DAY 121 BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA & DAY 113 ON CRYSTAL SERENITY

We wanted to begin with some additional photos from yesterday's World Cruise Shore-Side Event.

Another photo with Jim and Rob.

Manager of the Photo Shop, Neil

We decided to have dinner in our room last night, after a fun-filled Shore-Side Event.

Afterwards, we attended the performance given by Organist Hector who, once again, gave a spectacular show.

We slept well on our way to Buenos Aires.  The distance was relatively short so that we went out a modest speed.

Keith began his day as he always does and that was with a workout at the Fitness Center.  It was one of those workouts where he could have gone on for hours.  A friend from Spin Class who Keith only met on this year's World Cruise arrived mid-way through the workout so Keith and Terry spoke for quiet awhile.  Afterwards, it was off to the Lido Cafe for some coffee and to read and write.

Anne Marie woke up earlier than usual as we were having breakfast earlier as well since we had an early tour today.

A photo just minutes before we docked in Buenos Aires this morning.

Keith had arranged a tour for the two of us and dear friends Bob and Glo also joined us as well.  All four of us have been to Buenos Aires many times before.  Keith's first visit was in 1994 as part of meetings with the major telecommunications companies in South America for joint agreements with each of them and since then the two of us have visited Buenos Aires on several cruises, mainly on Crystal Cruises and one other time on another luxury line.  Our son-in-law Gui was born in Buenos Aires as was his Parents and they moved to Canada and then onto the USA starting when Gui was just a few years young.  

For those of you who have visited here before, you know that it has that European look in the architecture of its buildings.

Since we have done the major tourist sites many times before, Keith had found a tour that focuses on other areas of this very beautiful city.

Our tour was (and that is the operative word) to include the following sites:

Barracas, an old neighborhood that used to host several factories in the past and genuine tango scenario. 

Boedo another tango area that shone in the past....but we can discover some vestiges of it in its streets.

Belgrano, alongside the north extreme of the town, with the River Plate Stadium which is also the biggest stadium in Argentina along with Chinatown.

The northern suburbs Martinez and San Isidro with its quiet atmosphere ,a suburban way of life and wonderful views of the River Plate and the city of BA some miles to the north. Buenos Aires.

Balvanera is the official name of a neighborhood that has been divided into others ; one of them, Abasto, is the place where famous Tango singer Carlos Gardel lived and also the place of one of the few kosher McDonald's in the world.

Our tour guide was Fabian.  Unfortunately, Fabian had to go to the hospital due to an emergency and we had no tour.  The good news is we had paid nothing up front.  Hopefully, we will do a similar tour on our next visit to Buenos Aires.

Instead, we took the shuttle over to Florida Street and walked around there for awhile.

We passed by lots of stores and cafes/restaurants, and places selling baked goods.  The latter item always is of interest to us so we took some photos of pastries and cakes.

As we mentioned Buenos Aires has the European look with its architecture.

We then walked along a side street to get over to take a photo of an iconic monument which is the Obelisk.  It was built in 1936 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first founding of the city.  It is located in the center of the Plaza de la Republica which is the Republic Square.  It is the spot where the Argentina flag was flown for the first time in Business Aires.

We had a delightful time walking around the city.  Like yesterday, we enjoyed terrific weather given that it is Fall in Argentina.

One observation:

On our last visit in 2013, with the dollar being quite strong and dollars in short supply in Argentina, locals on the street were offering a much better rate for dollars than the official exchange rate. In two years, the economy is even worse and inflation is at 40% and every 10 seconds that we walked there was one or two locals yelling out cash or exchange in Spanish and we know they were offering substantially more Argentina Pesos for USA currency.

We ended up having lunch at the Lido Cafe and made our usual salad entrees.  

Afterwards, Keith played Paddle Tennis for a couple of hours and Anne Marie walked for an hour and then worked on Knitting.

Keith met up with dear friend Bob later in the afternoon.

This evening we will be dining at Prego.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY......

"I'm hoping someday that some kid, black or white, will hit more home runs than myself.  Whoever it is, I'd be pulling for him." - Hank Aaron

Keith & Anne Marie