Antarctica Cruise - February 14 - February 17, 2016 Buenos Aries and Sailing

Today we took a 4-hour tour of Buenos Aries.
 

 From the bus, we could see the metal flower sculpture located in the middle of the United Nations Plaza.  It is so impressive because it opens during the day and closes at night.

We saw many statues and landmarks in the city.

 

 

 But definitely the most fascinating part of the tour was the famous Recoleta Cemetery with its above-ground tombs all laid out in sections like city blocks.  This is the entrance to the Cemetery.

 

 This was once the garden of the adjoining church; however, the cemetery was created in 1822 and is among the oldest in the city. You can spend hours here wandering the grounds that cover 4 city blocks, full of tombs adorned with works by local and international sculptors and contains more than 6,400 mausoleums.

 Most of the tombs are well taken care of, but some have broken glass and dusty and you can see right inside.

 Looking down toward the main mausoleum we came to see--that of Eva Peron--the one on the left further down that has the flowers attached to it.

 No one goes to Recoleta cemetery without a visit to Evita’s grave (1919 - 1952).  It actually isn't that fancy and is actually under her maiden name of Duarte, with other family members, also, sharing this crypt.  Three years after former First Lady Perón died of cancer in 1952, her body was removed by the Argentine military in the wake of a coup that deposed her husband, President Juan Perón. The body then went on a transatlantic odyssey for nearly twenty years before finally being returned to the Duarte family mausoleum in Recoleta Cemetery.

  It is always heaped with flowers and letters from adoring fans.  (No other tombs are allowed to have flowers but hers.)  To prevent her body from being stolen, as it had been many times by the various military governments installed after her husband's fall from grace in 1955, she was finally buried in a concrete vault 27 ft. underground in 1976, heavily fortified to ensure that no one can disturb the remains of Argentina's most beloved and controversial First Lady. 

 Many other rich or famous Argentines are buried here as well, including a number of Argentine presidents.  The newest presidential tomb is that of Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín, who died in 2009 and was the first president elected when the 1976-82 military dictatorship ended.

 

Admiral Guillermo Brown, (William Brown, 1777-1857), was an Irish-born Admiral and founder of the Argentine Navy.  His tomb features sea and sailing carvings, and the mausoleum was partially built with melted down bronze from the canons of the battleships he once commanded. The exterior of the tomb is painted green in honor of his Irish heritage.

As I said, you could spend days in here!

Next, we visited the Metropolitan Cathedral (constructed in 1593, but redesigned and rebuilt seven times) that looks more like a Greek Temple than a Catholic Church, but this is where Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio (now known as Pope Francis) performed his last Mass before assuming the office of Pope in 2013.  The twelve columns represent the twelve apostles.  Above them is a carving of the encounter between Jacob and his son, Joseph, in Egypt, and was intended as an allegory of the unity of the Argentine nation after civil unrest.

"Baptismal" font.

 

 We passed by a gateway to the crypts below.

The mausoleum of San Martín and the Unknown Soldier.  Around the sarcophagus, three female figures representing Argentina, Chile and Peru, recall the countries liberated by General San Martín. The soldiers at the entrance to the tomb stand guard and pay homage to the founder of their institution.

 Further on our bus tour, we saw the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity in the neighborhood of San Telmo.  It was built between 1898 and 1901.  I had to shake myself to remember I was in Argentina, not in Russia, where we went on our last cruise.

 And we had to pass by the football (soccer to us) stadium!  The Argentinians take great pride in their soccer teams!

This is the replica of the house built by William Brown, the man who started the Argentine Navy, and now houses the Naval Historical Studies Department, known as the "Yellow House."  Admiral Brown is the man who is interred in the green mausoleum shown above at Recoleta Cemetery, so basically he went from the "Yellow House" to the Green House--the color of his tomb.

The funnest part of the day was visiting Caminito, an alley located in the colorful neighborhood of LaBoca. 

It is such a fun place where there are lots of places to eat and lots of open air shopping!  (I was having trouble with my camera--again!)

This is where the first Italian immigrants settled in 1851.  Many families would live in one little compartment.

Since this is the birthplace of the tango, George and I decided to give it a try--definitely not even near a 10!!!

We had so much fun walking up and down the bricked walk-ways looking at the local vendor's merchandise.  Joyce and I each bought a genuine leather Argentine purse to carry our cell phones and Argentine money in. 

I didn't take the picture quickly enough--no more Diet Coke!

 The Argentines love their cowhides!

 And the fact that the tango originated there is a real source of pride.  Everywhere we went, we saw some excellent examples--even out on the streets.

After our wonderful tour of Buenos Aires, we were dropped off at the ship terminal and taken by buses through all these shipping crates to where we actually boarded.

Good-bye, Argentina, for two weeks!  We loved being there!

Our first dinner in the Trellis Restaurant where along with Doug and Joyce, we, also, had two others couples (Dennis and Colleen Johnson, and Gary and June Bywater) that dined with us the entire cruise, and who also went to Peru with us afterward (along with Pam and Dan--the Cruise Directors.) 

Since it was Valentine's Day, the ship personnel gave each of the woman a long-stemmed red rose.

This cruise only required two semi-dressed up nights, which was actually nice because you really didn't have the room to put much more in your suitcase besides the hot and cold clothes we had to take.

We enjoyed most of the night shows, but by far our most favorite was this one done by a Russian couple--who are actually married.  They were on the Russian Olympic team and are Cirque performers.  They were absolutely fantastic! 

 Doing a little exploring of the ship, we saw this Chihuly chandelier.  I love Chihuly and always remember with fondness when I went to the Chihuly Headquarters in Seattle with Kent and Natalie and their family while little Cannon was still alive.

With the extra sea days, we played lots of cards--and actually got Doug playing with us who had never played cards with us before.  Definitely, our favorite to play together was Crown Five introduced to us by John and Alison's family.

We, also, went to presentations that talked about the areas we would be going to, as well as plants, animals, and even weather in the Antarctica area.  We, also, attended classes about our I-phones and learned more things we could do with them, as well as we did a little shopping in the stores aboard ship.  If I had one complaint about this cruise was that there were too many At-Sea days, but it is a LONG, LONG ways down to the Antarctica, and there was no other way to do it!