Beguiling Buenos Aires

Dear Readers:

We’ve been home since December 7^th, but wanted to finish up our trip to South America with a final post on Buenos Aires. Enjoy!

December 6, 2019:

Today we returned to the charming capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. While there is no doubt that this country has some serious economic problems, Jim and I came to love it here during our visits in 2015. While we were a little bummed to leave the Mariner behind, we were excited to renew our acquaintance with this city.

Our flight home is not until 9:00 tonight, so we planned a day with a car and driver to revisit some of the things we learned about in earlier visits. Our first stop of the day was a return visit to a great leather shop we discovered on our very first visit. Bettina Rizzi’s shop has been a fixture in the city for years (bettinarizzi.com; 925 Maipu Street), and we had jackets made to order here five years ago for a very reasonable price. She speaks excellent English, and will allow you to select the pelt for the garment you want made. Jim and I both wanted another jacket made, and she promised to have them ready for us by this afternoon.

That business taken care of, we put ourselves in the capable hands of our guide for the day, Soledad, from local tour operator, Furlong Travel.  Soledad recommended that we wander around the Japanese gardens in the center of town, while we waited for the Eva Peron Museum to open.

The Japanese gardens are not on any top 10 lists of things to see in Buenos Aires, but like a lot of the rest of this lovely city, it is another gem tucked away, but enjoyed by the many residents of Buenos Aires.  This lovely garden is literally right in the center of the city, and it is a lovely oasis! While it is warm today, it was still very pleasant to walk around the water features and stroll in the shaded pathways.  There is a carp farming project here, and the little kids in the park were fascinated with the carp.

Water features in the Japanese Gardens

We drove around the city a bit and then went to the Evita Peron Museum. While she was the First Lady of Argentina (in the 1940s), she started a foundation in her name to provide housing, education and food to the poor women of Argentina.  The Eva Peron Foundation bought numerous houses around the country (and several in Buenos Aires) where the women were housed and taught marketable skills. The Museum is housed in one of these homes, and is very interesting. Unfortunately, though, they don’t allow you to take photos inside. In addition to having several exhibits about the life of Eva Peron, the museum also has several displays of the outfits she wore throughout her life. Even Jim enjoyed this museum!

Outside the Eva Peron Museum

Since we still had some time to kill before our lunch reservation at one of the iconic Argentinian steak houses, Soledad took us to wander through the Palermo neighborhood. When we were here five years ago, this was one of our favorite neighborhoods in the city, and it is easy to see that it has gotten even more popular. Apparently, this is a favorite spot for young Porteños (which is what the residents of Buenos Aires call themselves) for eating out, listening to music and dancing. There are also great shops here. However, one of the best parts of the neighborhood is the abundance of murals painted on many of the buildings.  WE drove around to see a few of Soledad’s favorites, and then we went to the Mercado de Pulgas (literally, the Flea Market), which is in a huge old warehouse chock full of some amazing finds. This is THE place to go if you are doing a remodeling job, and want to incorporate historical touches like hand-carved doors.  It was slightly frustrating not to be able to buy anything, but this is a great resource!

In the Palermo neighborhood

Murals outside the Flea Market

Mural of Frida Kahlo

Our lunch reservation was also in the Palermo neighborhood at a great restaurant called Parrilla Voro Carnes. A parrilla is an Argentinean restaurant which specializes in grilled meats, and Voro Carnes means “I eat meat”. This is a not-so-subtle way of telling you that if you are a vegetarian, this probably is not the restaurant for you! The restaurant is relatively new (by Buenos Aires’ standards), but is owned an operated by a young couple, but it has already garnered a loyal following of customers. The restaurant is bright and airy (and air conditioned), but the menu is fairly simple. There are a few appetizers (all of them versions of Argentinian favorites) and most of the menu consists of the various cut of meat you can order.  Jim and I split an empanada (beef, of course), and an order of provoleta (a baked cheese dishes with herbs and spices) as an appetizer. Although both were very good, we tried to save ourselves for the “main event”.  The steaks we ordered were fantastically flavorful and tender, and they were served with a housemade tray of condiments, including a chimichurri sauce, which predominated with paprika instead of the more common parsley and oregano. The wine list was not extensive, but all the wines listed were top drawer Argentinian wines and quite affordable.  IN short, it was an iconic meal in an iconic city.

a classic Argentine empanada

Inside Parrilla Voro Caries

The bubbling hot provoleta

Moo!

The accompaniments for the steaks.

Needless to say, we didn’t come anywhere close to finishing these steaks!

This was the wine we chose to accompany our meal; a superb Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon blend for the princely sum of $28.

We would have probably liked to find a place just to curl up and sleep off our meat hangover, but since that wasn’t possible, Soledad took us to another famous museum here; the Museum of Latin American Art (nicknamed “MALBA”). All of the art here is contemporary, and is beautifully curated in a very modern and airy mult-story building. In addition to a rotation collection of art by some great South American artists, there is also a whole floor devoted to spotlighting the works of a specific artist.  The current exhibit featured the works of Ernesto Neto, who works in a cloth medium, which creates hanging shapes.  It was not my cup of tea, but the gallery was full of visitors.  I was more interested in some of the other classic Latin American artists. We were happy to find one work (a painting) by Bótero, but we learned that MALBA has several of his works in their collection, and they are rotated.

Some of Ernesto Neto’s work

About this time, we got a call from Bettina to let us know our jackets were ready, so we left the museum and went to pick them up. Once again, they fit perfectly, and Jim and I are very happy with our purchases. By this time, it was finally time to drive to the airport.  Even though our flight would not depart for over four hours, the traffic in Buenos Aires is incredible, so we played it safe.  We made it onto our flight without incident, and woke up in Miami the next morning. I hope you’ve enjoyed our tales of South America.  Stay tuned in March, when we will depart on a truly epic journey!

Just Juanico

December 5, 2019:

Montevideo skyline from the port

Today is our last full day on the Mariner, and Jim and I are determined to enjoy every moment. We docked first thing today in the port of Montevideo, Uruguay. This is the capital city of Uruguay, and Jim and I spent some time here in 2015 when we were touring South America. Since we have already seen most of the tourist highlights in town, we opted to go out into the nearby countryside to visit one of the local wineries, Juanico, which are attracting some buzz in the wine world.  Our tour did not leave until early afternoon, which gave us some time to enjoy a last leisurely breakfast in the dining room, and to begin packing to go home tomorrow from Buenos Aires. From the ship, we can see the port area bustling with activity.

Then it was time to leave for our tour. Until the1980s, Uruguay did not have much of a vineyard culture. The country was probably best known for producing cognac (or aguardiente), and that in huge commercial quantities. However, the local vintners discovered that a grape varietal from France called Tannat did quite well in Uruguay’s somewhat humid climate, and they started planting acres of it.

Fast forward thirty years, and the bulk production of cognac has almost entirely disappeared, while the local farmers have expanded their vineyards to include many other varietals.  The vintners are also modifying the growing techniques to evolve their fields from vine structures which promoted greater quantities of grapes grown on v-shaped supports, to one which features more traditional trellised vines supported by single wires such as we see in most of the United States. We drove out into the vineyards to see these changes, and to observe the grapes growing. It is interesting that even the grape sizes and clusters appear somewhat different than those with which we are more familiar in the northern hemisphere.  

The old planting method

The new planting methods

Following our visit to fields, we visited the wine production facilities, which in this case had started out with a somewhat futuristic-looking circular concrete wine storage facility built in the 1960s to age the cognac then being produced. I don’t know about you, but it kind of looked like a spaceship for wine to us!

The wine “spaceship”

We concluded our tour with a visit to the cellar on this property, which began life as a religious mission back in 1745. Then we gathered to taste the wine of Juanico. We started with a very crisp sparkling wine produced in the methode champenoise, which we all enjoyed very much. That was followed by a sample of a white blend made using both Chardonnay and vi9gnier grapes. We liked it but preferred the Sparkling wine. The3n they let us taste a wine made from a grape varietal none of us had every heard of; called Marselam. Jim liked the taste and mouth-feel, but found the aroma offputting. Finally, we tasted our favorite of the group, a Tannat from their flagship brand called Don Pascual. Unlike several other Tannat wines we tasted five years ago, Jim and I found this to be much smoother and well-rounded than the Tannats we had sampled before. Juanico had provided a lovely charcuterie platter to pair with their wines, and the tannins in the Tannat greatly benefitted from the addition of some salami on your tongue.  Finally, we tasted a Cabernet Franc Cabernet Sauvignon blend which was clearly targeted towards North American wine palates. Although it was good, it was not worthy of its $55 price tag, particularly when all the other wines were retailing for between $11 and $17 dollars.  Had we been staying on the ship a few days longer, we would have bought a couple of the Tannats to bring back, but it was not to be.

Instead, Jim and I finished packing, and enjoyed a last meal with some newfound friends aboard the Mariner.  Tomorrow, we return to Buenos Aires to spend a whirlwind day touring, before our late night flight home. Stay tuned for the final chapte3r in this episode of the Gringo travels!

Farewell, Montevideo!

Pedalling Around Punta del Este

December 4, 2019:

Welcome to the vacation capital of Uruguay! We’re docked in Punta del Este, which is just getting ready for the frenetic summer season. In the off season, only about 14,000 permanent residents inhabit this glamorous city, but for the six weeks of the “high season”, all of this beachside real estate is chock full of vacationing Argentines and Uruguayans, and the population swells to about 450,000 people.  The high season is during the summer months here (from December through early February) when the kids are out of school for the summer and the Christmas holidays.  Schools will let out next week, and then the madness begins. However, right now, it is pretty calm and uninhabited. In short, a perfect day for a leisurely bike ride around the highlights of the area!

The bike excursion wound through some of the nicest neighborhoods we have seen in South America. One quaint custom here is that homes do not have addresses. Instead, they have names, and directions are given by use of cross streets and neighborhoods. The tour guide says that if you have a pizza delivered, and the delivery guy finds your house, you tend to use the same company because you know your pizza will be hot when delivered the next time.

The name of this house is Week End

Punta del Este is really a long peninsula, with one side facing onto the outlet for the River Plate, and the other side facing onto the Atlantic Ocean. But in many places, the peninsula is only about three blocks wide. In fact, there is one place where four streets come together, and you can see water in all four directions.

During our ride, the guide provided us with some information about Uruguay. It turns out, Uruguay is one of the most progressive nations in Latin American. It was the first to approve civil marriages for gay people, and has a long tradition of secularism, despite being a predominately Catholic country. Uruguayans are very proud of their education system, which dates back to the late 1800s. The three pillars of the education system are that it is compulsory (for children ages 4-18), it is free, and it is secular. Although private schools do exist in Uruguay, they are not nearly as well regarded as the public schools. In fact, to attend a private university can be a detriment to finding a job, because there have been issues in the past with the private schools just operating as diploma mills.

The course of our ride takes us past a really lovely lighthouse, and some cute churches. We also pass a meteorological station.  Our guide points out several pieces of modern art. Probably the most famous of these is a sculpture called La Mano created by a Chilean artist named Mario Irrarazabal, which looks like giant fingers reaching up from the sand. Mostly, though, it was just nice to be off the ship after four days at sea, and to bike around in the warm spring sunshine.

The meteorological station

La Mano

Las Malvinas son Argentinas, but they certainly are Not Ours!

December 1, 2019:

After a rocky 36 hours at sea, we anchored offshore of Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands (Las Malvinas) this morning. The plan was to take the ship’s tenders to shore, and then do a walking tour of Port Stanley, followed by an expedition to the penguin preserve on the far side of the east island. However, the weather was not cooperating, and shortly after dropping anchor, the Captain made the difficult decision to scrub the landings as the winds were howling and expected to get worse, so the tenders could not be safely operated.  Jim and I were already dressed for our excursions, so we hurried up to the top deck to see  the last of the Falkland Islands retreating off our stern.

We were certainly disappointed, but the British passengers were crushed, as there were a few onboard who had travelled on this trip to see the graves of their family members lost in the Falklands War.  In light of that, it made our disappointment over missing the penguins seem unimportant. Now we have three days at sea before calling on Punta del Este, Uruguay.