December 8 Monday. (I am keeping much better track of the days here on paper looking back than I ever did on the ship. I was usually clueless about what day it was.)
We were allowed to leave the ship in Montevideo, Uruguay about 10 a.m. We hadn’t seen any ship tours that looked interesting so we decided to just go into town. One of the leather shops had shuttle buses at the dock to take people to their shop so we hopped on one and spent a few minutes browsing through their leather goods when we got to town. We spent a pleasant morning walking down the streets and browsing through their open market in the town square. One of the popular items being sold was a container and special spoon for a drink called “mate” (mah-tay), a local tea. The tradition was to fix the tea then pass the mug around for everyone to share. We didn’t try it but we bought a few of the spoon-straws which were shaped like hollow paddles with holes in the top of the bowl for straining out the leaves.
Gaucho dancers were performing in the town square so we found a bench and watched for a while then wandered down the street a ways. Montevideo (population 1.3 million ) reminded me a bit of Provo, not a very metropolitan big city. We found the McDonald’s across from the town square and got a hamburger and drink. (For those of you who think we wimped out by going to McDonalds, you must remember how hard it is to find a bathroom–bano-- in a foreign country, especially a bathroom you can trust.) We walked back to the ship. (We do a lot of walking on our trips and even with all the food we eat, I always end up losing weight. Of course, I gain it all back when I get back home.)
December 10 Tuesday At Sea
The ship has many activities to keep the passengers entertained at sea. We had three formal nights on this trip because of all the days at sea. Greg and I usually play at least one game of trivia each sea day. I also took a Spanish class (which I dropped after the first day) and a Portuguese class, which I attended all five days. That gave me the skills of a high schooler who has taken one week of Portuguese. Quite enough to get around Brazil on our own when we got there.....NOT REALLY!!
Portuguese looks a lot like Spanish. If you can read Spanish you can figure out a lot of Portuguese words (I know some French and can figure out some of the words.) But my phrase book describes Portuguese as Spanish spoken by a drunk Frenchman and I believe it. It sounds totally different than Spanish.
The entertainment on board is top rate. Our first big production show was an excellent tango show. Two professional tango dancers were brought on board from Argentina. They were totally amazing.
Most of the passengers were Spanish-speaking South Americans and Brazilians. They really knew how to have a good time on board. Mamba and other Spanish and Brazilian music was playing into the wee hours of the morning and people danced and danced. And we stayed up and watched them.
Showing posts with label South America Cruise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South America Cruise. Show all posts
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
SA Cruise: Buenos Aires
Note: I wrote all of this a month ago and am just now noticing my casual shifting between tenses. I'm too lazy to change it, so just feel more relaxed about the grammar in anything that you send to me.
December 5. Friday. We slept in then took a city tour on a bus. It gave us a nice overview of the city, at least the nice part. We drove through Recoleta, Palermo and Boca, where the futboll (soccer) stadium was located. Boca was an early harbor area of Buenos Aires and many of the building are made from left parts and paint from ships. Many are corregated metal painted bright colors. We were dropped off at a big, beautiful shopping mall in a nice part of town, then we had to find our way home. We walked a bit, found a McDonald’s to get a bit to hold us over until supper (and a bathroom) then walked some more. One of the streets , Florida Street, was a pedestrian only street paved with colorful small tiles. Street performers tangoed, did mime, drew pictures, etc. It was an interesting walk. We finally found a taxi and arrived back at the Garden for a short time, then walked to the restaurant. It was located across from a merry-go-round in a public park. Afterwards we sat in the park and enjoyed the evening.
December 6 Saturday: This was a very, very big day. By now we were getting good...well at least proficient ...at hailing a taxi. We rode to the Recoleta cemetery which was amazing. We were expecting some fancy headstones, but the whole place was full of walking avenues with ornate crypts lining each side. It was like a small city with fancy tall houses just large enough to house the remains of the rich and famous, including Evita Peron.
Next we ate at a large al fresco (outside) restaurant nearby. We headed out on foot for the National Museum of Fine Arts, but we ended up at the wrong museum (modern art...OK) and the bathrooms were not working. We continued to the next large building only to find that it was the law school so we got smart and asked someone, who luckily spoke English and told us what we were looking for was just across the street.
The National Museum of Fine Arts was very, very well worth the hunt. We saw original paintings and sculptures of Rodin (about 10 including “the Kiss”), Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Tolous LaTrec, Reubens, and more I can’t even remember. A large hand made tapestry was very impressive. At it was all free.
We ended the afternoon taking a taxi to the zoo and spent several hours wandering around before hurrying back to our room to get ready for a tango show....eating at nine and the show at 10:45. The restaurant was built specially for the show with a stage in the center and three tiers of tables on three sides. We were seated to the side of the small stage with our head just above the dancers' foot level and we sometimes felt the breeze as they kicked their feet between us. The dancers and musicians....violin, piano, concertina and bass fiddle...were very good and we really enjoyed the evening.
(At this point I have been home for two weeks and am looking back, trying to recollect everything we did. We like to write down our memories of our trips and put them in our picture albums.)
December 7. Sunday. We usually try to go to church (not LDS, but Christian) on board ship when we travel, but since we are on land, we don’t really know where we are let alone where the church is. Even if we had the address, we wouldn’t be able to understand anything that was said. So that is my excuse. We check out of our Bed and Breakfast today by noon because another couple is coming. We can’t board the ship until about 1 p.m. so we take a taxi to a famous antique flea market a couple of miles away and browse through the booths. Along with the booths, there are antique shops all along both sides of the street leading to the park. We bought a few trinkets, then head back to pick up our luggage and make our way to the ship. Our hostess arranged for the same private driver who picked us up to take us back. He gave me a hug when he dropped us off.
This ship is the Radiance of the Sea, a large Royal Carribean ship capable of holding 2500+ passengers but we learn that our voyage only has 1500 on. Later, we notice that many of our fellow passengers are Jewish (probably because all the Christians, but us, are home getting ready for Christmas) and about 2/3 of the passengers are non-English speaking. It makes for a very interesting voyage. It was always a pleasant surprise to step into an elevator and hear English spoken.
The cultural mixture was quite different than we find back home on a Utah farm. We really did enjoy the variety.
We learned after a few days aboard ship that about 35 people have been left behind by the ship in Buenos Aires, Argentina because they didn’t have Brazilian visas. On the last cruise, the ship had allowed the passengers to come aboard anyway, and had later been heavily fined by the Brazilian government. Somewhere in all the literature we received were the instructions to get the Visas or risk not being able to sail. Unfortunately, it wasn’t written in bold red letters and some people missed it.
We board the ship at Buenos Aires Argentina and overnight cruise to Montevideo, Uruguay, just across the bay a very, very short distance away.
December 5. Friday. We slept in then took a city tour on a bus. It gave us a nice overview of the city, at least the nice part. We drove through Recoleta, Palermo and Boca, where the futboll (soccer) stadium was located. Boca was an early harbor area of Buenos Aires and many of the building are made from left parts and paint from ships. Many are corregated metal painted bright colors. We were dropped off at a big, beautiful shopping mall in a nice part of town, then we had to find our way home. We walked a bit, found a McDonald’s to get a bit to hold us over until supper (and a bathroom) then walked some more. One of the streets , Florida Street, was a pedestrian only street paved with colorful small tiles. Street performers tangoed, did mime, drew pictures, etc. It was an interesting walk. We finally found a taxi and arrived back at the Garden for a short time, then walked to the restaurant. It was located across from a merry-go-round in a public park. Afterwards we sat in the park and enjoyed the evening.
December 6 Saturday: This was a very, very big day. By now we were getting good...well at least proficient ...at hailing a taxi. We rode to the Recoleta cemetery which was amazing. We were expecting some fancy headstones, but the whole place was full of walking avenues with ornate crypts lining each side. It was like a small city with fancy tall houses just large enough to house the remains of the rich and famous, including Evita Peron.
Next we ate at a large al fresco (outside) restaurant nearby. We headed out on foot for the National Museum of Fine Arts, but we ended up at the wrong museum (modern art...OK) and the bathrooms were not working. We continued to the next large building only to find that it was the law school so we got smart and asked someone, who luckily spoke English and told us what we were looking for was just across the street.
The National Museum of Fine Arts was very, very well worth the hunt. We saw original paintings and sculptures of Rodin (about 10 including “the Kiss”), Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Tolous LaTrec, Reubens, and more I can’t even remember. A large hand made tapestry was very impressive. At it was all free.
We ended the afternoon taking a taxi to the zoo and spent several hours wandering around before hurrying back to our room to get ready for a tango show....eating at nine and the show at 10:45. The restaurant was built specially for the show with a stage in the center and three tiers of tables on three sides. We were seated to the side of the small stage with our head just above the dancers' foot level and we sometimes felt the breeze as they kicked their feet between us. The dancers and musicians....violin, piano, concertina and bass fiddle...were very good and we really enjoyed the evening.
(At this point I have been home for two weeks and am looking back, trying to recollect everything we did. We like to write down our memories of our trips and put them in our picture albums.)
December 7. Sunday. We usually try to go to church (not LDS, but Christian) on board ship when we travel, but since we are on land, we don’t really know where we are let alone where the church is. Even if we had the address, we wouldn’t be able to understand anything that was said. So that is my excuse. We check out of our Bed and Breakfast today by noon because another couple is coming. We can’t board the ship until about 1 p.m. so we take a taxi to a famous antique flea market a couple of miles away and browse through the booths. Along with the booths, there are antique shops all along both sides of the street leading to the park. We bought a few trinkets, then head back to pick up our luggage and make our way to the ship. Our hostess arranged for the same private driver who picked us up to take us back. He gave me a hug when he dropped us off.
This ship is the Radiance of the Sea, a large Royal Carribean ship capable of holding 2500+ passengers but we learn that our voyage only has 1500 on. Later, we notice that many of our fellow passengers are Jewish (probably because all the Christians, but us, are home getting ready for Christmas) and about 2/3 of the passengers are non-English speaking. It makes for a very interesting voyage. It was always a pleasant surprise to step into an elevator and hear English spoken.
The cultural mixture was quite different than we find back home on a Utah farm. We really did enjoy the variety.
We learned after a few days aboard ship that about 35 people have been left behind by the ship in Buenos Aires, Argentina because they didn’t have Brazilian visas. On the last cruise, the ship had allowed the passengers to come aboard anyway, and had later been heavily fined by the Brazilian government. Somewhere in all the literature we received were the instructions to get the Visas or risk not being able to sail. Unfortunately, it wasn’t written in bold red letters and some people missed it.
We board the ship at Buenos Aires Argentina and overnight cruise to Montevideo, Uruguay, just across the bay a very, very short distance away.
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