Buenos Aires, Argentina (Tuesday, March 20)

After navigating up the wide but shallow Rio de la Plata, we docked in Buenos Aires.  

Although our cruise ends here, we do not disembark until tomorrow, so today we took our last 's ship tour.   

Today's Tour: TIGRE DELTA & RIVER CRUISE

Cruise through the labyrinthine canals of the Tigre River delta, admiring the unspoiled natural beauty and unexpected British-style homes that dot the shoreline.

After departing from the pier, you will settle in for a leisurely drive through some of the most characteristic neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. Along the way, you will pass stately mansions, soaring high-rises and waterfront homes before arriving at San Isidro Cathedral.

While pausing for exterior photos, you will notice its distinct neo-Gothic architecture, most notably its clock tower, which rises more than 225 feet into the air. Considered one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Argentina, it has been declared a National Historic Site. If there is time for an interior visit, you will see the cathedral’s cross-shaped design even more clearly.

Continuing north, you will soon arrive at the Tigre River, which is named for the “tigres” or jaguars that once roamed here. The river delta is one of the world’s largest and is laced with canals that form a network of forested islands.

As you cruise through the green wonderland, you will notice that many of the riverside homes have a British flair. There are mock Tudors, Victorian mansions and even British-style gardens that reflect England’s influence and ties with Buenos Aires.

The Tigre River delta is still a popular weekend getaway for affluent locals, and you will understand why after taking in the natural beauty up close on a river cruise. Afterwards, you will retrace your route back to the pier in Buenos Aires.

We stopped at San Isidro Catedral on route.

We arrived at Tigre where we we were to board a boat to tour the delta.  

At this point let me go back to March 8, 2007.  We were here.  It was pouring rain.  We were waiting for word from our daughter Elizabeth who was going through a difficult birth of her first child.  We were wet and stressed, riding in a boat with windows fogged so badly it was hard to see the blurry scenery.  Soon after getting off the boat we received a cellphone call from Elizabeth telling us all was well.  Perhaps it was this end of the tour that was the seed for what became for Pam a fond memory of the beautiful Tigre Delta or perhaps my photographs made me too cynical about it.    

When Pam told me that she wanted to return there this trip, I was about as ebullient as this guy.

Fast forward to today.  Here we were again, albeit in better weather and without Elizabeth giving birth.  It was time to see if the optimistic or pessimistic recollection of the tour was more accurate.

Sarmiento House was remembered by one of us as a "favorite" part of our last tour here -- the home of the 7th president of Argentina, it was now a museum and national treasure.  It was such a valuable piece of Argentine history that it was protected against flood waters by a glass enclosure.  Ah, if those walls could talk.  Actually, if they could, they probably wouldn't have anything interesting to say.  It turned out the house was a replica.   

- - - - -

Everything in the delta comes and goes by boat: fuel, groceries, emergency services, etc.

We returned to Buenos Aires and went back aboard SIRENA.  In preparation for disembarking tomorrow morning, we worked to finish getting our bags packed and in the passageway before the 10 PM collection time.  Part of the packing process was a treasure hunt.  Over the past 37 days we had spread out into every imaginable nook and cranny in our room.  Systematically checking all those places was a challenge with eureka moments.  "Look what I found laying flat behind the DVR player!" 

Montevideo, Uruguay (Monday, March 19)

The centerpiece of today's plan was to tour Montevideo on the hop-on, hop-off bus.

Although there was a bus stop just outside the port gate, we opted to walk to Plaza Independencia, pausing at a couple of small parks along the way.

 

We found Catedral Metropolitana along our route.

At point Plaza Independencia, we wandered around until the bus arrived.

Puerta de la Ciudadela

Palacio Salvo

We boarded the bus and were on our way...for an excruciatingly boring tour.  It turns out Montevideo is not a particularly interesting city when viewed from the top of a double-decker bus with a semi-functional electronic guide monologue.  

We sailed later that afternoon to begin navigating the Rio de la Plata River to Buenos Aires.

Telecommunications Tower

Montevideo, Uruguay (Sunday, March 18)

We awoke to the worst parts of yesterday's weather forecast for today - lightning, thunder, rain and poor visibility.  Today's forecast indicated no likelihood of improvement until evening at the earliest.  We could not see Montevideo just a few miles away. 

Pam and I were so glad to be here rather than at anchor off Punta del Este.  I was not envious of the people determined to go there today.  They were taking a tour bus 2.5 hours each way on a 9-hour tour.  

Although SIRENA arrived at the Montevideo pilot station on schedule, "port congestion" delayed the pilot coming aboard and our entry into the harbor.  When we did enter the harbor, it was raining so hard that we could barely see where the ship was going.

We docked a few minutes after 11:00 AM.  The weather remained so poor that Pam & I did not do anything different than we had while waiting to dock.  I came up with a new term - "pier cruising".

Eventually the weather let up.  We left the ship, walking through the port.  Near the main gate was an area with some port relics, one of which was a rangefinder from the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee that was scuttled in the outer harbor after being chased into neutral Uruguay by three British warships during World War II.  

Under threatening skies, we left the port, walking to a complex called The Port Market.

From the market, we wandered up Pérez Castellano Street for several blocks before retracing our path back to the ship.

Toward evening, the skies began to clear, the sun casting its light on the communications building, the waterfront and the derelicts in the harbor.

I took this picture of the sunset from the stern of SIRENA while we ate dinner there.

To quote Paul Harvey, "And now you (will) know the rest of the story."

Once upon a time I wrote a blog about our 2018 trip to Central and South America, then I stopped writing it.  This does not mean that I finished it.  It just sort of stalled even though many of the remaining pieces were to some degree done.

After a wonderful time with family and friends, cruising on our boat and generally enjoying the summer, in September I set a goal of getting the blog finished.

It is done!  

In our last exciting episode, the ship was on a passage from the Falkland Island to Uruguay.  Over the next few days, I will put up posts on the remainder of the trip, beginning with our stop in Uruguay.  

Although you probably did not know you were exercising it, thank you for your patience.  If you thought it would be rewarded with truly amazing prose and breathtaking pictures, I'm afraid you are in for a bit of a disappointment, but I tried to at least maintain the level set by earlier posts.  To see those posts, go to...   https://phnwt2018.blogspot.com/