... to Buenos Aires!

Two days at sea, capped by a great onboard concert by Doc Severinson and the San Miguel 5 (what a showman and how that man enjoys what he does - at 84 years old!) put us in great shape for 3 back-to-back days in port.

We began our first day in Buenos Aires with an excellent tour which hit all the high spots. A bus ride took us through the port area to the North side of town, home to the financial district and the high end shopping and housing areas. We next went downtown, to the central part of the city, where we disembarked at Plaza de Mayo, to see the "Pink House" - the Presidential palace, with its famous balcony, used by Evita for speeches and by Madonna for a song in the film "Evita. The famous balcony has the 6th, 7th and 8th windows from the left on this photo.

Next we climbed aboard the oldest subway in South America, built in 1913 by the British and still in operation. We rode an original car to the Cafe Tortoni, the city's best-known meeting place. It reminded us of the intellectual coffee houses in Vienna.

During our tour we crossed the Avenue of the 9th of July, the widest street in the world; we counted at least 16 lanes. Pretty spectacular. A large building features Evita's picture and lights up at night.

We continued by bus to the South side of the city, historic home to the immigrant populations from Europe, and strongly Italian. The many-colored houses of Caminitos supposedly came from the owners requesting paint from ships in port, and using whatever colors were available. The tour concluded with a drive by Madero Port, a port originally built to replace the original port, but which turned out to be unusable for large ships. In an urban renewal project, the city has turned this area into the trendiest spot in town, home to several miles of restaurants, shops, and offices. We walked and shopped Florida Avenue, a pedestrians-only shopping district, home of the Galleria Pacifica, a lovely mall in an old restored building. The second day, we revisited many of these sites with our friends Lee and Troy, who had flown to Iguazu Falls the first day. In Caminitos, Frank had the opportunity to tango!

In addition, we took a cab to La Recoleta Cemetery, filled with spectacular little mausoleums built by famous artists, including 70 which are national monuments. The best-known "resident" is Evita, who rests in a low-key monument with other members of her family (but not Juan Peron, who is on the other side of town).

Buenos Aires is definitely our favorite port so far; there is so much to do and see in this phenomenal place that we are already planning to return.