BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA--Saturday-Monday, December 14-16, 2013

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Sunday, December 15^th--Buenos Aires, Argentina on the River Plata

Clear blue skies.

Buenos Aires and Montevideo are both located on the River Plata which is 180 miles long and goes from over a mile wide at its confluence of two rivers to a 140 miles wide at its mouth. It is the widest river in the world (if you consider it a river and not a bay off the Atlantic Ocean as some do). It is fairly shallow so the ships must sail in a narrow channel marked by buoys. When we left this port we were pushed out by tugs for quite some time.

For both Valerie and I, the country of Argentina is equated with the culture of the Gauchos on the vast Pampas. We think we must have used the same elementary textbook that portrayed Argentina in that manner. So, since we were going to be a full day and 1/2 here in Argentina, we made reservations with Viator Tours from home to be taken to visit a ranch with Gauchos.

We left the ship and waited with a few others in the terminal for the tour operator until they came at 9:00. We were then all squeezed into several taxis and driven about 10 minutes and let out by a park/plaza. We then walked with the guide across this area to stand and wait for a van about 1/2 hour to pick the group up.

While we waited, Valerie walked into a shopping arcade and took a picture of birds created from Argentinian gem stones and then went to a little store to get some Diet Cokes. Several people who thought they were going with us then went off at this point to another ranch. Have no idea why we did it this way as one would think the van could have picked us up at the port since there were about 6 of us. We then stopped to pick up a couple of people at their hotel before continuing to drive out of the city for about an hour.

The guide for the trip introduced herself and pointed out a few buildings and statues as we went out of town past the airport, a large stadium, and along the River Plata. She was however, more interested in preparing mate for her and the driver to drink as they talked back and forth. We were in the front two seats behind the driver and could really see what she was doing.

Mate is an herbal tea made from the leaves of the yerba mate plant that is very popular in Argentina as well as Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay. (The cup and ‘straw’ for preparing mate was a popular souvenir item in all of these countries.) The tea leaves are very rough cut and looked to me like crushed dry bay leaves. The leaf pieces are put into a hollow gourd then boiling hot water is poured on top. It is drunk through a metal straw called a bombilla that has a strainer at its tip. This practice originated with the Guarani native Indians.

We watched the guide pour hot water from a thermos into the gourd, then drink, then refill it with water, then pass the cup to the driver who drank from the same "straw" and then the process was repeated for most of the trip. Apparently the leaves are good for a long time before needing to be replaced. Of course, the driver had to take his eyes off the crowded toll way to hand the cup back and forth. A little disconcerting…..

When we arrived at The Santa Susana Ranch, we knew immediately that this was a tourist venue since the parking lot was full of big buses. We walked toward the reception area and were greeted with warm, just baked, empanadas and cold drinks of juice or wine. The empanadas were some of the best I have ever eaten. We were then told we had some time to participate in some of the ranch activities before it was time for our lunch.

Valerie and I chose to first get into a high-up, old style, horse-drawn wagon and were driven around the pasture. I spotted a small owl perched on a fence post as we circled around. Some of the group rode on horseback in the same area. The saddles were really different than either the western saddle or the English style. We asked a Gaucho to show us one and it had no horn and had lots of layers of blanket/material and sheepskins on them.

We wandered next over to the original ranch house and small chapel that is now an interesting museum. The ranch is still a working farm owned by the fifth generation of the same Irish man that started it at the end of the 1800’s and is over 2,900 acres. It has played host for the last 24 years to tourists with the capacity for serving 750 guests for lunch.

Walking back to the dining area we saw a huge wasp nest in a tree and flocks of parrots nesting in the eucalyptus trees. While there, we also saw lots of mockingbirds and a large flock of southern lapwings in an open field.

If you are vegetarian, this is not the place for you to eat lunch though they did serve some shredded veggies for salad first. MEAT is the name of the game--A server first came out with a pile of sausages, then hunks of a couple of cuts of beef, blood sausage, chicken, and then more beef--all grilled. They served way much more than one person could possibly eat. Wine, both red and white, soft drinks and water were also offered.

During the serving of the food, a show was presented with tango dancing (for video, see https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202906338720817), singing, folk dancing (for video, seehttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202906664328957) and rumba dancing. The male dancer then proceeded to twirl two long string bolas that clacked when they hit the floor (for video, see https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202908056483760). He did this in various rhythms faster and faster, around his head, to the side, etc. I have no idea what this is called but, I think it came out of the Gauchos use of the boleadoras for hunting long ago. When lunch was over we went outside to an arena set up and sat and watched a show put on by about 4-6 Gauchos.

The gauchos first ran 3 herds of about 8 like-colored horses completely untethered around the dusty field mixing them all up (for video, see https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202908303609938). The horses then ordered themselves out by color and stood still basically in a line to the side of each gaucho. They did this 3-4 times and the dust was really bad. They then rode straight on at rings suspended from a line with a stick held in their hands. This was the very same type of activity that knights did during jousting contests. Valerie was presented a ring "won" by one of the young gauchos.

Long, but good, day out. Wished we could have seen a demo of throwing the bolas and the venue wasn't specifically for tourists but--if wishes were horses, etc. We also weren't too happy that the woman MC for the show spoke only in Spanish even though with a show of hands, she knew 80%!o(MISSING)r more of her audience was English speaking from the USA and Canada.

One of the women from our cruise was able to persuade the tour guide and driver to drop us all off at the port instead of in town to then have to take a taxi back (on our nickel we were told).

Monday and Tuesday 16^th-17^th At Sea heading to Rio

Major accomplishment of these two days was to get our clothes washed and everything sorted between the two suitcases. The medium bag would be used for our time in Rio, REGUA, and Santiago. All of the “winter” and heavier long sleeve stuff we had for the colder climes went into the biggest suitcase. Since this is the one that had busted open during the Miami to Santiago airport flight, we got a huge garbage bag and put it inside the suitcase with all our clothes in this bag. We then duck-taped the whole suitcase on the outside plus used the strap we had purchased from before.

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