Trips

 

Tues., 1/6/15 – El Calafate to Buenos Aires
            This morning we flew back to Buenos Aires – three more hours in the air.  Our plane was one hour late and half of our luggage was very slow coming off the plane in BA. By the time everything was together, we were past our 7 PM dinner reservation so Berenice arranged for us to go straight to the restaurant and have the bus driver take our luggage to the hotel.  It worked out quite well – our bags were in our room when we got there at 9:30.
            We had an Argentinean dinner of empanada starter, salad and French fries served family style, and large juicy steaks with ice cream for dessert.  We ate at Cabana Villegas in one of the converted warehouses at Puerto Madero, the old port.  Dinner was very good.

Wed., 1/7/15 – Buenos Aires to Miami
        Since flights to the US don’t leave Buenos Aires until late (ours was at 11:45 PM) and you have to be out of your hotel room by 10 AM, you have a lot of time to spare! OAT provided a morning tour that was an interesting boat ride to the Rio de la Plata Delta at Tigre.  In the delta of the Rio de la Plata, one of the widest rivers in the world, are 5,000 islands created by sediments washed down the river and before the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean.  The mouth of the Rio is 130 miles wide and 33 miles wide at the delta where the islands are.  Uruguay is on the other side. 
        Many of the islands are inhabited but some have cows and some are forested and are harvested for furniture wood.  We cruised around some of the inhabited islands.  Some people live there year round and others have second homes used on weekends or vacations, especially by people who want to escape the cement of Buenos Aires.  The islands have cell service, WiFi, satellite dishes, and wired electricity.  They have septic vaults and use the muddy river water to wash and bottled water to drink.  The houses are serviced by boats: supermarket boat, garbage boats, ambulance, taxis, postal delivery, etc.  We stopped at a supermarket boat and bought some snacks.  The river is so muddy and full of sediment that they can’t eat the little fish that manage to survive in the water.  Some people make their living on the islands: forestation, beef, flowers like roses and hydrangeas, or work from home.  There are parks for kids, restaurants, 26 primary schools and four high schools.  It is a casual way of life with no roads or bridges from the mainland.  Most of the houses we saw were very nice with green grass lawns. 

River boat	Typical home
Grocery boat	Old wreck
Park	Buenos Aires Rowing Club
Shanty-town under the freeway
We opted out of the tour to the Buenos Aires local market and went instead to tour the Teatro Colon, the opera house.  We got tickets for 1:00 for the English language tour.  The opera house was built beginning in 1890 and took 18 years too finish because all of the wood and marble and workmen came from Europe.  It is a spectacular old building.  Our tour did not take us to the three floors below the street level where workshops, storage areas, and, dressing and practice rooms are located.  The subterranean levels are three times wider than the foundation and extend out under the main boulevard, 9 July Ave.  We entered the foyer with stained glass dome with eight muses, marble columns, and balustrades.  The wealthy people entered here, commoners entered through side doors.  Then we entered the Gallery of Busts with busts of legendary performers who have graced the stage at the Colon and a marble statue of Cupid and Athena called “The Secret.”  We then entered the Gold Room where the wealthy met during intermissions.  The room is filled with gold adornments and crushed velvet carpet.         The main hall is beautiful.  It seats 2,700 people with standing room for 1,000 more.  The official box is in the rear at the balcony level with the best view.  The President’s and Mayor’s boxes are on the sides over the orchestra pit.  They can only see about half of the stage, but all of the audience can see them.  There are seven tiers of balconies and widows’ boxes at floor level with grated screens.  Widows were not supposed to be seen enjoying performances.   The stage is huge – 35 by 35 meters and 45 meters high.  The orchestra pit rises up for philharmonic performances and drops for opera and ballet. The floor under the seats is hollow and acts as a sounding board, the soft material in the lower levels absorbs sound and the iron and wood above causes echoes.  All in all it is a typical 1900’s opera house with elaborate decorations and excellent acoustics. The acoustics in the Colon are so good that Pavarotti supposedly said, the theatre's "acoustics (have) the greatest defect: its acoustics are perfect! Imagine what this signifies for the singer: if one sings something bad, everyone notices immediately."
Christmas tree outside the Teatro Colon	Closeup
Teatro Colon facade	Teatro Colon - Interior
Teatro Colon - Interior	Teatro Colon - Interior
Teatro Colon - Floor mosaic	Teatro Colon - Stage
Teatro Colon - Interior	Teatro Colon - Interior
Teatro Colon entrance	After the tour we walked three blocks to have pizza at El Cuartito.  We ate there two years ago and wanted to experience it again.  The pizza is wonderful and it was crowded with friendly locals.  We did enjoy it again.  From there we wandered through the Pacifico Mall on our way back to the hotel.
El Cuartito	Our pizza was just as good
Tree at the Pacifico Mall	Ceiling at the Pacifico Mall

    Back at the hotel, OAT provided us with a room for the women to lounge in, shower, and rest before our long flights back to the US.     
            We were taken to the airport at 6:30 PM for our 11:45 PM flight.  So we sat in the terminal for three hours because traffic was light and security and passport control went very quickly.  We flew from Buenos Aires to Miami on LAN, then Miami to Dallas/Ft. Worth, and then on to Denver on American Airlines.  It made this a 40-hour day! 
        We arrived in Denver on time and were home by 6 PM.  Estes Park had some snow and high winds while we were away and our driveway was covered with packed snowdrifts (about 2 ft. deep). Since neither of us felt like shoveling ! Marge just put our wonderful Subaru into 3rd gear and plowed through it all on the second try.  Of course we paid for packing down the snow by having to spend two weeks chipping away at the drifts and ice to ultimately clear the driveway.
        Once again, the trip was fun and interesting and we put a dent in the "bucket list" but it is nice to be home again.