High Seas

The last two days have been interesting, to say the least. Starting from when we departed from the port of Montevideo, we had about 36 hours of extremely rough seas -- very high waves, causing a lot of bucking of the ship, and some serious pitch and yaw. I liken it to walking on a roller coaster, and thank my lucky stars that I am on a fairly decent sized cruise ship, and not a 39 foot sailboat. The waves have been to a point where you can feel the bow of the ship jumping up in the water, followed by a huge crash as we land back down on top of the ocean.

It’s been an indulgent two days, sort of. Both mornings have started with the sunrise stretch program in the fitness center (very interesting to stretch as you are riding the waves, don’t think I’d want to do any yoga poses in this water), followed by either a 1/2 hour of ab work or a 1/2 hour of circuit training, after which, Wayne joins me for some more cardio. Yesterday it was a half hour on the elliptical, today, 20 minutes of running (the first time in nearly 4 years) on the treadmill. Both mornings have been filled with a hasty breakfast of cereal and yogurt, followed by our activities.

Yesterday, my morning was getting an hand treatment, followed by apple classes, and then an Indian buffet for lunch (small portions, thank you!). Yesterday afternoon was one class, followed by my foot treatment, and then off to the Pinnacle Grill for dinner with Sue and Ivan. OMG! The menu was to die for -- we all had something wonderful. Shish kebabs, salmon, lobster macaroni & cheese and Argentinian beef. The food was fantastic, presented wonderfully, with silent, efficient service. Sue, Ivan, Wayne and I spent a lot of time catching up on the last 2 1/2 years since we last met on the MacMania 8 cruise, and noted that much has happened in all our lives since then. It was an extremely pleasant evening, and I may wind up meeting up with Sue and some of her other girlfriends for a long weekend in New Mexico this year.

It’s always nice to solidify friendships! They have signed up with Insight Cruises for MacMania 14, so we will all be cruising together down the Rhine River, starting in Amsterdam and ending up in Southern German. We will also have 3 or 4 days in Paris at the tail end, I will need to brush up on my German, and Wayne his French.

I think I need to make it out to Atlanta before April so I can buy a few pairs of glasses... =]

Following dinner, we went up to the Crow’s Nest to watch the second half of the SuperBowl. I was holding my breath for Dianne, despite her Packers’ solid halftime lead, as the Steelers are famous for their second half comebacks.

This was a difficult Superbowl to root for -- the Steelers beat the Jets, so I didn’t have a team in the race. But my two close friends are each fanatics about their teams, and I certainly didn’t want to get either of them upset!

The game ended after midnight here, so it was off to bed. We were so tired, and the cabin was rising and falling at quite a roller coaster rate, so we fell asleep quickly, awakening to calm seas. Almost so late that I missed my sunrise stretch program!

Today starts a new chapter in my physical fitness regimen. I’m attending “Boot Camp” fitness classes that start today. There are only 4 during the course of the 12 day cruise, but they seem very challenging. The instructors give you an exercise plan to take home at the end of the cruise, which I may be able to fold into my Wii Fit/walking regimen. It is my fervent hope to be in much better shape at the end of this cruise than I was when we embarked. Working out is feeling good, though, and it’s nice to see how much more flexible I am after only three days of the stretching program.

Back to more classes with Sal. We arrive in the British Falklands tomorrow, and hope to grab a cab to go see penguins, and then possibly walk back to port - about 4 miles, so a little over an hour. Here’s hoping for penguin pix!

Monte Video, Uruguay

Uruguay, located between Argentina and Brazil, is one of the smallest countries in South America. Its geographical size is slightly larger than England and Wales combined, with a population of just over 3 million people (2 million of whom were on the white sand beaches today). Its coastline is beach lined, with rolling hills and grasslands in the north, similar to those in the Argentina pampas and southern Brazil. Long considered the most “European” of the South American countries, most of its people are of Spanish and Italian origin. Founded in 1726, Montevideo served to secure the area against Portuguese infiltration from Brazil. Large numbers of Spaniards and Italians migrated to the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, greatly influencing the city’s architecture, music and food.

I started the morning with the sunrise stretch program, followed by a 30 minute cardio session, and then joined Wayne for a 3 mile walk along the sixth deck of the ship. After our walk, and a late breakfast, we got off the ship and followed the little walking man and the green path.

As we entered into the city proper, the Uruguay tourism board had people to welcome us and give us a walking tour map of the city. We checked out the map, and it essentially mirrored our desired walking tour, so off we went. We started out on our walking tour of the old city by heading to Plaza Zabala. There was a magnificent statue honoring Bruno Mauricio Zabala, who founded as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento. Not only was there a wonderful statue, there was also a hair coloring ad featuring McDreamy himself...    

From there, we headed through the Sarandi Pedestrian Street Shopping Mall to the Plaza Constitucion. The plaza, filled with dozens of vendors stalls, is surrounded by the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Gurvich Art Gallery, and the Town Hall Museum, which was the governors old house. Also known as the building of the Kabyle and Royal Prison, it is one of the most representative colonial monuments of the country, declared a historical monument. It houses a collection of documents and period furnishings.

From there, we continued on to Plaza Independcia, which was surrounded by magnificent architecture, with the exception of the ugly, red Radisson building. The plaza is entered through the gate of the original citadel of Montevideo, Puerta de la Ciudadela. It is flanked by the Solis Theater, the Torres Garcia Museum, and the Museum of the Presidents of Uruguay (also known as the Former National Government Office “Jose Artigas”).

From there, we headed back down to our point of origin, a street filled with vendors, restaurants, and people. We had an absolutely lovely lunch at Don Tiburon in a converted former railway station, some of the best squid and kabobs we have ever had, and then headed back to the ship, setting sail with happy tummies. Mac lectures start tomorrow whilst we are out at sea!

Wilkom an boord

I have to tip my hat to the Buenos Aires Holland America crew. This has been the smoothest cruise I have ever taken - at least in the getting there part - to include all of the liveaboard dive trips. We came downstairs in the hotel to identify our bags and be told which bus we were on, which, for us, was Bus 3. It left very nearly on time, perhaps 5 minutes late, and we zipped down to the port. No need to reclaim and turn in our bags, all was already done. From there, we expected to wait for at least 2 hours, a la the departure in Genoa, but to our surprise we were through the inprocessing and in our stateroom within 40 minutes. Our stateroom is the port-most stateroom on the stern, so we have a nice, wide lanai, and a great view out at what was pretty much muddy water in the BA port.                                          

We met up with our friends from the last Geek cruise, Ivan and Sue, on the bus, and then made plans to meet for lunch on the Lido deck. One thing that we are pleased about here is that for the first two days, Holland America has us under a virtual quarantine given the recent bout of GI problems on cruise ships, so their staff serves the meals. No view of people loading up their trays with tons and tons of food, simple, healthy portions on one plate instead. Nice. Now, there’s nothing stopping you from going back for seconds, and there’s that soft ice cream machine near the back....

We stayed talking, planning excursions, dinners, and eventually all things Mac, for about 2 hours, and then headed to wait for the safety drill. Now done without life preservers, the safety drill took all of 14 minutes! And then we were off exploring the rest of the ship before the Mac Geek welcome reception.

Dinner was at assigned seats, and we sat with two couples from Canada, one pair of which was on our last Geek cruise. They remembered our Mele Kalikimaka shirts, and were wearing aloha shirts of their own! Nice conversation about travel, differences between Canada and Hawaii, world politics and their side trips to Iguazu Falls. And we felt the engines of the boat starting and watched it moving backwards out of the port. I have to say we are really looking forward to the rest of this trip.

After some ship exploring, it was 11 pm, so we headed to the cabin, where we were lulled to sleep by the sound of the ocean behind us, and the rocking motion of the ship. It’s good to be on vacation!

First casualty of the trip

It started out as a good day - we slept in until about 7 am, got up, had a late breakfast, got a few Argentinian pesos and headed out to the Botanical Gardens. It was a bit of a haul walking there, probably a little over an hour, and I don’t walk slowly. We got in, and saw dozens of cats just wandering about, almost felt like home (except we only have 3). We wandered around the gardens, which were filled with lots of lush greenery, and many statues, but the majority of the exhibit houses were closed and under repair, so we only spent about an hour inside.

One nice thing about the walk up to the gardens, there are trees, and lots of them, on every street. It gives a nice suburban feel to a big city. After that, we walked across the street and headed to the zoo. It is decent sized, and the cages are also fairly well appointed. They house the Buenos Aires aquarium (don’t hold your breath, only 3 exhibits!), and a good number of cats, to include a white tiger and white lion. But, as Darien advised us, it just felt worn down. It seems about 4 years beyond its scheduled maintenance.

After that, lunch at the cafe across from the gardens and off to Casa Rosada (who could ever get that song out of their mind after seeing Evita?) for a visit. Unfortunately, when we were on the subway, I was feeling a little crowded by a male passenger, so I sat down, clutching my belongings to me. He moved forward towards me quickly, but I think made it to me too late. Wayne chose that time to move in away from the door, and was distracted by someone, and the man who had been casing me lifted Wayne’s iPhone and jumped off the train just as the doors were closing. As the car lurched forward, Wayne realized what had happened, and I finally registered the con. Not much we could do, so we went to the Casa Rosada, which is behind formidable gates, and protected by fencing in the May Boulevard square, and then headed back to the hotel. There we went online and got a new iPhone for Wayne, a new case, and then did some general work. Note to self, make sure that anything of value is not merely secured by velcro (which is hard to open silently, btw!), but also by a zipper. Hard to believe that both of us have been hit in the past month - my cash, his iPhone. Back to not trusting the majority of humanity, I guess.

At 6, we headed to the Mac Geek pre-cruise party, met a new couple by the names of Ira and Liz (hailing from Canada), and had some pleasant conversation and dinner. We are very much looking forward to reuniting with Ivan and Sue on the cruise tomorrow.

We are now just winding down, having put our luggage out for pickup. Up early in the morning, and off to the cruise by 11 am. We’re almost on our way!

What's new, Buenos Aires?

We’re new!!!

It was a relatively painless flight overnight from Houston to Buenos Aires. They fed us dinner about an hour after takeoff, and two hours later we were asleep. There was a lot of turbulence, though, so sleep for me was restive. That lucky Wayne can sleep through EVERYTHING!

When we landed, going through immigration and customs was fairly easy. They didn’t give us any hassles, the bags were on the conveyor belt as we walked through, and (although it took a little time) we got our ride into town. The airport is pretty far from city central, though, I must say. There were some neat sights coming in to the main city, to include a statue of Don Quixote, and a man in the middle of traffic playing with a glass orb. There’s also quite a large obelisk reminiscent of the Washington Monument commemorating the formation of the republic.

Once we checked in and cleaned up, we went out on a two hour walking tour of Recoleta, primarily to the Cementario, where the Duarte family (yes, including Eva) is buried. No iPhone photo of that, but we both have shots on our cameras, so we’ll post it to the photo pages when we get home. Oh, and we got back to the hotel tonight and ran into Don McAllister of the Screen Casts Online podcast (one of Wayne’s faves), who remembered us from our 2006 cruise.

Tomorrow we visit the Botanical Gardens (where they have lots of cats!), and the adjacent zoo. We plan on eating at a cafe right by the gardens for lunch, taking the metro to the Casa Rosada (Juan Perón’s seat of the Presidency) and then we will meet up with some of our fellow Mac Geeks for a pre cruise party following that.

A little about Buenos Aires:

is the capital and largest city of Argentina and the second largest metropolitan area in South America, after Sao Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Rio de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent.  The city of Buenos Aires was first established as Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre on 2 February 1536 by a Spanish expedition led by Pedro de Mendoza. Attacks by the indigenous peoples forced the settlers away, and in 1541 the site was abandoned. A second settlement was established in 1580 by Juan de Garay. He dubbed the settlement “Santisima Trinidad” and its port became "Puerto de Santa María de los Buenos Aires."

Buenos Aires became a thriving contraband industry developed, instilling a deep resentment towards the Spanish authorities. Sensing these feelings, King Charles III progressively eased the trade restrictions and finally declared Buenos Aires an open port in the late 18th century. However, Charles’s actions did not have the desired effect, and the porteños, some of them versed in the ideology of the French Revolution, became even more convinced of the need for Independence from Spain.

During the British invasions of Rio de la Plata, British forces attacked Buenos Aires twice. In 1806 the British successfully invaded Buenos Aires, but an army from Montevideo defeated them. Santiago de Liniers, chosen as new viceroy, armed the city to be prepared against a possible new British attack, defeating the invasion attempt of 1807. The militarization generated in society changed the balance of power favorably for the criollo peoples, as well as the development of the Peninsular War in Spain. An attempt by Martin de Alzaga to remove Liniers and replace him with a junta was defeated by the criollo armies. However, by 1810 it would be those same armies who would support a new revolutionary attempt, the May Revolution, successfully removing the new viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros. This started the Argentine War of Independence, and many armies left Buenos Aires to fight the diverse strongholds of royalist resistance, with varying levels of success.

In the 19th century the city was blockaded twice by naval forces: by the French from 1838 to 1840, and later by a joint Anglo-French expedition from 1845 to 1848. Both blockades failed to force the city into submission, and the foreign powers eventually desisted from their demands.

During most of the 19th century, the political status of the city remained a sensitive subject. It was already capital of Buenos Aires Province, and between 1853 and 1860 it was the capital of the seceded State of Buenos Aires. The issue was fought out more than once in war until the matter was finally settled in 1880 when the city was federalized and became the seat of government, with its Mayor appointed by the President. The Casa Rosada became the seat of the President.

Buenos Aires was the cradle of Peronism: the pivotal demonstration of 17 October 1945 took place in Plaza de Mayo. Industrial workers of the Greater Buenos Aires industrial belt have been Peronism's main support base ever since, and Plaza de Mayo became the site for demonstrations and many of the country's political events; on 16 June 1955, however, a splinter faction of the Navy bombed the Plaza de Mayo area, killing 364 civilians. This was the only time the city was attacked from the air, and the event was followed by a military uprising which deposed President Perón, three months later. In the 1970s the city suffered from the fighting between left-wing revolutionary movements (Montoneros, E.R.P. and F.A.R.) and the right-wing paramilitary group Triple A, supported by Isabel Perón, who became president of Argentina in 1974 after Juan Perón's death.

A few military juntas later, the city was visited by Pope John Paul II twice: in 1982, because of the outbreak of the Falklands War, and a second visit in 1987, which gathered some of the largest crowds in the city's history. The return of democracy in 1983 coincided with a cultural revival, and the 1990s saw an economic revival, particularly in the construction and financial sectors. Following a 1993 agreement, the Argentine Constitution was amended to give Buenos Aires autonomy and rescinding, among other things, the president’s right to appoint the city's mayor. On 30 June 1996, voters in Buenos Aires chose their first elected mayor.

Now off to bed!