Buenos Aires

The night prior to Buenos Aires we had our second Ensemble Cocktail party and everyone attended - this time I chose the Explorers Lounge for the party so we weren’t so crowded; it was perfect. I asked almost everyone for a quick description of the Antarctic and I got two consistent responses: “indescribable” and “awesome.” That pretty much sums up how I feel about it. Everyone agreed that they could have spent several more days in the area before heading out.

We arrived in port to gray and rainy skies, but the rain soon stopped and we headed into the city. We were planning to taxi directly to the Recolleto area to do some photography in the cemetery where Eva Perone is buried but the line for the taxies was quite long so we ended up taking the H Stern shuttle bus to their jewelry shop in the Marriott Plaza Hotel and then taxiing over from there. This cemetery is fascinating as it is made up of beautiful above ground mausoleums - each corner you turn seems to be better than the last.

Eva’s mausoleum is actually one of the least impressive, but it is always marked with many fresh flowers and, of course, with many people crowding around to see it. After about an hour of wandering around, the rain started again and we put on our little plastic ponchos… almost everyone else left so we had the whole place almost to ourselves. Now I admit that blue skies would have made prettier pictures, but I took bunches anyway and I didn’t have to wait for anyone to get out of my picture! The cemetery dates from about 1830, but the earliest date we could find was about 1840. Some of the mausoleums are well cared for and others are falling into ruin. Most have windows in the doors so you can look inside. These are family plots and probably hold many coffins both above and below the ground. They have a tiny stairway going to the underground area inside each structure. Many also have stained glass windows or cupolas made of glass. One of the pictures here shows the interior of one mausoleum where the door was open.

The rain continued sometimes a little bit and sometimes harder so we decided to have lunch in a nearby Irish Pub to see if it might stop. When we came out it was raining even harder so we found a taxi and headed back to the ship.

This was an overnight port so when we awoke the next morning to beautiful blue skies we headed back out. This time we just wanted to wander around the city a bit so we again rode the H Stern shuttle and spent about 3 hours looking in the shops on Calle Florida; the main shopping area. Jim bought a new belt but I can tell you from the size and number of the shopping bags being carried back onto the ship, we were in the minority in not buying much. Even though we had been here in December, I still feel that I have just barely scratched the surface of this fascinating city. There was a folkloric show late in the afternoon in the showroom and then in the evening we headed to Monte Video.