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| Buenos Aires, Argentina - March 16, 2008 Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina. |
| The ship docked at 6 a.m. and we were in the first group to disembark! This was the fastest we every got off a cruise ship. They started letting people off about 8:15 and we were on our way to the airport before 9 a.m. The tour company had a representative meet us at the port and they loaded us in a car, drove us to the airport and helped us through getting our boarding passes. Everything worked great until we got our boarding passes and found out we would be two hours late taking off for Iguazu! We decided to rent a car and driver and see Buenos Aires. The Avanti guide told us where to go to do this and before long we were in a car seeing the sights. Unfortunately the driver spoke no English and the tour company had given him a map and directions where to take us. It worked OK. |
| We drove past the mouth of the Rio la Plata, the widest delta in the world. The water was brown and choppy but people were fishing. The weather was mild, a little cloudy and breezy, but warmed up during the day. |
| Our driver took us past various sites - parks, monuments, buildings - and said the name, which we attempted to interpret as we followed the route on our map. The city is big and traffic was heavy since it was Saturday and nice weather. |
| One of our stops was at the Recoleta district near a park area. This district contains the Recoleta cemetery and a church. We walked through a small part of the cemetery, marvelling at the enormous crypts, arranged like buildings on a street. |
| Buenos Aires also has its share of newer skyscrapers. We had to admire our driver's skills at getting through traffic, and we were glad we didn't rent a car! |
| We finally took off for Iguazu at 5:30 pm, three hours after our original time. Above is a view of Buenos Aires, and left a view of the vast Rio La Plata delta. |
| Our first view of Iguazu Falls - a small portion at least - from our hotel room. The hotel is nice, a little shabby in places, but the views can't be beat! |