. However, we went ashore to find a reasonably large town with a lovely seafront and a large, albeit, dark sandy beach. We wandered into the central square and checked out some of the shops. Then we looked for a WiFi cafe. The first we chose allowed us to connect but we had no Internet access, so we went across the road to Los Clasicos, an airy, comfortable Italian cafe where we spent the next two hours. We had the best gnocchi I have ever had, topped by a creamy prawn sauce and accompanied by an excellent Argentinian Cab Sauv. The whole couple of hours plus food and wine cost us $45. On board, 100 minutes of internet costs $50!. The highlight of this day was the final of Dancing with the Stars at
Sea. During the trip they had run different sessions of this choosing
finalists for Jive, Waltz, Foxtrot and Cha Cha. Three of our group had
made it to the final. We all went along to support them. They all did
well but the winner was our tour guide, Jesus. He was a natural in the
Cha-Cha and got a standing ovation at the end with a perfect score from
the judges. Kenn and Peta were the runners up so a clean sweep for
Bunniks.

The 28th was another full day at sea. On board ship the main occupation seems to be eating and drinking. We had a quiet day, relaxing as he ship ploughed on, as we had to make up time. We had left Port Madryn four hours late as the wind was too strongly against the ship to allow it to sail away safely. That night was the Officers' Ball in The Crow's Nest. This was really just a dance where the officers of the ship turned up and danced with some passengers. We went up there but ended up talking to an Irish couple and a lady from Alabamba.

Montevideo in Uruguay was the penultimate stop. We had booked a shore excursion here. This involved a bus tour of the city then a visit and lunch at a winery. We had a gloriously warm sunny day as the shorts came out fot the first time in many days. Montevideo is a large city, about 2 million people. It is spread along the shores of the River Plata which is more like a gulf, being over 200 kms wide at the mouth. We enjoyed our tour around its main suburbs and beaches. We then drove 20 minutes out of the town to a lovely location, Bouza Winery. We were given a tour of the vineyards and the vats and fermentation areas. It is only small and fairly new but seems very efficient. The owner also has a collection of about 30 vintage cars and as many motor bikes and scooters which we were shown. Then we had a tasting in the restaurant. There was one white and three reds to try. All were well made but we enjoyed the Merlot the most followed by the Tannay, originally Italian but now considered the uruguayan traditional grape. The food was great with melted cheese and sausage to start served with crusty bread, then Lamb and beef with potatoes and veggies. Delicious. A great Creme Caramel topped off a huge but very tasty lunch. We had more red, a Tempranillo Tannay blend, very nice. While eating we had a great tango show performed by a couple between the tables. Everyone agreed it was one of the best excursions of the trip.

Once back at the ship we went to see the anchor of the Graf Spee which was at the entrance to the pier. We then sat and watched while a huge container ship was manouvered from its berth by two tugs. Back on board we did the final quiz but missed the bonus question and lost. Still we have plenty of fun during the trip. After dinner it was repacking bags to leave them outside the cabin by 11-30pm. Then we thanked the bar staff and headed for bed.

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