Cruise Day 14 - Out and about on our own in Buenos Aires

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This morning at 07:43, after sailing 124 nautical miles at an average speed of 11.5 knots, we arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The ship has tried to make us all terrified of venturing out in Buenos Aires on our own by disseminating information about how dangerous it is in Buenos Aires. No doubt this is to encourage the passengers to book Holland America Line on-shore excursions!? Bernie and I decided that BA is probably no more of a risk than any big city in the world and, provided you remain aware of your surroundings and exercise a sensible level of caution, all will be well. Apparently the big scam in BA is to squirt or spray something onto your clothing and then tell you that you have bird poo on your back/shoulder which they will help you clean off. If you agree, they pick your pocket or lift your camera instead.

We caught the bus from the ship's gangplank to the port entry and exited the terminal building. We ignored the busses lined up for the day's HAL on-shore excursions and spurned all offers of a taxi into the city. We crossed the multi-lane freeway that runs dockside and we were off ... into Big Bad Buenos Aires ... all on our own! We had a map AND Bernie had downloaded the GPS My City app onto his phone.

Immediately across the freeway there was a police station which we felt should be good for a few blocks of protection. After that there were a few almost deserted blocks but then, if there a virtually no people at all, there are unlikely to be any bad people?! The wide boulevard we were on was very open so there were no lanes or bushes for bag snatchers to hide in. I admit it was slightly dodgy as we ventured over the pedestrian overpass (looked like homeless people sleep there) towards the station but, once we were in the precinct of the train station, there were plenty of normal, everyday city-dwellers going about their perfectly ordinary Saturday morning activities and not looking at all like they were waiting for tourists to rob.

We took some photos of the old (English built) railway station and then continued on the British Clock Tower which we had been able to spy from the boat during breakfast and definitely wanted to photograph! The Elizabethan-style clock tower, which some call the Argentine Big Ben, was a gift from the British community of BA after building the nearby Retiro railroad station complex. We continued on towards the heart of BA until we reached an avenue that would take us towards the Puente de La Mujer (Women's Bridge). We had seen pictures of this very modern, asymmetrical bridge and wanted to see it for ourselves. The area down near the bridge was lovely - very like Southbank or Docklands in Melbourne.

After walking along the diques we turned back towards the old centre of BA feeling perfectly safe with lots of families out and about enjoying a mild, sunny day. We found ourselves in a park where there was a statue of Juan Domingo Perón - Evita's husband - and President of Argentina between June 1946 to September 1955. A tour group just beat us to the statue and their tour leader commenced a lengthy dissertation on (we presume, she wasn't speaking English) the life and times of Juan Perón. I took a seat on a park bench while Bernie waited ... and waited for the tour group to move from in front of the statue so that he could photograph it.

We walked along the Avenue Paseo Colón past the Ministry of Defence building, complete with a tank on the forecourt! We approached the side of a sprawling pink building which I said must be the Pink House (Casa Rosada, BA's Government House), but Bernie said no, the app says we are not yet at the Pink House. Hmmn, really? It sure looks like a Pink Government House to me! We started walking around the Pink House with me saying it MUST be Casa Rosada and Bernie insisting that The App did not agree. We had to complete a circumnavigation of the Pink House AND check down a side street where the app indicated the Pink House should be (it wasn't!) before Bernie conceded that the pink building we had just walked around was indeed the Pink House. Seriously, apps are marvellous things, but sometimes you just have trust your own senses!!

In the plaza behind the Pink House we saw the May Pyramid, commemorating the 25 May 1810 revolution that led to Argentina's independence, the El Cabildo (Colonial Town Hall) and the Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires. The cathedral houses the tomb of José de San Martín, who is a national hero in Argentina and Peru for the part he played in those countries securing their independence from Spanish rule. Two guards stand at the entrance to the tomb, one of whom was almost asleep on his feet this morning. He must have had a big night???

Another picture Bernie had seen somewhere (The App??) featured Rodín's 'The Thinker' in the foreground with a building's cupola roof behind it. We hadn't seen it yet, but Bernie was confidant that, if we hadn't yet found it, it must be in the Plaza Congresso. With the Plaza Congresso quite some way from the Plaza de Mayo we grabbed a sandwich before setting off towards the Monserrat district of the city.

We walked and walked and walked along the elm-lined Avenue de Mayo. At the beginning, near the Plaza de Mayo, if there had been a tram we would have felt like we were on the Paris end of Collins Street in Melbourne. We crossed the incredibly wide Avenue 9 de Julio which took about three changes of lights to get from one side to the other and still we were less than half way to where we were headed. Finally we reached the Plaza Congresso and found 'The Thinker' with the cupola of the Houses of Congress behind it. We think the statue is a copy/duplicate because we're sure we saw the original in Paris. Anyhow, Bernie got the photo he wanted!

We continued all the way to the end of the plaza - an interesting mix of sculptures, homeless people sleeping on park benches and couples and families picnicking on the grass - until we were in front of the congressional building. As we were taking photographs a woman approached us and warned us to keep an eye on our cameras as there were thieves and pickpockets around. Hmmn, there wasn't actually anybody else nearby except this woman and she was making us feel uncomfortable that she might be the one who was going to rob us as she pretended to warn us about other people with supposedly ill intent. Anyway she didn't rob us nor did anyone else!

By this stage we had walked about 14 kilometres so we decided that we would take a taxi back to the port. We hailed a taxi easily enough, but then had some difficulty communicating where we wanted to go. Eventually Bernie showed him the map on his phone and pointed to the blue dot showing our current location and then pointed to the port area. OK, the driver got the picture and off we went. We arrived back at the port safely and unscathed from our big day out in BA.

We took the shuttle bus back to the ship and re-boarded for our last night aboard the m.s. Zaandam. We had to re-pack our bags tonight and have them outside our stateroom door before midnight so that they could be removed from the ship to be made available for our collection in the arrivals terminal building in the morning. And so we return to the joy of living out of our bags for another two weeks until we return home. It was very nice to be unpacked during the two weeks that we were cruising around South America!



Steps 19,606 (15.48km)

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