One of the Seven New Wonders of the World.....Iguazu Falls!

We left the ship this morning and took a taxi to drop our luggage at the Hilton, where we would spend one night after this little adventure.  Then on to the regional airport.  Our 2 hour flight to Iguazu Falls left at 11:15 a.m.   Once there, we grabbed a taxi and went to the Sheraton, which is the only hotel inside the park.   When we walked to the front desk to check in, we were awe struck!  We were looking right at the falls.  We made a quick stop by our room and off we went. 

A sidewalk out the back door of the hotel led us to two trails, the upper trail and the lower trail.  We first took the upper trail, which ran along the top of the falls. 

 

 

Words can't describe this!   We thought it just can't get any better than this.....but it did!  We then circled around and took the lower trail, that takes you down a series of paths and steps, all the way to the river!

 

 

 

 



We only had 24 hours here, but it was the high point of the entire 3 week trip!  

 

The first afternoon, we scheduled a boat excursion that takes you under the falls.  After seeing the volume of water falling here, and how rough the river was below....I was terrified.  But, I couldn't pass up this opportunity, which proved to be thrilling!

 

The next morning, we were up and headed into the park at 6:30 a.m.  (The park didn't officially open until 8 a.m., but we felt sure those chains across the pathway weren't meant to keep us out.)  We had the entire park to ourselves.  It was spectacular! 

 



Back to Buenos Aires

We left Iguazu Falls to catch our 1:45 p.m. flight back to Buenos Aires.  We checked into the Hilton and spent the rest of the day resting up for the next evening's long flight home.  We were finally able to facetime family after being out of touch for almost 3 weeks. 

We had to check out of our hotel at 1 p.m. and our flight wasn't until 9:10 p.m. so we scheduled a 3 hour tour of Buenos Aires, to hopefully see some better parts of town and leave with a more positive opinion of this city.

The tour covered the highlights of the city, and as we drove around, we could see that even the most elite parts of town was covered with graffiti and litter. 

The high point was visiting the Catholic cemetery.  Its where the remains of Eva Peron finally ended up, after years of battling over custody of them.  The cemetery was like a small city.   Some of the tombs were glassed in and the wooden casket and a picture of the deceased could be seen as you walked past it. 

 

So, although we feel we gave Buenos Aires a chance, let's mark this city up to one of those we don't feel the need to return to.

 

So after a 10 hour flight back to Atlanta, then a 3 hour layover and a 36 minute flight back to Huntsville, we are proud to be back in Sweet Home Alabama.....for 2-1/2 weeks!

 



Buenos Aires, Argentina

Have you ever thought you were really going to like something, only to realize it really wasn't at all what you expected?   Well, as bad as I hate to say it, this was Buenos Aires for us!   It boasts as being the "Paris of South America".  Well, I've been to Paris and the only comparison is maybe its vast size and some of the architecture. 

We arrived on Sunday morning and wanted to go to an antique flea market in town that we'd read about.  So, we grabbed a taxi and went to San Telmo.  This area is the oldest and has some beautiful buildings.  A few have been taken care of, but many haven't.  Since this was our first day here, we just wandered around and soaked it in.  The area is full of shops and restaurants. 

We were both carrying backpacks and were told by an Argentinean police woman that we should wear our packs in front and hold on to them.  Apparently anything that could be stolen, would be.  The crew on the ship had also commented that they were afraid to leave the ship when in Buenos Aires.  They said the mafia was really bad. 

We were over nighting on the ship and returned early to begin our packing.  We met up with a couple we had dined with and they had an encounter with one of the scams we had been warned about.  Crooks douse you with  a muddy looking liquid and then offer to help you get cleaned up.  All the while, picking your pockets.  The lady was wise to them and was carrying an umbrella, which she pointed at them and demanded that they move on.

More on Buenos Aires...when we return from Iguazu Falls!

Montevideo, Uruguay

We’ve been on the ship for two days, traveling north and the weather continues to get warmer and warmer.  We arrived at Montevideo, Uruguay this morning. 

The port was quite interesting.  The tide was out but it appeared that it had been out for awhile and wasn't coming back in!  There were a number of boats that were aground with no hope of ever being sea worthy again.

Once in town, the architecture was spectacular, but many of the old buildings are in disrepair.  

We stopped for lunch in an old train station that had been converted to food vendors that cooked meat, octopus, and fish over huge open fires.  The smell was wonderful.  We sat at the counter next to a man that had lived in the States for a while and he told us that the story of the building was that the material for the building was on its way to Bolivia and the owner didn’t pay the balance on the delivery, so it was just dropped off in Uruguay.  One of the locals bought it very cheap and built the train station……but there are no trains in Uruguay!   It was very crowded with locals, which told us the food had to be good.   When they brought us the bill for lunch (which was naturally in Spanish), we couldn’t figure out what one of the line items was, so I asked the man next to us.  He quickly answered, “oh, that’s for your fork and knife”.   That’s a new one for us.  But it would have been difficult to eat without them. 

We arrive at our final destination on this leg of the trip tomorrow…Buenos Aires!

 

Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands have approximately 2500 people living on the island.  Of those, about 1500 of them live in Stanley, the capital.  When the cruise ship got there today, we doubled the population….at least for a few hours.

The island is relatively flat.  They seem so cut off from the world, but we heard several locals saying that they have several options for leaving the island.  First, planes arrive 3 days a week, or shipping merchants let them ride to the mainland, and sometimes they can also get a ride on a cruise ship.   Several people we talked to said they have lived there since birth.  One question comes to mind immediately….do you meet your future spouse at a family reunion?

 Once the boat began leaving the harbor, the Captain announced that we might be able to see a colony of penguins on the starboard side of the ship.  Although we had to look through binoculars, we were able to see hundreds on the beach.

Around the Cape

Sailing around Cape Horn was the primary reason we booked this trip.   Only 500 miles from Antarctica!  We got up around 6:30 am and there was a heavy fog preventing us from seeing anything.  However, after a few cups of coffee, the fog lifted right as we got near the Cape.   I’m not sure if the two events are related or not, but it’s possible.  Richard was on our balcony trying to get some video!

After traveling south for a while, the captain turned the boat westward.  At first we were totally confused as we were expecting to travel south and then go east, around the Cape, and then turn northward on the east side of South America.  This is where my lack of paying attention in geography class shows.   What is considered the “Cape” is actually an island off the southern coast of South America instead of the most southern tip of the mainland.   The captain went around the entire island, before making his way northeast towards the Falkland Islands.   There were several towers and a monument honoring the sailors that had lost their lives making this journey.    

We have been cruising in the Pacific Ocean for 7 days now, and we entered the Atlantic Ocean when we got to the east side of the Cape, then because we circled the Cape, the Captain took us back to the Pacific, then once again back into the Atlantic.  So we went from the Pacific to the Atlantic, back to the Pacific, and then back to the Atlantic in a matter of a few hours.   Pretty cool!

The water was unusually smooth as we were protected by small islands, but soon we were out further from land, headed to the Falkland Islands, and things picked up a bit.  At one point the wind was blowing 79 miles per hour.  It was coming across the ship on the port side and I was unable to open our balcony door.   There were extremely dark clouds off in the distance and you could tell a huge storm was coming our way.  The captain did an excellent job steering us away from this storm, but in the distance we could see water spraying up in a circular motion.  Pretty scary!   

On a different subject, I’ve taken several Windows 8.1 classes while onboard.   I guess I’ll be looking to upgrade my operating system when I get home.  

Ushuaia, Argentina

We rode through the Beagle Channel this morning on our way to Ushuaia, Argentina.   The Beagle Channel is called Glacier Alley by the locals.  We saw at least 6 huge glaciers as we went through this narrow passage.  

We arrived in Ushuaia, Argentina around 1 pm and for the first time on this trip, we actually docked at the port.  We didn’t have to ride in tenders to get to the shore.   It began to rain so after walking through the town, checking our emails (and yes….Facebook), we decided to head back to the ship.  By the time we got back onboard it was 6:15 p.m.  We were scheduled to leave at 7 pm   Today I added yet another new country to my list of places visited!

We met up with new friends Corolla and Jim in the Crows Nest and we had dinner together at the Lido buffet.    The long daylight hours still seem a bit strange to us.  But at 10 p.m., its still light outside.