Saturday morning we said goodbye to our two outstanding tour directors, Zeca and Marcia. We then had a tour of Buenos Aires before boarding our ship around noon. It was lackluster tour with only two stops. Our first stop was at La Recoleta Cemetery. This is a beautiful and historical cemetery. The Cemetery includes graves of some of the most influential and important Argentinians, including several presidents, scientists, and wealthy characters. Internationally, Eva Perón is the best-known person buried in this cemetery. Our only other stop was in La Boca. La Boca is a popular destination for tourists visiting Argentina, with its colourful houses and pedestrian street, the Caminito, where tango artists perform and tango-related memorabilia is sold. This might have been an interesting stop if you didn't have to beat the peddlers off with a ... read more

Thursday morning we drove across the border to view the falls from the Argentina side. The Argentina custom officials go at their own speed and needlessly delay this process. Our local guide, Wilson, was nearly arrested when he had the nerve to complain about the rediculous delay. When we finally got to Argentina side of the falls we had to take a couple trains to the Devil's Throat Overlook. We missed the first one so we walked to catch the second one. It was a nice fifteen minute walk on level ground. After about a 30 minute wait we boarded the second train. After we got off the train it was over a mile walk along catwalks to the overlook. By the time we finally got to the Devil's Throat overlook we had about five minutes ... read more

On Tuesday morning we started an eight hour tour of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with our tour director, Zeca. Zeca was from Rio and would be with us all five days and did an outstanding job. Our first stop was at Corcovado where we rode the train to the top of the mountain. Atop the mountain stands the inspiring Christ the Redeemer statue. Unfortunately visability on top of the mountain was very poor and we did not get to see much of the famous view. It was nice a sunny on top but there were clouds below us and we didn't get to see a whole lot except for the beautiful statue itself. Next we drove into downtown Rio where we stopped at the cone-shaped Metropolitan Cathedral. The Cathedral was our only stop ... read more

I began my South America vacation by flying to Atlanta. I had a ten hour layover between flights so I rented a car and drove into downtown. In was a beautiful sunny winter day, nice and warm compared to what I had left back in Indianapolis. Once in downtown I went to the top of the Westin Peachtree Hotel for a nice view of the city. It is the second-tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere at 73 stories tall. Next I had lunch and then headed out to Stone Mountain just east of the city. I rode the tramway to the top of the mountain. I walked all around the top of the mountain. I didn't realize how far I had walked down until it was time to climb back up. But it was a ... read more