Last Day in B A

 A whole day without Teri and Willie - it's just not the same, but Al learned well and managed Uber all on his own.  We visited some museums, (all in Spanish so Al enjoyed it but I didn't get very far), had a nice lunch, enjoyed a flash rain storm, and went through the packing routine yet again.  Where did all this stuff come from?  

Some Buenos Aires observations - there are fancy shopping areas with all the brand names we see everywhere in the world, but also neighborhoods with lots of little bitty speciality shops.  Candy, farmacia, wine, cigars, trinkets, paint, hardware, pastry, fruit and veggies, bread, desserts, flowers, etc.   You could take your little wicker basket and get everything you need on one or two streets.  Many of them have the European style of metal shutters to cover the windows when they close, so the streets look kind of unfriendly and dark.  McDonald's and Starbucks everywhere.  There are what appear to be garbage collection bins that apparently go under the street because I saw a guy open the door and cram three big full bags in that little space.  Better than piling the bags all over the streets like some cities do.  

Drivers Ed must be effective because they seem to very law abiding in spite of winding down tiny streets then speeding down 8 or 10 lane streets.   

It seems like Chile and Argentina both have trouble caring for their streets and sidewalks, so it's imperative to be paying close attention to your feet (along with paying attention to the traffic and the sights and where is your hubby).  Not in construction zones, just right in the street.  Lucky I've only fallen down once.  So far. Wanna see some examples?

 

  

Time to Say Good-Bye

 Another hot and humid day, but we strolled to Casa Rosada, (the pink house) seat of the Argentina government, but didn't go inside.  

 Then a short toddle down the avenue to an amazing gaucho lunch, which basically just means cooking over an open grill or flame, like the real gaucho fellas did in the olden days.  Maybe they still do, but we haven't run into any of them to ask.  The cooks at Cabana Los Lilas seem to know what they are doing - look at this. 

That is a blob of truffle mashed potatoes - bring me more, please.

Three kinds of chocolate cake, just in case we haven't eaten enough, then it was time to sadly bid farewell to our bestie travel pals, heading back home.  How will we ever manage without Teri's kindness and Willie's guidance?  We're missing them already.  

My hero

 

Willie is a rock star! 

Buenos Aires is hot - in more ways than one.

 What a huge city!  But it is mostly clean and pretty with tons of parks and greenery so it feels friendly.  Obvious European influence, jillions of modern high rise buildings, more apartments than a normal person could count, but it seems very organized.   Of course the Hop On/Hop Off bus took us to the nice spots, and we didn't shake and howdy with all 16 million people, but it seems to be a fine city.  Except for the temp - we're lucky (?) enough to enjoy (?) temps in the 90s.  Ish.  I'm getting heat cranky, but I'm almost always cranky so who can tell the difference.  

Not an inch is wasted - if there is space for a skinny building they seem to fit one in. 

Much of our travels look like this.  Willie is a genius with his cell phone and getting us where we want to go.  We're gonna miss them when they go home tonight.  For so very many reasons. 

Evita's museum.  Did she really cook in this kitchen, like a perfect 50's housewife, not a hair out of place, high heel polished, pearls perfectly draped around her stunning neck.  They have several of her dresses on display, usually next to a picture of her in that very dress or hat.  I want to meet her seamstress.  

We walked and walked and walked (remember the 95 temp) to find the yarn district.  Yes, a yarn district.  About 8 or 10 yarn shops in just two blocks!  I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't even take pictures.  Or buy anything - imagine that.  Maybe we'll return when my brain settles.  Worse than being a kid in a candy store.  There I would just beeline to the dark chocolate and be on my way, but all that yarn left me addled.  Oh, poor me. 

Here's more catching up

 Not a lot to report about the last few days on the ship.  We saw Cape Horn, and had a quick but uneventful stop at Stanley, Falkland Islands.  The only highlight there was an interesting museum, but it was nice to almost be in England - everyone spoke English!  

St. Somebody. 

We don't know these people but there was always somebody standing in front of the red phone booths.  They are probably very nice.  

Friday was a stop in Puerto Madryn, a big nice city - with a yarn shop!  

And a restaurant that roasts the sweet little lambs right in the window.  

Al enjoys the view, which we saw a lot of because the seas were too high for a scheduled stop in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, so we had three days in a row of this.  Worked well for me to pamper the stupid annoying cold but others were getting restless.  

Getting off the ship was a challenge that could take hours to tell - three huge ships all dumped the luggage in a gigantic pier/warehouse and sort of shouted "good luck" then probably stood back and laughed.  "Now find a cab.  See you next time."

Oh, oh

 Well,  it seems there is a big glitch in my onboard online internet thingy and it's quite a challenge to get to the post page, so let's take a break. I'll give you some highlights but  when we get to land and a hotel with good wi-fi I will try to catch.  Don't forget about us, but come back next Tuesday for all the news.  

Cape Horn - appropriately known as The End of The World and this is where the Atlantic and Pacific truly meet.  I still didn't see the line.

Al enjoying Cape Horn. 

I'm going to look for chocolate now.  

Looks like this didn't post, probably because of the very spotty and limited wi-fi.  Oops.  

Look for Magellan

 Here is a quick update while I have wi-fi minutes.   I promise to add to the news when I can get the chrome book connected and type on a real keyboard because I am hopeless with the phone. 

None of us went ashore in Chacubuca because the little tender system was having trouble,  then we had two At Sea days so not much to tell.  There is always eating.

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Tiny room.   Teri and willie have a handicap room with more space. 

Nothing to see but the sea.  Especially when it splashed on our little porthole down here on deck 4.  But we have more stability than the rich folks up on deck 12.

Mexican train in the chapel.  It might be a sin..

Through the Straits of Magellan where the Pacific becomes the Atlantic.   I didn't see the line.

Magellan and his mermaid.

Puerto Montt

  Yesterday was a get-to-know -the-ship day at sea.  Today we are in Puerto  Montt, on the coast, of course.   Teri and willie went on an excursion.   Al and I walked to town for lunch.  See? 

More later. 

Load 'em up

 Monday, so it's time to get on the Sun Princess.  A driver will be picking us up to go to San Antonio and we won't have to unpack/pack/unpack for two whole weeks!  We understand that wi-fi on the ship is very limited so you'll have to patiently wait until it's available.  See ya! 

ps  Because I don't really know what I'm doing it seems that if any of you comment it comes up as "unknown" and they just sit in a pile somewhere, so wait until we get home and we can email all about it to catch up.  There is also a bunch of spam in the comments and I wouldn't want to confuse you with somebody who wants to sell me strange things.  I should have taken a better blog lesson.