WELCOME TO BUENOS AIRES - DAY 59

A Look At What Is Happening Today:

 First Of Three Days In Buenos Aires, Agentina ✔  World Cruise Shoreside Event This Evening  ✔  

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Last evening was the Oscar Awards and the awards were shown on both our televisions sets and at the 
Hollywood Theatre. They began at 10:00 PM ships time.

Before dinner last evening, we attended the final closing of the World Games including the presentation of the Medals from the last few days.  Keith won two Gold Medals; one for Men's Doubles Paddle Tennis and the other one for Crystal Family Paddle Tennis where on guest is paired with one member of the crew.

As part of the Medal Ceremony, for each awards the Bronze Medalist(s) is called up, followed by the Silver Medalist(s), followed by the Gold Medalist(s).  They announce each persons name, the country they are representing (some people go with a country other then their own one while most go with their own country), and they are presented with a certificate, and the Olympians place the medals on each person and shake their hands.   It is held at the Crystal Plaza and many people attend.

As part of the closing of the World Games, the Crystal Ensemble and Dancers performed, some of the Lido Deck Stewards performed, and there was a short speech given by Cruise Director Gary Hunter.

Keith, with Shane, Line Captain Of the Crystal Ensemble Of Singers and Dancers getting the Gold Medal for winning Crystal Family Paddle Tennis.  F&B Manager Victor won a medal with fellow guest Evan.

Friends Linda and John.  Linda won a Gold Medal with nine other teammates for winning Team Trivia.

Keith and his teammate John from Australia who won the Gold for Men's Doubles Paddle Tennis.

The Crystal Ensemble Of Dancers and Singers performed a special dance for all of us as part of the end of the close of the World Games.

The Lido Deck Stewards also performed a special dance for all of us.  We had seen them perform this dance about a week ago.  It was just outstanding and brought tears to our eyes. It was perfectly choreographed with the help of the another crew member who works up at Tastes behind the bar.  

(Front Row From L-R Ed, Max, and Jason)

(Back Row From L-R Benjamin, Joe, Martin, Jun)

(Not in Photo Clark and Nat)

The Front Office Manager with some of the crew from the reception desk and the shore excursion desk and back office enjoying the performances. For this photo they posed but when the Crystal Ensemble of Singers and Dancer were preforming they were swaying with the beat of the song.

The Crystal Plaza and the upstairs area was filled with guests and many members of the crew.

There was a lot of excitement throughout the ceremony and it was another fun World Games.  What we like about the games is each year we get to meet some fellow guests who we had not known very well in the past. It is all about having fun.

Shortly following this ceremony we had dinner.

We dined at the Crystal Dining Room and these are the dinner menus.

The Crystal Dining Room was very quiet.  Often after formal night when it is quite busy guests go to other dining venues.  We had a great time and the wait staff was able to spend a lot of time with us.

We both had two orders of Keith's standing order salad.  

Anne Marie had the Lobster Tail which was on the Formal Night menu from the night before which Head Waiter Augusto ordered for us.  It was delicious.

Keith had the Sea Bass which was also on the menu from Formal night and Augusto ordered for us.   It was very moist and cut almost like butter.

Keith also tried a small piece of the Fresh Grouper that was on the menu.  It was very tasty with much of the taste coming from the spices that it was seasoned with. A nice choice as well.

For dessert Anne Marie had the Sugar-Free Apple Pie A La Mode.  It was quite delicious and she shared some of it with Keith.  Keith had mixed berries.

Last evening's entertainment included a concert performance by Pianist Naki Ataman who performed two shows at 7:00 pm and 8:45 pm respectively.  This is the entertainment program.

Before going to sleep, we moved the clocks back one hour as we sailed to the new time zone in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  We will be repeating this again very soon.

We slept very well last evening as we cruised the relatively short distance to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

We slept very well.  We had a relatively short distance to travel to arrive to Buenos Aires so the ship was moving slow and the seas were very calm.  We slept well.

Keith woke at the same time but with the benefit of the extra hour of sleep since we set the clocks back one hour in anticipation of our arrival to Buenos Aires.  

A short while after Keith arrived to the Fitness Center to other guests arrived who Keith normally does not see for another hour.  If you guessed that this was because the two people didn't set their clocks back by one hour you win the prize.  The forgot.  During his workout, Keith primarily watched coverage of last nights Oscars on both the BBC and Sky News channels.

Keith stopped by the Lido Cafe for coffee and to read and to write.  It was quiet when he first arrived so he also chatted with the team of five Lido Deck Stewards who have worked this area during this voyage.  Anne Marie walked before it was time for breakfast.

We had breakfast a little earlier then we normally do today so we could get ready for our arrival to Buenos Aires.

We have had the pleasure of visiting Buenos Aires together several times and on his first visit Keith visited this city about twenty years ago for business.  

We love Buenos Aires. It is a beautiful city with wonderful people. This may surprise many of you but Argentina is indeed the eighth largest country in the world in terms of its physical size of 1 million square miles. While it is physically large, its population only totals approximately 40 million people. Most of the people of Argentina can trace their roots and heritage to Europe. There are between 250,000 and 300,000 Jewish people living in Argentina. Argentina has 70 Billion dollars in exports.  The challenge for this country continues to be the economy which had a very low period between 2001 and 2002 and is still challenged even today.  Crime remains a big issues as well.

Buenos Aires was first settled in the 1500s and was initially controlled by Spain. It wasn’t until 1816 when independence was achieved. Towards the middle of the 19th century, Buenos Aires became Argentina’s Capital.

Today, when we think of the history of this area, many people think of its recent past when it was ruled by General Peron and his wife Evita.

Buenos Aires is a beautiful city and as one strolls its streets it has the feel and look of being in a major city in Europe.

There are many beautiful buildings to see. This includes the Casa Rosada or better known as the “President’s Pink House”. This house became popular as Evita Person used to give speeches to large masses of the residents of this city from of the balconies of this building. Another famous area within a short walk from here is the Cabildo, which is also known as the “Town Hall”. It was here that the independence effort began. Another famous area is the Metropolitan Cathedral which contains the tomb of the famous Argentine liberator, Jose de San Martin, are housed.

Near this area is there are wonderful restaurants, boutiques, and art galleries.

An area that attracts many tourists is the Recoleta Cemetery. In many ways this cemetery is like an ancient city with its rather ornate and elaborate mausoleums. One of these mausoleums contains the body of Evita Peron. We visited this cemetery in 2005 and will do so again tomorrow.

Today we were met at the Cruise Ship Terminal by Marcos.  Keith met Marcos on the January 4 Miami to Miami cruise while playing Paddle Tennis.  Marcos and his wife live in Buenos Aires where Marcos grew up. Marcos was kind enough to offer to meet us at the Cruise Ship terminal to tour us around this city.  Tomorrow we have a private tour set up so today worked out perfectly for us.

Marcos drove us around the city.  We drove North from the Cruise Ship terminal and he took us to the Recoleta Cemetery, around several beautiful neighborhoods including his residence, pointed out many monuments and other landmarks and many different building.  We drove to areas that we have never seen before including several different parks, polo fields, sports clubs and also took us to a couple of areas that are home to many embassies from around the world including the British, Swiss, German, French, Italy, and United States embassies.

Marcos also explained a lot of history of Argentina and Buenos Aires as well as his own family history dating back to 1710 when his Father's family first arrived to Argentina.  He also shared a lot of information about the current state of affairs of Argentina and Buenos Aires.

We had a delightful visit with Marcos and we really appreciate that he took the time to give us a very nice tour of his city.


Anne Marie with Macos

The Residence of the United States Ambassador to Argentina.

In the background is a river running through the city.

The weather was perfect.  Although it is Summer, the highs were in the low 70's and the skies were clear.

Today, was the first day of school as the Summer vacation has come to an end and many people were also back to work so the city was very busy and there was a lot more traffic then the past couple of months.

When we got back to the ship we had lunch and we had some people that we met with.

In the afternoon Anne Marie walked for another hour and Keith worked out for awhile as well.  We also read and wrote and took care of a few errands on the ship and Keith met up with friend Bob.

Later this evening we are attending the second of two World Cruise shoreside events and will post all about that tomorrow.

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

“You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.” – Evan Esar

Keith and Anne Marie