DAY 41 Feb 22 - Buenos Aires, Argentina

This will be our second visit on this voyage to the enormous county of Argentina as we were there when in Ushuaia for the day earlier in the month.

Buenos Aires (BA) is the capital and largest city of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the south-eastern coast of the South American continent.

The city of Buenos Aires is not part of Buenos Aires Province, nor is it its capital, rather, it is an autonomous federal district.

Approximately three million people live in the City of Buenos Aires itself (the Federal Capital of Argentina of 78.3 square miles) and is divided into 48 districts or barrios.

Together with the metropolitan area or Great Buenos Aires (Gran Buenos Aires) this is one of the ten most populated urban centres in the world with over 14 million people.

Most of the country's activity is highly concentrated in this single city and its surroundings. Greater BA is the fourth-largest conurbation in Latin America. It is considered to be the wealthiest city in South America and the Southern Hemisphere.

(pictured above is the City's waterfront)

After the internal conflicts of the 19th century, BA was federalised and removed from Buenos Aires Province in 1880. The city limits were enlarged to include the former towns of Belgrano and Flores, which are both now neighbourhoods of the city.

The city of Buenos Aires was first established as Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre (literally "City of Our Lady Saint Mary of the Fair Winds") on 2 February 1536 by a Spanish expedition led by Pedro de Mendoza. The city founded by Mendoza was located in what is today the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires, south of the city centre. People from Buenos Aires are called porteños (people of the port).

Unfortunately we had to cancel a side trip we had privately scheduled for an overnight tour up to that 'wonder of the world' Iguazu Falls. Shortly after the ship docks in BA we had planned to head by air up to The Falls, a distance of about 600 miles.

These Falls are on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay and we had booked to stay at the Sheraton Hotel on the Argentina side. We made all the bookings (and then the 'unbookings') for this exciting journey on the Internet, booking our flights and hotel sometime in August, then cancelling in November.

Our plan was to fly back and arrive in Buenos Aires on the second day a few hours before the ship was scheduled to sail to its next port of call.

However, our airline notified us by e-mail that their flight schedules had changed. The new flight plan gave us less time in the Falls and the return flight arrived back in BA was too late for comfort regarding the time our ship departed from the port.

So now instead we intend to spend two glorious days exploring in this exciting city as the ship is scheduled for an overnight stop here.

The tomb of Evita Peron (shown in the picture) in Reoleta Cemetery is just one of the many wonders of this magnificent city that we hope to visit.

Avenida 9 de Julio is an avenue in Buenos Aires and its name honors Argentina's Independence Day (July 9, 1816).

The avenue runs roughly one kilometre to the west of the Río de la Plata waterfront, from the Retiro district in the north to Constitución station in the south. The avenue has six lanes in each direction and is the widest street in the world.

The Obelisk which lies in this avenue is one of the most famous landmarks in Buenos Aires and is considered the actual centre of the city.

Buenos Aires has also one of the largest homosexual communities in Latin America and there is a liberal attitude towards gay society. The Capital Federal law allows and recognizes legal civil partnership. There has been an increase in gay-friendly businesses such as real estate, apartment rental, travel agents, language classes, tango classes, bars, restaurants, hotels and guest houses. Since 2007, the city has seen the arrival of many gay cruise ships (this does not apply to our own ship's visit by the way!!), the opening of a gay 5-star hotel and a general increase in gay tourism.

We sailed all night down the murky and ever narrowing channel of the River Plate and by 7.30 we were in the heart of B.A. being pushed into our moorings by the local port tug.

George and Rosalyn had phoned us yesterday evening before dinner to say that they and Jennifer and Robin would like us to join them for the day in sightseeing the city. George knows the area well and is leading the 'tour'.

They were also asking Peter and Rhonda, who they share a dinner table with and with whom we dined the night Françoise had us all to dinner. We jumped at the chance of accompanying them as we knew it would be a fun day.

The cruise ship Insignia, that we were once booked on out of this port, was moored very near by. It would be departing in the afternoon to circumnavigate South America without visiting the Antarctic nor the Amazon.

By 8.00 the Prinsendam was all tied up and we then met our Canadian companions and Peter and Rhonda in the Ocean Bar Lounge before heading ashore.

Like for Lima Peru, H Stern (the international jewellers), run a courtesy bus service from the port into the centre of town and we managed to take the first of these shuttles at 9.00. It took us all the way into the heart of things just by the main shopping street called 'Florida'.

The skies were very threat-ening and it soon started raining so after a while we took the opportunity to have a coffee in the old and well established Richmond coffee house/restaurant.

After that break we continued on until we reached the Cathedral.

This is a splendid building with an interior of the classical European style.

It also houses the mausoleum to the great liberator of South America Gen San Martin who of course was born in the Argent-inian capital.

Very near by is the former palace of Eva Peron, from where she made her many speeches to the spell bound crowds. Pictured here is our party consisting of myself, Maria, Jennifer, Robin, Rhonda, Peter, Rosalyn and George.

Today it is an admini-strative building and not a Presiden-tial Palace. It still of course attracts many tourists wishing to see where this once historic leader lived well over 50 years ago.

Again very close by is the area where the mothers and families of people, usually young men, who went missing during the time of the 'Generals', meet every Friday. The marking on the ground where they meet state their case.

The Avenue of 9th July is the main and widest road in the City and houses the Obelisk which commem-orates the setting up of Argentina as a state. This picture is taken from another street lying off the main Avenue.

It was close to here that we sheltered from some torrential rain and had some lunch. While lunching we heard on the local TV that later this afternoon there would again be more heavy rains and possibly flooding. We decided to call it a day and head back to the ship.

In any case the long walk round much of the city had left George and myself pleased to find somewhere to catch our breath during the morning's exertions.

It was just as well we did decide to head back to the ship as no sooner had we returned to the port by taxi than the heavens opened up and it really poured and poured for the rest of the afternoon.

Last night's Tango show on board the ship was okay and some of the Tango dancing very good. However, perhaps it all went on a bit too long and there wasn't quite enough of the good old real sensual Tango actually performed.

As a result it was nearer midnight before we eventually managed to climb into our bed.

Tonight we have our special dinner and classical choir concert at a very prestigious venue. Unfortunately we were informed yesterday by letter that we are expected to 'black tie' the event and this is not exactly what we, and I assume many more attending, particularly want.

I think a nap is in order prior to as assembling on the pier at 7.00 pm.