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Published: March 1st 2017
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Welcome to Day-2 in Buenos Aires. We got up by 7:00 and stuffed the last of our loose items in the suitcases. The hanging items were indeed going to be moved by the stewards, so that was no problem for us. We left everything in our cabin, said goodbye to our Steward (Glenn) and headed up to the Horizon Court for breakfast. Since today is Ash Wednesday we had to be sure to avoid meat, but there were plenty of other things we could eat, and frankly we were not overly hungry yet after last night scrumptious dinner.
This is the 3
rd time we have done back-to-back cruises, but it is the first time we will move from one cabin to another. We had originally reserved this cabin for both cruises, however back in January we were offered an upgrade to a Mini-suite. We decided to accept the upgrade although it actually costs about $400 in total more for the two of us. The difference in “list prices” for two people would have been over $3500 more, so we decided to give it a try. Since the cabin stewards were actually moving all our things between cabins, it
was a nuisance but not a terrible one. We just left it in their capable hands. Anyway, this is another First Experience for us – moving and trying a Mini-Suite.
We will get right to the verdict. David said we cannot stay in the cabin for even a single night. There is about 50% more space, double the size of the bathroom, A sofa for Janet to use while doing her stitching, dual TVs so she can watch form the sofa or the bed, many more shelves, a larger balcony, dual thermostats, and the steward (Renaldo) brought us each a complimentary glass of champagne. We have to get out of this place pronto before it become addictive and moving back to the normal cabin becomes too difficult on the future cruises. Yikes! This going to be a long term mistake. Other than that, it’s a pretty nice room for the price.
Let’s get back to the story in chronological order. We went to the Wheelhouse at 8:15 and were early for our tour. When they called our group we were able to get on the bus and it basically was a city tour. We
Shopping Area
where we stopped today wanted something that would not be too strenuous after the late night last night. This was a 4-hour drive around town with a couple of stops for photo-ops. Unfortunately there were plenty of stops for traffic. Today was the first workday of the week with both Monday and Tuesday having been the end of Carnival and the end of everyone’s summer vacation. So they were ALL back trying to get to work. There is a lot of construction underway in the center of town to make the roads better in the future, but for now it is a problem. AND this morning the President was going to make a speech kicking off the new legislative year, right where we were scheduled to go. Despite all that, we had an interesting tour.
Our guide gave a fairly non-stop commentary on the things we were going past other topics related to Argentina in general and Buenos Aires in particular. Frankly we were a little tired and not at the top of our game for understanding everything he was saying, but it was interesting. The comings and goings of the political parties (especially the presidents, who cannot succeed themselves) keeps
Hi-Rise area which was converted
from warehouses and old shipping terminals steering the country in different directions each time there is an election. Our guide referenced that impact of inflation (40% last year and 30% the year before). Then there was a series of scandals once the president changed and the incoming government investigated the previous government for corruption.
We drove through an area which he clearly labeled as slums and said the people had been squatters who built little shacks on the property and now cannot be evicted, but they have barely any essential services. A nearby tract of land had been the old shipping docks and warehouses which have been either converted into fancy loft apartments or replaced with hi-rise apartment buildings, and are now one of the safest and most expensive areas to live. We drove past the “pink house” which is where the president works but he commutes in by helicopter each day from a one square kilometer complex out in the suburbs. We were told about the public school system which is free for everyone up through the first 4 years of college. We stopped at an area called La Boca which is about 3 blocks square where lots of tourist shops abound
– this was our bathroom break because it is illegal to operate the on-bus toilet while in the city limits.
The last stop was a fancy cemetery where there are many mausoleums, including one where Eva Peron is buried in the Duarte family crypt. She is the highlight of the cemetery but in reality she has a small plaque on a family chamber, on one of the narrow paths back away from the entrance. Our guide called the whole place “dead city”, which is not especially respectful but somewhat appropriate. He recounted a very lengthy tale of how her body was moved around many times following her death before she finally ended up here, but it sounded more like a movie script rather than reality – we won’t try to recount the complicated tale.
A couple of other items: Buenos Aires lies on the same river (la Plata) on which Montevideo resides (it’s just wider down there). It is approximately the same latitude south of the equator as Santa Barbara is north. The temperature today was pretty warm being slightly above 90 most of the time we were on our tour. In town, they
encourage people not to drive but instead to use the use train system to get to town, then walk or bicycle where they are going. They have a series of yellow bicycles available for anyone to ride for up to an hour and return it to any other “bike station” in town. Of course they have the benefit of a lot of good-weather days here. We passed a metal sculpture of a flower which has the petal open during the days and close at night – unfortunately it is broken right now.
We returned to the cruise terminal and our guide walked us to the proper entrance where we were able to avoid the crowd of new people coming on the ship. Other than the same walk we’ve done the past two tours, it went pretty smoothly – just warm. They had delivered our new keycards last night so we were able to come on-board without any trouble. We grabbed a couple of tuna fish sandwiches and some drinks/desserts from the Horizon Court, and we had a late lunch in our cabin.
Our clothing and suitcases had been delivered to our new cabin and we got moved in pretty easily. We’ve left the “cold weather gear” in a suitcase, but everything else is unpacked. Our excursion tickets for the rest of the cruise were delivered and they are all correct. We settled down in the larger cabin and worked on yesterday’s blog and then Janet got a little nap. At 5:00 we went to the lounge on deck-18, but they have moved the appetizer service down to Club Fusion because there are many more people who are eligible for these snacks on this trip. We had a few snacks and a couple of margaritas before going to dinner.
We have one new couple at the same table (Paul & Pauline have left the cruise) who are named Don & Mary. They are from Florida. Our other couple (Faye & Monte) is supposed to be going to the Tango Dinner tonight, so we were just a 4-some today. We both had Shrimp Cocktail. Janet then had melon balls while David had chilled Pina Colada soup. Janet had a bowl of pasta and David had the Sea Bass. For dessert, Janet had chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate syrup while David had Cheesecake. Our new tablemates had not explored the ship before dinner, so they went off to prowl around while we returned to the cabin to get caught up on the pictures and blog stories.
At 9:00 there is a demonstration of Gaucho & Tango skills in the Princess Theater. Janet is going to watch a movie on the TV in the cabin but David may go to see it. We have an early start tomorrow, so this cannot be a very late night in any case.
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Janel
non-member comment
ole!
Sounds great! Your tango house dinner reminds me of a place we went in Seville except in that case it was flamenco. Latin dancers, wow! Thanks for keeping up the blog.