Tour of Buenos Aires

Friday Jan. 10, 2014

We went down to the morning breakfast and they had a lot of items that they say have antioxidants. They also have a large table full of cookies and other desserts. It does seem rather ironic, but the desserts are not bad, not as good as the food on the ship but ok.







We had a tour of the city where we were taken to what were previously mansions of the rich and are now embassies. There are a lot of green park areas which is very European. We also saw a number of dog walkers in the parks and nearby areas. They might be walking as many as 10 dogs at one time and of course these are not just mutts, they are very expensive dogs. I guess these dog walkers make a fair amount of money since they have to walk the dogs at least 2 times a day.







Here is a busy dog walker.






These happen to be cups made of alpaca leather. They have a special tea that is called mates which is drunk by using the metal straws. There is a special technique used in drinking it. If not finished or done properly it solidifies. It is some sort of herb, which is another antioxidant that they promote.






They also have a thermos of hot water to take when they wish to make this special tea.

I almost forgot we did see the pope's cathedral in Buenos Aires. The people of this area are so very proud to have one own be the pope.




Here is the cathedral which really looks more like a government building on the outside, but it was very lovely inside.




Here is a photo of Pope Francis which was just inside the door.





This is right near the presidential palace which is only for meetings. The president does not live here but out in the suburbs. This gate is protecting the palace from protesters and riots. There frequently are protesters but our guide said that this wall is not usually all the way across. There was also a high amount of security people and police presence when we were there.





Here are some of the protest banners.





Here is a stencil of the grandmothers wearing scarves that is on the pavement to represent the many children and folks that were removed and disappeared by the military during the 60s or 70s.

We were busy today. In fact we even were able to tour the Opera building which had many influences from Versailles, so it was really interesting to see. The guide even sang a bit at the end to show us how well the acoustics work since there is no need for microphones. It is the 3rd best in the world for sound. It was pretty impressive.








The opera was lovely.






We went to a dinner where there was Tango for the entertainment. It was quite good with sexy costumes and much different from the one we viewed earlier. We could not take any photos so none to show.