Buenos Aires

Week 7
BA is starting to feel like home.  We have fallen in love with the urban life style and the beautiful city that is Buenos Aires.   Week 7 was filled with lots of walking, great cafes, and museums.  We try to  play tourist about every 3 to 4 days with lunch and a museum in a different part of the city.  Recoleta Cemetery  is right at the top of any must do in BA. So after a leisurely lunch on the sidewalk at La Pace, we spent an afternoon roaming among the crypts. It was absolutely gorgeous. 




The tables under the 18th century gum tree at La Beila were the perfect place to sip a little wine and people watch when we left Recoleta. 

This area of BA is more congested than our Palermo Soho but a nice place to visit.  Before heading back, we did check out the Palace Alvear Hotel which was gorgeous.

The Jardin Japones was our second excursion in week 7.  Even though it is a little run down, it is another wonderful green space in Palermo which is called the lungs of BA. 

The Museo Evita was our next stop and more interesting than expected.  It is housed in a mansion that Evita used for some of her social programs.

On Friday we headed back out again to the Recoleta area, this time to the Museo National de Bellas Artes and lunch at Sirop y Folie.  Lunch was beyond delicious and an afternoon with Picasso, Gauguin, and numerous other greats made for the perfect day.
Ended the week with a trip down to San Telmo and their Sunday Feria. Spent the morning wandering through the stalls with Enid before another great lunch at Petanque!  Our server George was very French and entertaining and made the excellent food even better.  Trout, roasted pork, steak tartare and a great red wine.  Only way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Great cafes this week:
La  Pace on Juncal
Sarkis, Armenian, wonderful grapes leaves, hummus, lamb and mousaka and white wine.  Yummy
Museo Evita Restaurant, French garden café at the Museo
La Fabrica Del Taco, sidewalk café with awesome pork tacos in Soho
Sirop y Folie, French, a little jewel on Vincente Lopez 1661
Puro Bistro, Italian and parillo, in the Hood, great gnocchi
Petanque, French café on Defensa in San Telmo
Time away from home – 7 weeks
Distance Travelled - 13,694 miles
To see more photos of our ports of call just click on the red port to visit “Dreamchaser Travels” at Shutterfly!
Till next time,

Don’t forget to relax and get some sand between your toes!!

                     Santé,

Buenos Aires

Week 6

And we spent most of the week getting used to our New Hood! We actually found The Jumbo and Easy complex not too far from Casa Lucy for groceries and household items.  Just nesting away.  Some of the week’s highlights was lunch with Enid and John at Dashi Sushi

and a wonderful Italian meal at La Momma Rosa’s in Villa Crespo, a local’s neighborhood far from the usual tourist hangouts. The food has been excellent and we truly enjoy going off for our walks and exploring.

On Friday we headed out for a free local city tour with Jonathan of BA Local Tours.   Jonathan operates daily out of Plaza Italia and does an excellent job of orienting tourists to the city and its buses and subways.

 

 

The best part of the tour was getting to ride on one of the old wooden subway trains.  It was the last day that they were going to be in operation and the crowds were large but well worth the trip.  Thanks for a great day, Jonathan!
Time away from home: 6 weeks
Distance traveled: 13, 694 miles
To see more photos of our ports of call just click on the red port to visit “Dreamchaser Travels” at Shutterfly!
Till next time,

Don’t forget to relax and get some sand between your toes!!

                     Santé,

Buenos Aires

Week 5 – Part 2
Once we actually made it out of the cruise terminal we were on to our next adventure.  Taxi to Casa Lucy was quick and our host, Enid, was waiting patiently.  Casa Lucy is located on a tree-lined street in the Palermo Soho district of Buenos Aires and convenient to the Subte.  Our plan was to spend two weeks in BA and then take off and see some more sights in South America.
It became our home for the next three weeks.  We fell in love almost immediately!

Kitchen and view from the kitchen to our balcony.

Dining Area…

           Bedroom at Casa Lucy
After we had settled in and found the ATMs, grocery stores, wine stores, etc. we thought it was time to get out and figure out this city of 13 million people.  Best way to get your bearings is a Big Yellow Hop on- Hop off Bus tour! So that was our outing on Saturday. 

We were able to hop on a few blocks from Casa Lucy and 4 hours later we had completed the Grand Tour.  This city has an abbondanza of trees and that doesn’t always mix with open air double-decker buses!  Watch out, Watch out, Watch out!!!
I highly recommend the Big Yellow Bus Tour.  Now we were just about ready for anything…language barrier aside.  On Sunday, we wandered around Palermo and met Enid and her husband John for lunch at a typical Argentinian parrilla called La Cabrera.  When we initially booked the apartment with AirBNB we were a little concerned about renting directly from an owner and the language barrier upon arrival.  Turns out Enid and John are from Vail, Colorado, their daughter Piper lives here in BA and they visit often.  At this time, Piper is traveling around southeast Asia and they are down here dog sitting.  Small world..and no language barrier here!

La Cabrera was delicious.  We just need to figure out what cut of beef we want to order. 
Can’t believe we have been away from home 5 weeks now.  Time is flying. 
Time away from home… 5 weeks.
Distance traveled – 13,694 miles
To see more photos of our excursions while in Buenos Aires just click on the red excursion to visit “Dreamchaser Travels” at Shutterfly!
Till next time,

Don’t forget to relax and get some sand between your toes!!

Santé,

Puerto Madryn to Buenos Aires

Highlights of Week 5
It is difficult to believe that the cruise is almost over.  In a few more days we will be cruising into Buenos Aires and on to the next phase of this Great Adventure.
After leaving the Falklands we were finally heading north again and toward some warmer weather.  Ready for some sunshine!!    Puerto Madryn was our next stop. 

The beach boardwalk was the perfect place to spend the afternoon strolling.

Montevideo is our last port of call before heading into Buenos Aires.  It was another beautiful day to wander the streets once we were able to get off the ship.  It was another huge industrial area and a maze to get out of.

Had a wonderful afternoon checking out the main plazas in town and having a nice lunch at a side walk café. 

We checked out the huge Picada de Puerto first and decided the people watching was better outside. And it was just too pretty to sit inside!  Montevideo is a gorgeous colonial city that deserves lots of time to get to know.  Maybe next time.

Our last night on the cruise was spent at Vine’s of course, saying good bye to all of the great people we had the pleasure to meet during the last 30 days.  Time really does fly when you are having fun.  I wasn’t sure if I would like 30 days on a cruise ship but the verdict was a big yes.  Not because of the many ports we saw but for the time on the ship to relax and friendships formed.  Think a repositioning cruise across the Atlantic might be great.
Our disembarkation in Buenos Aires was one huge cluster…  They had 4 cruise ships in port at the same time.  A cruise terminal info guy said that 10,000 people were getting off and another 10,000 embarking before the day was over.  Not fun!  Hours to get a taxi.  We finally decided to walk up two blocks to the bus terminal and were the only people in the taxi line.  Thank you Gonzolo for the map and the directions.  
  Buenos Aires …… We’ve arrived.  Phase 2 of the Great Adventure starts now!

Falklands to Buenos Aires – 1,432 Nautical Miles
San Francisco to Buenos Aires – 9,803 Nautical Miles/11, 281 Miles
Totally miles so far….  13,694 miles.  And my feet feel it!!
To see more photos of our ports of call just click on the red port to visit “Dreamchaser Travels” at Shutterfly!
Till next time,
Don’t forget to relax and get some sand between your toes!!

Santé,

Amalia Glacier to the Falklands - Part 2

High Lights of Week 4
The cruise through the Beagle Channel brought us to Ushuaia which claims to be the southernmost town on earth. This is the main jumping off point for Antarctica and the end of the Pan-American Highway. “ The city is set against a backdrop of snow-capped, densely forested peaks, the Martial Mountains, and with a view-scape that includes glittering seas, glacier-clad mountains, and the last islands on the continent.” per Princess.  It is always surprising to see the European influences in the architecture.

I mailed postcards from the end of the world.  No one has received one yet but heck, it’s the end of the world!

Fun story.. 4 or 5 couples from the nightly Vines Bar crew ended up at the same pizza joint for beer and internet.  Couldn’t have planned that!

Our first experience in Argentina has been a positive one. Ushuaia rocks! But look out Cape Horn here we come….
We have had extremely calm seas for the total cruise and our journey around the Horn was the same. I have always imagined that going around The Horn would be extremely rough and scary. Thank you God! It was gorgeous. The crew said it was the best they had seen in years. It was a little grey when we started but the skies soon cleared and it was a beautiful day.


Think even I might be able to sail these waters around the Horn.

The week has been packed full of first and we still have a stop in the Falklands. The weather was a little inhospitable when we arrived but some warm clothes and an umbrella took care of that problem. We were searching for some authentic fish and chips and lucked out, thank you to some good local advise.





Then a stop at the Globe, a local tavern on the pier for a beer and some local flavor. Met a Falklands veteran, 85 years old, who was a hostage during “the war”, and he drinks one beer a day, on the house and has his name on the his chair.  That is small town!

Time to head on…see ya later Stanley.
 Puerto Montt to the Falklands – 1,903 Nautical Miles
To see more photos of our ports of call just click on the red port to visit “Dreamchaser Travels” at Shutterfly!
Till next time,

Don’t forget to relax and get some sand between your toes!!

Santé,