Argentina 03

Chilean Fjords and Magellan Strait

Grand Circle Travel

21 Day South American Tour/Cruise 2003

December 11 to January 1, 2004

Under TRAVELS, click under CRUISES on South America 03, and Chile 03, Falkland Islands 03, and Uruguay 03 for other parts of this three week vacation.

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Our ship, the Norwegian Crown, anchored in Buenos Aires at 6 a.m., on schedule, on Sunday, December 28.  We had a leisurely breakfast, bade farewell to favorite service personnel, then waited in our cabin for our group to disembark.  John, our cabin steward was nearby so we got to extend our best wishes to him.

This phase of our trip couldn't have gone smoother.  We recovered our bags at the dock, gave them to a waiting porter who zipped us right by the customs inspectors to our waiting bus.  Once aboard we had a nice tour of the city on our way to our hotel.

Argentina is the 8th largest country in the world.  At the widest point it measures 980 miles and is 2,300 miles in length.  Spanish is the official language with English spoken extensively in major cities.  Its population was estimated to be nearly 38 million in 2002; Buenos Aires, its capital had more than 13 million inhabitants.

As our tour of the city progressed we were impressed with the mixture of European and Spanish colonial architecture.  Energy of its people were evident at every turn.  One would not want to miss any opportunity to visit here!

Evidence of respect and honor were obvious at every turn.  This statue was testament to that statement.

In the Recoleta District we passed elegant homes and fashionable restaurants and shops.  It was there that we entered a cemetery fit for kings.  In fact, it is the burial place of Eva Peron.  This was the entrance.

These were some of the impressive monuments inside.  Dotty is at left.  Notice the two cats in the third from left picture.

At left is Evita (Eva) Peron's mausoleum; she died in 1952 at the age of 33.  Many recognized her as the Spiritual Leader of the Nation.  It is not difficult to realize that only the wealthy would be able to afford a spot in this cemetery.

Another impressive statue and one of the beautiful parks we saw.

Here is the Plaza de Mayo with the Casa Rosada (Government House) at left.  Eva made a historical appearance from the balcony.  The statue is in the center of the Plaza.  An example of the city's beautiful architecture is at a corner of the Plaza and in the picture at the right.

This was an interesting contrast, a tank and crèche nearby.

One of the more interesting, and fun, parts of the city is the La Boca district.  Notice the facades at the entrance of this artist colony.  They are made of corrugated tin and painted in bright colors.

This monument marks the cultural center.  They love to decorate with bright colors.  We enjoyed browsing the street displays of paintings by various artists.

Naturally we had to take a few lessons for the Tango, the dance made popular in Argentina.  Wild!

We ultimately arrived at our hotel Crowne Plaza located on Avenida 9 de Julio, the world's widest avenue.  These pictures were taken from the balcony of our luxurious room.  Almost directly in front of us is the famous Opera House; once one of the major opera houses in the world.

We certainly had an educational and interesting evening at the optional Dinner and Tango show.  The show must have lasted two hours or more.  Performers dressed in vintage attire covered the evolution of the dance beginning in the 1880s.  At its inception the dance was described as the "acting out" of  a sexual relationship and considered obscene.  Ultimately it found its way to Paris where it took off like a storm during the first two decades of the 20th century.  From then on it was increasingly accepted, even by Argentinean high society.

Another optional tour we took was an all day visit to a "working" ranch (estancia.)  The area around Buenos Aires is populated with vast fields of alfalfa and wheat that support thousands of head of cattle.  Our ranch was more than an hour's drive from the city so we got to see some of the agriculture along the way.  Here is Dotty with Pat and Merlin Quillen from Nebraska then with the ranch owner in the next shot.  That's chicken and beef on the grill.  It will shortly become our main course at lunch.

Argentina's legendary cowboys, the gauchos, tend these horses.  The saddles are not like ones that we are familiar with but look comfortable.  And we even got a little work out of them pulling a cart.

The gauchos demonstrated their horse handling skills.  That the ranch owner standing at the left side of the third picture.  Check the dogs at the heels of the horse in the fourth picture; they were a vital part of controlling the horses. 

We were treated to a game the gauchos play to entertain themselves.  They race towards a small ring (read finger size) at full speed hoping to "spear" it with a small pointed stick.  The owner's son is at right having hit the bulls eye.

This version of musical chairs was a sight to behold.  Again, the owner's son proves his horsemanship by being the last one to get a seat.  You really need to look at these in their larger size to see all the skill involved.

Lunch was good as was the companionship.  Around the sides of the dining room were old carriages of times past. 

These seven entertainers performed then enticed some from the audience to participate.  That's friend Bill Westland strutting his stuff in the second photo.

This is one of the traditional mate (pronounced ma tay) drinking cups of Argentina and Uruguay.  The drink is also called mate and is made from a slightly bitter herb yerba - the leaves of an evergreen tree native to North-Eastern Argentina, and hot water.  Many adults begin drinking it early in the morning and continue through the day.  One customarily will offer friends a drink.  They think nothing of sharing the "straw" with others.  The drink is not alcoholic.  Dotty bought this one at the ranch but we saw them in many stores.

This is one of the many young jugglers who perform while cars are stopped at a light.  They then hustle to find an outstretched hand with a tip.

We got to observe this annual tradition from our hotel balcony.  On the day before the first day of the new year Argentines gather paper no longer needed and throw it from windows and roof tops to the ground below.  Don't you know the street cleaners love it!

This was our "Farewell Dinner" and what a nice evening it was.  Our table was a lively one; mostly!  

After dinner we were entertained by a group dressed in native costumes.  The blindfolded young man did a masterful job of navigating the beer bottles.  I couldn't pass up this opportunity for a picture with one of the dancers.  Dotty cut the top of my head so no one could identify me!

Our stay in Buenos Aires lasted but three nights but a full four days as we did not have to leave our hotel until after 5 p.m. on the last day, Wednesday, December 31.  A visit to this city will provide many lasting good memories.

We saw more of the country when we made port stops in Ushuaia and Puerto Madryn.  Please visit, under CRUISES, South America 03 for those parts of our journey.

While our flight to Santiago, where this three week trip began, was as nice as could be, our trip home was unduly long.  We flew from Buenos Aires to Miami, changed planes then flew to Dallas where we changed planes again before heading back to Dulles.  All flights were fine; it was just the schedule.  Oh well, we got extra miles credited to our frequent flyer account so we can't complain.

New friends developed and memories of lots of interesting sights made this one of our best trips ever.  Grand Circle Travel did a good job of putting together this fun filled excursion.

Posted on the Internet on 3/16/04, revised 7/14/04