Trips

Thurs., 1/30 - Buenos Aires, Argentina

The Zaandam arrived at the dock in the middle of another busy container port at 8 AM. She will stay here overnight and we will disembark tomorrow, Friday, between 7:45 and 8 AM.

Eventually, we set out for a walk at least as far as the Opera House. This took us past the bus terminal and 2 train stations on Av. Ramos Mejia, past San Martin Plaza, and up to the Opera House, Teatro Colon, on the 9 de Julio Avenue. The exercise felt good. There were crowds of people and many homeless people sleeping in the parks but Av. 9 de Julio was just as wide, noisy, and full of cars as we remembered it to be.

Back on the ship and after a rest in the Crow’s Nest looking over the activity in the port, we went back to our room and packed for tomorrow. The suitcases get put out by midnight and won’t be seen again till we get dropped off at the airport on Friday afternoon.

Skyline of Buenos Aires	Ferry motoring up the river
Yet another working port
Cruise Terminal	The Obelisk
Teatro Colon - the Opera House	Torre Monument It was known as the English Clock Tower prior to the 1982 war
Fri., 1/30 - Buenos Aires to Dallas We got up at 5:30, ate breakfast at 6 AM, and waited in our cabin to be called to disembark at 8 AM. A shuttle bus took us to the port terminal where we boarded a motor coach for a three-hour city tour of Buenos Aires. This excursion was arranged in order to kill some of the time until our 9 PM flight back to the US. The tour took us around the old town where we had walked yesterday - Teatro Colon, with its perfect acoustics (Pavarotti once said the theater’s only flaw “is that its acoustics are so perfect, the audience can hear any mistakes”); the Obelisk, which is a center for demonstrations and celebrations; past the flower monument that was supposed to open its petals when sunlight hit the solar panels (it no longer works); the Palermo district of old mansions, many of which are now used by embassies; the statue and reconstructed house of San Martin who orchestrated the independence of Argentina and then Chile and then Peru from the Spanish; the president’s offices in the Pink House; and the cathedral where San Martin is buried. Finally, we got off the bus to walk through the Recoleta Cemetery of mortuary tombs were Eva Peron was eventually buried, along with a large number of other "personages". Next, our bus drove by the Boca Junior's blue and gold stadium and we heard more about Argentina’s soccer culture. The last stop was at Calle Caminito in the La Boca neighborhood. This is the souvenir street, where tango is the attraction; houses have painted corrugated iron walls; and there are statues of the Pope, #10 soccer god (Ubaldo Fillol), etc. After some time to wander and shop, we headed for the airport where we retrieved our two suitcases and sat in the terminal from 1 PM to 4:30 before being allowed to check in for our 8:55 PM American Airlines flight to Dallas.
Floralis Generica - steel and aluminium sculpture of a flower	Directory for La Recoleta Cemetery - final resting place of lots of famous people!
Passing by the domes of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity	Home of the Boca Juniors football club - a very big deal!
La Boca neighborhood	Manikins in the balconies
Colorful La Boca buildings	La Boca street scene
Street sculpture	Tango
The Argentinian Pope Francis	Street sign in La Boca

Sat., 2/1 - Dallas to Tucson

After a long, but uneventful flight, we landed in Dallas at 5 AM and, after the customs, passport control, and security check, we sat down to wait until our 10:25 AM flight to Tucson. Our car was at the Tucson airport and we arrived at our house shortly after noon, Tucson time. As always it was good to be home, but the trip was everything we wanted it to be.