We sleep in this morning or at least Carolyn does. Dick is up by 7AM, but Carolyn rolls out at 10AM. We have 12:30PM Sunday Brunch reservations at the Alvear Palace Hotel. We went to this brunch the first time we were in Buenos Aires when we were staying at the hotel. It is a fabulous hotel and member of "The Great Hotels of the World," with old world charm and with service and food to match!
About 11:15AM we work our way through the maze that is the terminal. Two new ships in port are turning over passengers today so it is crowded again. Our plan is to take a taxi direct to the hotel, but the guys at the taxi stand won’t use the meter...they want 60 pesos ($15) which is more than we spent on all the metered taxi rides we took yesterday! So we go to the ship’s shuttle and ride into the Marriott. This is where we got a metered taxi yesterday for 13 pesos to go to San Telmo. Today there is a guy with the taxis and he tells us it will be 25 pesos flat rate, no meter, to go to the Alvear. We should have gone into the Marriott and had them call a taxi, but we are now running late so we agree. It is only about $6, but it is the principle of the thing...fleece the tourist, the game everyone can play!
As it turns out, we are the first to be seated for the brunch as we walk up at 12:30PM on the dot. The hotel is really beautiful and the brunch presentation does not disappoint, neither does the taste of the food.
We spend an hour and a half grazing from the various displays of cheeses, salads, cold sea foods and meats, caviar, breads, the sushi bar (for Dick), hot meats and vegetables and a fabulous dessert spread! All topped with wine..we have the bubbly with numerous refills (hmmm, maybe it is time to go home!). After we stuff ourselves...it is so good and I must admit that we are tired of the ship's food, we window shop in the arcade that is part of the Hotel. There are some beautiful shops, too bad it is Sunday as they are closed.
We get a taxi, this time with a meter, with no problem from the hotel back to the Marriott. We walk around the San Martin Plaza in front of the hotel and get some pictures of the the wonderful old buildings
and the clock tower
that was a gift from Britain on the 100
th Birthday of Argentina’s Independence. It was called The Tower of the English but after the war over the Falklands they changed the name. The Plaza has it required horse and rider statue
and, of course, there is always someone with his thermo (a thermos with water heated to 80 dregrees centigrade!), mate cup and straw.
It is a sunny day and is now very warm. We get on the shuttle bus and work our way through the port terminal maze one last time.
At 6:15PM, we begin the 145 mile sail back to Montevideo, Uruguay for another day’s visit. We got a new Captain yesterday for the rest of the trip. He is French and we can’t understand a word he says! We hated to see our first Captain go; he was so personable! Several of the crew have mentioned Captain Mercier de Lacombe was not too friendly when he was Staff Captain. Guess we will see how he is as Captain from the passengers point of view.
We go down to the Welcome Aboard cocktail party, but there are only a handful of people; very different from the last two such parties. The captain is also a no show as he is driving the ship out through the very narrow 40 foot deep channel in the very shallow (12 feet) river with winds at 56 mph (Gale Force). We spend the early part of the night swaying from side to side and vibrating because the Captain is having to use the thrusters to help offset the force of the wind to keep us out of the mud. He is going to be grumpy in the morning!!
Dinner tonight is the nice menu with steak and lobster. The chef can really come up with some strange combinations at times on the menus. After two good meals today, a late night last night and an early morning tomorrow, we are off to bed. Hope we don’t have to man the shovels!
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