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,

Amalia Glacier to the Falklands–Part 1

High lights of Week 4
The cruise has kicked into high gear now.  We are seeing wonderful vistas daily.  Probably the most amazing thing for me was cruising through the fiords of Chile. Up first was the Amalia Glacier.  I was up with the sun because I was too excited to sleep and I was not disappointed.  The countryside surrounding this area is amazing. “..the Andes curve gently eastward and slowly sink beneath the sea. This geographical fact lends the region its wild and untrammeled character: scattered islands of exceptional beauty, deep fiords, snow and glacier-capped mountains, continental ice caps, beech forests, and the grassy lowlands so attractive to sheep farmers.” according to Princess info.


One of the best parts of the cruise was the wonderful people that we met.  This is Stu and Susan, retired from Charleston, West Virginia.  And it was really that cold!

It was unbelievably blue!



The Amalia Glacier was an unreal experience even if was was a tad chilly. 
Next stop……

Punta Arenas sprawls up the slope of the straits of Magellan and is the largest southernmost city in South America.  Most of the important buildings and commerce are located on the central plaza which is dominated by a huge statue of Magellan.  It was market day and I actually bought some great mittens.  So much for missing winter this year.  LOL!

Local lore is that if you kiss the Indian’s toe you will return to Puerto Arenas.  I settled for just a little rub! After wandering around all the neighboring streets we found a wonderful place for lunch called  La Luna.  Good food and fun place.

Because of tide conditions at our next port of Ushuaia we had the pleasure to experience Glacier Alley, a few hours of magnificent scenery and 5 different glaciers.  It was cold but we wrapped up and sat on our balcony and didn’t miss a minute of it.  Probably THE HIGH LIGHT of the whole cruise!  Definitely worth losing a few hours sleep. 




This glacier was calving. Checkout the lower left corner.  You can see a series of these at Glacier Alley on Shutterfly



Caught this one calving.  My second one for the day!  Wahoo!

What a week!  And this is only part one!

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,

Coquimbo to Puerto Montt

High lights of Week 3
We have pretty much settled into this cruising life style by our third week.  Cappuccinos in the morning, on the balcony if it is warm enough.  There is always something going on during the day, Spanish lessons which we dearly needed, briefings on the next port of call, walks around the deck so we don’t feel guilty about the wine we are drinking at the wine tastings and the quick visits to the ports just about every other day.
And we have met some wonderful people during our adventures.  Most of our favorites are Aussies and the two Tazi’s, Carol and “Electric Bill”.  The Vines Wine and Tapas Bar is the basis for most of these relationships.  Vines has become the unofficial meeting place in the evenings, before and after dinner, or for dinner.  It is located in the main Piazza so there is always some type of entertainment.
Our first port this week was Coquimbo in Chile’s Norte Chico.  We have finally made it to Chile and will be spending a vast majority of the cruise exploring the whole Chilean coast.  La Serena is a charming colonial city with some great architecture, local artisan fair at La Recova Market and the required central plaza.  The region is also the home of that wonderful grape they use in Pisco!

I love it when our port days are on the weekend!  All of the locals are out cruising the streets along with the 2,600 cruise ship passengers.  Quite a sight to say the least.


I love all of the parks and plazas. Their respect for their trees and public areas is something we could learn from.

After all of that walking, it was time for some lunch.  A local café, up the stairs and around to the back of the building on a terrace overlooking another street. Glad we found it.  The Conger Soup was tasty.  And we found our way back out too!  Wahoo!!

It was a gorgeous day to explore La Serena.  Chile could be a favorite!
Next stop ….. Valparaiso!
We are actually overnighting in Valparaiso. We arrived around noon and right smack dab in the center of their industrial port.  This is not the Port of Miami kids.  The containers are stacked so high that you need a GPS to get to the gate.  One of the main drawbacks of large ships it getting that many people off loaded and out with buses, tenders or whatever.  Lots of lines and wasted time which is really precious on short layovers.
Our first stop once we were off the ship in Valparaiso was the funicular that travels up the hill to get us into the old town. 

Found a great restaurant for lunch.  Food has been awesome in Chile.

Loved the colorful houses up in the hills.

I think that Chile is an area that I would like to come back to and explore in depth.
Puerto Montt was our last port of call this week.  It is located in the Lake District of Chile and home to our new friend Fritzy.  There were a couple of towns located nearby that we wanted to see so we succumbed and joined a cruise tour on a bus!  Before we left we wandered around town and checked out a few of the little artist nooks.

The electric lines in town were a hoot!  Kind of like spaghetti!

After cruising around Puerto Montt, we were off to Puerto Varas, or the Rose City. It’s a beautiful town on the edge of Lake Llanquihue.

Final stop on our uber quick tour is Frutillar, a hamlet of Germanic descent, with a pretty neat little museum also on Lake Llanquihue.  It was a replica of an old German village complete with mills and all.

We had a great day exploring this picturesque area.  Think Fritzy made a good choice when he settled here.  We will return to Puerto Montt  and the Lake District some day.

To see more photos of our ports of call just click on the red port and visit “Dreamchaser Travels” on Shutterfly.

 

Callao to Puerto Montt – 3,067 Nautical Miles

Till next time,

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

Santé,