Last night in Buenos Aires and beyond

Friday, Feb. 27, and we were planning our day.  This trip would take us to the Colon Theatre, located in the heart of Buenos Aires.  It is the main opera house in the city and is ranked third best in the world by National Geographic.  It is acoustically considered to be one of the five best concert venues in the world.

We had our tickets and were ready for our tour..

Another beautiful building except we were going in this one.

The original theatre opened in 1857 although it took some work as the first designer died of a heart attack, the second was killed because of his wife’s affair and the third who was single, got the job finished; however toward the end of the century it needed to be replaced.  A 20-year process started and the present theatre opened in 1908.  After a period of time, massive renovations became necessary and the theatre was closed for refurbishment from October 2006 to May 2010. 

All wigs, costumes and jewelry for the operas are made here, some of which are on display.  They are only used for a season and then retired to rarely be used again.  Although they are well-kept and could be used if someone chose to use them.  People learning this trade often start at the age of four.

The main lobby was beautiful with its large sweeping stairway.

The photo doesn't do justice to the stained glass over the main lobby.

Gold leaf was everywhere, and made the entire theatre very elegant. I almost wanted to wear a gown and attend the opera rather than wear ordinary Harley shirts and leathers.  But not quite.  Too fancy for me.

 Lighted chandeliers hung everywhere.

Another interesting piece of information is about the unobtrusive black grates that are on the lower floor.  Behind these grates were rooms that allowed widows to come and hear, but not see, the performances while they were in two years of mourning.  However, it was discovered that some were entertaining lovers during the sometimes four-hour-long performances, so that little privilege was stopped.

The black grates are low down to the right, next to the seats, under the box seats.

The orchestra had just finished a rehearsal.  The stage wall shown here moves back, doubling the size of the stage.

 

Every banister, every hallway is elegant.

And then it was time to leave and head on to our next adventure.

It was a beautiful building, as so many are in Buenos Aires.  As with other buildings, of the approximately 600 homeless people in this city and its surrounding area of 12.5 million people, a few found themselves sleeping there, maybe for the view in the morning?

 

The person sleeping on the bench was gone when we came out after our tour, so the police must roust them out every morning so the tourists don't see them.

As we wandered on the guided tour we met some other folks that would be on the Golden Princess.  We chatted about boarding, and found out from them we would be boarding the following day, Saturday.  We’d thought we were boarding on Sunday, but that was actually the evening we’d be leaving.  Whoops.  Apparently we’d lost a day during our marathon travel from Easter Island.  So we were now on our last full day in the city on our own.  Darn.  We were hoping to go to Patricia’s house to visit, have coffee and see her collection of harps.  That would have to wait for another South America visit.

 

Walking the city has given us the opportunity to see things we might not have been while on a bus or in a taxi.  Burger King, anyone?

Scooters and bicycles ride pretty much anywhere they want, weaving in and out of the cars.  However, we never saw a single fender bender or accident of any kind.

 After the theatre tour, we did our usual walking around.  We wandered around down by the docks hoping to see the Golden Princess, our home for the next 31 days, but we were turned back as we were getting to areas where we weren’t supposed to be. 

But we saw this beautiful bridge ... at least I think it was a bridge.

Another building worth photographing.

Street vendors selling fresh orange juice looked good, but we didn't sample it.

Another homeless person.  There seem to be more of them down by the docks.

We’ve seen great sights here walking around on our own, and in the evening we met up with Patricia again.

Jaz, Patricia and me waiting for the concert to begin.

This time we were going to a free street concert.  Her symphony was playing.  Usually the orchestras, including the one from the theatre, do an opening night for free.  This one was in a park not far from our hotel. 

Every type of instrument was there, except Patricia's harp.

Everybody loves good music.

There were two conductors and the music was show tunes, including from the movie, “The Sound of Music.”  They also played the song, “Don’t Cry for me, Argentina.”  It was a beautiful concert and something we’d never have happened on by ourselves. The only thing that would have made it better is if Patricia had been playing that day.  But her harp was having some repair work done so we were not to receive that treat.

The conductors also provided an excellent show.

We had coffee again, and then Patricia was off to go home and we were back to the hotel to finish packing for the next day’s boarding of our ship.  We were sorry to leave the Buenos Aires we’ve known, the downtown, as we’d had a great time there, from photographing everything to taking wild taxi rides where everyone seems to drive on the center line and share the lane with bicycles, motorbikes and other four-wheeled vehicles.  It’s amazing no one seems to have an accident because we sure didn’t see any.  They must grow good drivers here.  And send the bad ones to the outpost of Alaska.

Saturday, Feb. 28, dawned and we were up early.  We’d asked for a late check out, about noon, so we had a bit of breakfast and finished our last minute packing.  We also wanted to make that last-minute free WiFi check of Facebook, just in case we’d missed something our friends had posted, because on the Princess we have to pay for it.  We’ve been told if we get to the next level of cruisers there is some kind of free WiFi.

And then, it was time.  Our gentleman at the hotel hailed a taxi for us and we were off.  Down to the port, into the terminal, dropping off luggage on the way, then going in and out and through customs and immigration, through security and to the grouping area to wait for our group’s number to be called.  After at most an hour, our number was called and we were guided with the rest of the cattle through another security check and then were herded up to the Princess check-in area. 

This time all of our paperwork was in order.  As we received our Princess cruise cards, our passports were taken from us.  That was new, although we found out later that there are a few countries that do that.  We will get them back in a few days, but it was disconcerting as you’re always told to never surrender your passport.  We did get a passport receipt which I’m sure would serve to get us out of this country and back into our own, if necessary.  NOT!!!

Then we were put on a shuttle bus to take us to the ship; it was a few miles from the terminal, and we wound around through the industrial area of the port and different docks.  We never would have found it on our own. 

We were in, and wandered around to find our stateroom.  Our luggage had beaten us there. 

At the door we received our first two weeks of tour tickets and I found out that my polo lesson excursion had been cancelled due to not enough people signing up.  What’s the matter with these old people?  I was so disappointed.  We signed up for a river boat cruise but it was not going to be nearly as exciting unless a shark or alligator or something came into the boat and started chewing on people, and I sure wasn’t expecting that to happen.

The view from our cabin.  The sailboat is leaving the bay area the same way our cruise ship will be.

We got somewhat settled in and went for a bite of lunch.  It was as we remembered, huge amounts of food, the only hard part being the decision on what to take. Then we got our Internet connected using cruise ship credits we’d gotten for different things which made it virtually free … it’s $200 for 640 minutes (40 of those are an extra for purchasing the 600-minute package).  It’s expensive but a necessity when doing blogs and wanting to stay in touch minimally.  We also purchased coffee cards so we could have espressos and other fancy coffees.  That was also a necessity.  We were set. 

Later on, I settled in as I’d decided to unpack this time and put things away rather than live out of a suitcase, with clothes, shoes and other necessities that I’d brought piled in the middle of it or spilling over the sides onto the floor of the cabin.  I felt much more organized this time.

March 1, Sunday.  68 years old.  National Pig Day.  Yahoo.  A great day for sure.  I had so many birthday wishes from friends, family and my Marine.  That was exciting and I felt the warmth and caring from everyone.  Thank you, thank you. 

Jaz and I were down in the lounge where the tour groups were meeting.  It was a bit cloudy but we’d be spending time on a bus and a boat, so while the weather was not optimum for photos, it was cooler which was pleasant. 

We were going to the Tigre (Tiger) area and the Delta Islands and sailing on the local river, which empties into the Rio de la Plata, a very large river here in South America.  The Delta is home to many islands and more than 5,000 waterways where there are houses, shacks, vacation homes … boardwalks, landing decks, boat launches, beaches.  There’s a lot to see here.

Our tour followed the red line.

Some houses look well-kept.

Other things look as though they've been around a while.

There are about 3,000 local residents, many of them retired.  We understand houses here start at about $30,000 and go to about $120,000, which seems pretty reasonable for some of the ones we saw.  However, you are rather isolated. 

There's even a derelict that adds to the charm of the islands.

This dock was painted brightly and certainly drew my attention with the cat eyes above the deck.

We heard them before we saw them, canal musicians.  They took a bow to our clapping and hollering.

Market boats come through and I think you call or email in your order.  The market boat brings it to you and puts it in a bag you leave hanging on your boat deck or walkway.  That was a pretty neat fact.

Beware of the dogs, and you can also see the market bag on the right.

There are all kinds of boats and even some jet skis running around.

The island’s natural resources are used to supply product for the cellulose, paper and plywood industries.  The area also provides osier, which is a willow that grows mostly in wet habitats, and is used mostly in basketwork, for about 80-90 percent of the arts and crafts that Argentina produces. 



We were nearly back to the dock and you can see there are many boats here.

An amusement graces the shore of the canals.  It would have been fun to go there.

This was a big catamaran, and didn't have many folks on it.  It was painted pretty nice, green and red with stacks painted like flames at the top.

Boats for rent.

There are lots of people who practice here for the rowing boats, skulls, and we saw quite a few of them.  There are water taxies you can use to take you around or home and the kids who go to school here catch a boat to and from home and school, which is starting this week and next as the country goes into its winter months.  It was a nice tour, but it sure wasn’t the adventure and excitement that I thought I’d get by taking polo lessons.  Another time, I guess.

There's a sail away party when we leave the ports with live music.

 Then it was back to the ship and waiting for the casting off of the lines as we got underway at 7 p.m.




The ship moves out of the harbor, and you can see water on both sides of it.  It's a tight squeeze.  The pilots back it up and head it out through this narrow channel.  The water is not very deep here and they have to dredge.

A beautiful skyline left us with excellent memories of our time here.

The tugs followed us we cleared the area.

Our captain, crew and pilots maneuvered us out of and through some exceptionally tight spaces and around and into the shallow but well-marked Rio de la Plata, under a beautiful sky that deepened into orange, pink and red tones.  It was the perfect time to set sail.