Evita and Heels

We decided yesterday evening to do something simple for dinner.  We'd been eating so well that we headed back to the Design Center to one of the outdoor cafés there--about a ten-to-15 minute walk.   We ate at Primafila, a rather nice place with a large open patio overlooking the parks along Avenida Liberdad, one of the city's main ceremonial avenues.   Surprisingly the wine was good and the food very nice.

We began with a small selection of squid tempura with zucchini and a relish of sliced cucumbers and radishes.   Then Ben moved on to a risotto of langoustine and shrimp that was loaded with essence of shellfish and was light and good.  John had what was called "Four-hour braised rib roast" after he found out they were out of sweetbreads.  This turned out to be a lush pot roast that fairly oozed gravy and good spicing.  Very well matched with what the Argentines call creamy potatoes.   The wine was a nice Malbec from Mendoza, a 2012 Niente Senentiner.   Quite luscious.   

This morning was our day to finish up what we really wanted to do.   We headed off to get good coffee at the little shop on the street, then money, then a bus ride to Plaza de Mayo to take a subway ride.   The Subte (subterranean) as it is called here, was built by the British about 100 or so years ago, the first in South America.  It annoyingly runs on the left!    However the story goes that it still ran cars built 100 years ago in regular use.  No longer. The cars are brand new or about 30 years old.  Fast and crowded.  Most cars are not air conditioned, but cheap at 3.5 peso/ride. (45 US cents)   Busses here are even cheaper at 2.5 to 2.85 pesos per ride.  (33 cents to 38 cents).   And they are always crowded and on the main routes run on 2 to 3 minute headways!  Great way to get around.

We used the Subte to get to the Evita Museum in Palermo.  A fascinating hagiography of Eva.  She had very good taste in clothes--many of them are on show.   Whatever one thinks about her husband, Juan Perón, she is certainly a work of art.  Like Ronald Reagan she was an actor before moving into the realm of political show-woman-ship, and she really knew how to play the part.

From there we walked to Palermo Viejo through streets of fashionable shops.   When we saw these four inch platforms we knew that every US woman we know would be just aching for a pair (and aching after wearing them too.)  Lots of Porteñas wear shoes like this.   Didn't see any broken ankles.

Then to a restaurant recommended by the two lawyers we met last Saturday who are traveling around the world.   Caldén in Soho is a steak parilla but has good pasta too.  We started with mushrooms from their farm grilled with a cream sauce, a selection of relishes including roasted garlic, and two different kinds of Argenine sausage--a black blood sausage, much like English black pudding but lighter, and a pork sausage.  Both grilled and brought hot to the table.   Then we moved on to two different types of sorrentino, which are oversized ravioli.  John's were filled with mozzarella and ham, Ben's with salmon.   We ordered a 375 of Uxmal Malbec, which John rather liked, but Ben found ordinary.  It was one of two splits on the wine list.

Then we headed back to the hotel, picking up some yoghurt and fruit for dinner tonight.  




Ben has begun packing

We leave for home at 7:15 AM.

Evita and Larrañaga

Later on Monday, February 17, 2014. 

Then as we were looking for a grocery store a local asked if we needed help.  Yes, bus to Recoleta, por favor.  1-1-0 four blocks away.  Very sweet lady.  People here can be quite friendly.  We certainly seem to have been to lots of places and seen lots of them.

A bit of whimsy for a bollard

Walking home from the bus stop we were trying to decide what to do for dinner when we passed the Fervor Restaurant.  From the outside windows it looks like a very traditional steakhouse.  We made a reservation and,several hours later, put on some finer clothes and headed out for our 9pm seating.   A wonderful choice. 

We ordered a bottle of Lindaflor 2009 Malbec from Mendoza that was exquisite and opened beautifully as we moved through dinner.    We started with a little tray of three appetizers on reasonably good bread—one was shrimp with mozzarella in a hot pepper sauce, the second chopped tiny squid, and the third broiled chilled mushrooms.    

Then we moved on to the first course.    A true Agentine (or Chilean for that matter) grille includes sausages and other things.   We had a coil of relatively spicy sausage and a platter of broiled mushrooms.   Both of these arrived on hot iron slabs from the oven.  We enjoyed finishing them.    Then we had agreed that we would not pig out on steak, so we chose a 400g NY Strip, (that’s a bit less than a pound), which was the smaller of the two versions, to be split between the two of us.   Coupled with that, we ordered a platter of grilled vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, sweet red pepper, onions and carrots) and some fries.    We couldn’t eat all the veggies and hardly any of the fries.   Everything was prepared in a simple  and traditional manner with nuanced spcing.  The steak arrived beautifully done—we ordered it rare knowing now it would come medium rare.  Argentines go for better done steak than we do.  A lovely dinner.

As we were leaving our upstairs table, we crossed paths with the Iranian family from Chicago that we had sat next to at the Sans Restaurant for lunch!  (And this afternoon, we saw another couple from that same restaurant, whom we think are Dutch, walking across our paths.)

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

1792 Church near
Recoleta

Coffins in a Crypt

Crypts come in all styles;
this one is 
1908 Art Nouveau

Don't Cry for Me, Argentina!

This morning we had agreed we would start with the tour of Recoleta Cemetery, then move on to the Museo de Belles Artes, and finish after lunch with the Eva Perón museum.   We managed the first two.  We also stopped in a very old church that was founded in 1792 when the cemetery was an orchard and Recoleta was countryside.  

First we had excellent coffee at a little café just down the street, then moved on to the cemetery.   We visited the Eva crypt, surrounded by a small crowd and then walked the nearly deserted alleyways between the tombs—except for workmen repairing crypts or readying them for another coffin—for a few minutes.   It’s really far better than we thought it would be.   Some of the architecture of these necropolises is quite fantastical, from Egyptian to Art Nouveau to traditional crypt style, like miniature churches.  Many have statutes and plaques…and some even say what the body inside did before s/he died.   Very much similar to the crypts in New Orleans or Key West, only grander.

Close up of Larrañaga's Pescadores

From there we headed down the Museo de Belles Artes (Belles is pronounced  bay-yes).  Opened at 12:30 so we were a bit early.  Ended up chatting with an English couple, in their late 40s early 50s who had retired and were spending months in South America.  Live in southwestern suburbs of London.  He had been a cop and she a pilates instructor.

The museum has a fair collection of old art—Ben was taken with the impressionist room, John found most of the pieces were fine art but not the top of the line from the artists.  However around a corner and up some stairs we ended up in a show about an Argentine artist, Larrañaga, who lived from about 1900 to the 1960s.   He studied in Spain and did some fascinating work in Spain and later in Argentina   A rather pleasant way to spend an hour seeing very good pieces from an artist we had never heard of.  He was in disfavor after Perón was kicked out in a coup in the 1950s but obviously in on the way back up in the hearts and minds of the Argentines.

Lunch at a restaurant in the design center.  Salads.  It wast an Argentine-Irish pub—but John doesn't think the Irish would necessarily do a salad of hearts of palm, apples and chicken breast.  We will have a grille tonight and do the Eva Museum tomorrow.

Random thought:  There are many gay men here in BA.  Many are extremely handsome perhaps attracting the significant number of Stateside men we have seen.  Last night at least two other gay male couples walked into the restaurant at the same time we did.

Teatro Colon and some window shopping

Monday, February 17, 2014.  Last night we crashed and slept for 12 hours!

This morning, we exchanged some money at a very good rate and then off to coffee at Cafe Victoria overlooking Recoleta Cemetery.  Same waiter who recognized us.  We walked over to the cemetery to find that English language tours are only on Tuesday and Thursday at 11 so we will return tomorrow.  From the cemetery we walked around the Recoleta park a bit then to Avenida Guido to find a working bus stop.  No. 17 busses to Teatro Colon were being diverted due to heavy road construction in front of our hotel.   

Juan Lavalle

Teatro Colon is on the side of Ave 9 Julio, a 14 lane wide boulevard.  Four of those lanes in the center are for busses—and they run on the left in those lanes.   The stops are a fair way apart but we got off at the right one and headed to the Teatro. Purchased tickets for a 1 pm tour and then decided to check out the plaza across the street.   Plaza Lavalle, with a huge statue of Sr Lavalle, and the indication being that he was important to the founders of BA and died in 1841 on the base of his pedestal.  (It turns out that he was sometime dictator, carried out a reign of terror, tried to hand over the country to San Martín who refused to head it with the factionalism them prevalent.  He was later shot during another fight in 1841 and his body was carried over the mountains to Bolivia to make sure the winners didn’t do something nasty to it!  It’s a striking statue, nonetheless.)  There are works of art and photography in the park in the plaza of music stands and photos by a leading Argentinian photographer who was really good.

Reception Roo

Inerior of Hall, no flash

Hall Ceiling

Plaza Lavalle

Photo Show

Todo Orchestra 2

The tour of the Teatro is fine.  It’s gaudy, very turn of the last century, lots of gilt and lots of mirrors.   The acoustics are magnificent as proven by our guide who sang for us from the orchestra seats (the stalls). Pavarotti said the hall had one major fault:  its acoustics were perfect—not allowing the singers to make any mistakes.

Window Shopping
Palermo Viejo
Note Skull Tablecloth

From there we took a bus to Palermo Viejo, John had a fine salad and a local beer (Quismo--he thinks) and then we walked around the neighborhood of very fashionable shops.   Most of the stores were for men’s clothes that Ben found of interest.  

Palermo--Working toward a Ciudad Verto

Enjoying Argentina and Buenos Aires

Friday, February 14, 2014

We decided on arrival that we had the afternoon off.   We hadn’t slept much the night before and then had traveled all of the morning and some of the afternoon.  Then, after resting a bit, we arranged to have dinner at a place quite a ways from where we were staying, but still in Recoleta.   It was the Albertinis on Juncal, a pleasant parilla place that was quite good.  John had a pork cutlet with fried sweet potatoes, Ben had vegetable ravioli with a tomato sauce.   We had sparkling water and John had a mediocre, but cheap, red from Mendoza.   The restaurant got good reviews and was worth it, but no one would ever call it fancy.   The waiter was superb and helpful.   We were a bit late arriving so he had already called the hotel to make sure we weren’t lost!  Argentines eat late.   So starting before 9 PM is unheard of.  Hence one is always late to bed.  it was a good Valentine’s Day even if Ben was feeling a bit of internal distress.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Today we SAW Buenos Aires from the top of a double-decker tour bus.   It’s a four hour tour and we did it all.   From the Casa Rosada (Christina’s house—and a long time ago Juan and Eva Peròn’s house), all the gorgeous 120 year old beaux arts architecture, the huge wide boulevards with statues to people we didn’t know much about, the various barrios, from La Boca, home of football fanatics, to San Telmo to Recoleta to Retiro to the Central City to  Belgrano. Here are some pictures…

Where the fanatics watch football
in La Boca

Stainless flower opens and closes

Still lots of Eva Pictures

Casa Rosada, Christina's Home

Plaza Belgrano

La Boca Street Scene

Congress

Theatre Colón

After three hours of listening to the ill-timed audio program, we got off the bus in Belgrano, a middle-class neighborhood that looked like it had some good cafés.  We lunched outside an old church in a building that looked like a refurbished ruin, though John is not sure what the ruin was originally.  

Then back to the Turbus, though this one did not have an English audio track to learn about the neighborhoods…fortunately it was only about 20 minutes to our stop. We then bought some fruit and yoghurt for breakfast and some agua con gaz for liquid refreshment.

Changing money here is a trip.  Unlike Chile, Argentina has a state-controlled exchange rate.  Hence there is a black market in dollars.   Everyone will take them in exchange for goods and services at a rate higher than the standard 8 to the US dollar.   Sometimes you get 12 to the dollar!  And you can’t buy dollars at an exchange service except from 10 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday!   You can of course buy Argentine pesos, but the rate isn’t good….and changing the few remaining Chilean peso we had required a passport, which was photocopied…and a price about 3/4s of what the exchange was in Chile.   If things were expensive in Argentina that would matter, but the  country is nowhere nearly as expensive as Chile despite rampant inflation.

Last night we headed out to Collectivo Felix, a home in Chacarita.    Fortunately we had bought electronic bus passes, much like Smartpass in Washington except much slower to deduct the fare.  We are now used to the busses.   They are fast and run along many routes, with about a five minute headway.   And better still with the electronic Sube card, the fare ranges rom 2.7 to 2.85 pesos.  Since a peso is worth about a dime, this is a really great fare.   Let’s just say we are using them a lot.

So the Number 93 wound through neighborhoods we would not have seen otherwise and left us about four blocks from the home of the Collectivo.   These are private homes that offer dinner to guests (for a price) on some nights of the week.   This home was written up in the New York Times, which is how most of the 20 guests for dinner on the hosts’ patio learned of the place.   

The food was exquisite and the patio cute.  The menu ranged from fontina wrapped in chayote leaves and charñar syrup as an amuse bouche, to glazed shrimp over a lime salsa, to grilled oyster with heirloom cherry tomatoes and herbs and flowers from their spice garden.  A short intermezzo of mint and melon granità, then to the main course of smoked and steamed sea bream (a sea bass)  with mild padròn peppers and pipiàn, which is a type of potato.  The dessert was a fig (from a neighbor’s tree) with white carob and quinoa cake and lemon verbena  ice cream.   The wines were all Argentine.   We had a flight to go with the dishes that the owners had chosen of espumante (champagne), a chardonnay, a merlot and a malbec.   None to them are seen outside of Argentina, as far as we know.

We sat next to a young, straight, couple of lawyers who are taking a year or more off work to decide what they to do next, Chris and Rosa.  Both quit their jobs at Akin, Gump in New York City and have traveled to South Africa, and then a  three month road trip across the US before coming to South America to camp and hike in the Andes and across Argentina.  They are heading home to Miami (her’s) for a few days and then take off for New Zealand.   After a few weeks there, they’ll head to Southeast Asia, Nepal and the Scotland before returning to the States in the Fall!  Ages 29 and 32l   Great for them to do it. 

Home by taxi at 2:15 AM

Sunday, February 16, 2014

We woke just after 8 AM, for some unknown reason, considering bed-time last night.  Decided that we would not pay the $15 the hotel wanted for breakfast so munched a banana and went off to Café Victoria, recommended by a Kansas City friend, Mark, who had lived here In BA for many months.  Coffee was OK…the café con leche was better than the cappuccino, but the people watching on the square was grand fun.  

We went back to the hotel and dressed for Sunday brunch at the Caesar’s Hotel on Posadas in their dining room, the Agraz.  Mark from KC had recommended it and it lived up to recommendations .  A huge buffet with everything from oysters to salami.   We enjoyed the oysters, octopus in an aioli sauce, langoustine, shrimp, sushi, gravlax, vitello con thon, various salads, and then main courses of beef tenderloin with zucchini for John and broiled salmon steak for Ben, also with zucchini.  Argentine champagne, Mendoza chardonnay and Mendoza Malbec from Trumpeter Vineyard to go with.  Small pastries for dessert.

Then to the 93 bus to San Telmo to the antique fair and tango dancing.  It’s about 40 blocks to the old ST neighborhood with its cobblestone streets and old houses, much of which dates back 200 years or so.   We found the antique fair to be much like every other fair, crowded with the remnants of many an attic, but on Plaza Dorrengo there is site for tango dancing where an excellent couple danced their hearts for the crowd—most of  the crowd put something in their hat too.   They were superb.  Ben enjoyed it immensely while John tried to take some really good photos—-with his iPhone since his digital camera got wet whale-watching and hasn’t worked quite properly ever since.

About 5 PM back to the hotel and a quiet evening at the hotel of reading books, writing and having yoghurt, bananas and cereal after our huge lunch.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Wumaia Bay

Today we disembarked for a morning hike around the shore of Wulaia Bay, the home of Yanghan Indians, nearly wiped out by the arrival of the Europeans and their diseases. There is said to be only one left who speaks the language.  The site is magnificent with the mountains in the background.   We had a chance to see the flora of the area, all of which is wild.   There are still some wild pigs on this island, descendants of those left by the settlers who moved away in 1959 or so.

Cape Horn Map

  

There we are

Back to the boat and lunch. 

Cape Horn Rocks and Point

We headed south to Cape Horn for thee rest of the afternoon arriving at the southernmost point in the Americas, and all continents, except Antarctica, about 6 PM.   Word was that if the winds are below 30 knots and the swells acceptable we would land.   We hung around the Cape, taking pictures, but the wind didn’t drop below 60 knots and sending out a test Zodiac did not assuage the captain’s worries.  So we did not climb 160 stairs to see a monument at the bottom of the earth.  Nevertheless it was quite an experience.

Our last night on the boat was a good evening, though our friend Jasmine was not feeling well and Ben was a bit off through the night.  We were all in good shape to say our goodbyes to the bon équipe (the good team)  on table 14…one Germano-Austrialian, one Anglo-Indian now living in Australia, two French, one Scots-Thai from Bangkok and one Scots-Canadian from Toronto, both living in Lima, Peru, and us…one native born Yank and one Anglo-American.  Quite a table.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Arrived Ushaia this morning, "the capital of the Mavlinas," and got to the airport four hours before our flight.  Turned out we got on an earlier non-stop flight so we arrived BA about 2 pm, instead of 7 pm.

Our first impressions of BA are very favorable.  Of course, Hermès is the next door neighbor to our hotel and past that a magnificent leather shop.  We lunched outside at an English style tea-room/pub on sandwiches, the Rambla Café.  Very good hamburger for John and a chicken sandwich for Ben.   He finds the bread in South America mostly disappointing, and John agrees, but it’s a small disappointment.  Ben is also impressed with the old-fashioned bathrooms, compared to Europe and the US, which still retain bidets.   Cleanliness is a virtue, and the South Americans have a virtue or two!

                            

Glaciers and Bays. What sights!

Today is Thursday, February 13, 2014.   We are cruising from Wulaia Bay to Cape Horn.  It’s a gorgeous morning, with some clouds, but they are only hovering at the top of the highest snow-capped mountains.   It is just idyllic today. 

Wet clothes!

The past couple of days have been truly exciting.  After being totally drenched from whaling we hung up our clothes to dry—miraculously completed in about three hours.  It took us hot showers to warm up, and Ben headed off to buy some waterproof trousers;  John figured he’d suffer a bit and frankly didn’t need to buy any because it never got so wet as the whaling trip again.  Nonetheless the weather has not been great till today.  

Southernmost point of actual South America before the islands begin
Pope John Paul came and said a mass here.  There's a cross on the hill.

Garibaldi Glacier, breaks off a piece

After the whale-watching, we spent the afternoon cruising down the channel back to the Straits and then turned toward the Pacific.  Tuesday night about midnight we entered the Pacific and felt the rough seas—enough to make going to sleep seem like being a baby in a rocking cradle.   We had a couple of seminars about glaciers that evening and a very good dinner.   We introduced Heidi to Aracheon liquor--a local Chilean digestif.

The wines each night have been good, not great, though never inferior.  They have ranged from Montes sauvignon blanc and chardonnay to a Medella Real malbec last night.  Wine at lunch as well as dinner, of course.  Lunch is a buffet of salads and hot foods too.  Yesterday’s for instance was a choice of lasagne or pork spare ribs—braised Chilean style, not barbecued States-fashion.

(You have to be careful when talking about “American” in South America because South Americans consider themselves American and refer to America, as in the United States, as ‘the States’.)

Tens of thousand of years old ice, with Johnny Walker

Glacier Alley

Last night’s dinner was special because one guy at our table (of eight) turned 41 yesterday.  Alastair, from Toronto but now living in Lima, Peru.  His girlfriend Jasmine, from Bangkok, arranged a cake which was delivered to Alastair for dessert by the ship captain.  His happy birthday was sung in at least five languages, probably more.  Espagnol, English, Français, Deutsche, and Dutch…possibly also in Portuguese and Thai.  Not sure.

Smoothly worn by the glaciers

  

Pia Glacier

Pia Glacier

Yesterday was also our day for glacier watching.   We headed up one channel from the Beagle Canal, as the main strip of water around here is known, to the Garibaldi glacier, which is a merger of two glaciers with a brown moraine between the two halves—it holds the dirty secrets of the marriage of the two glaciers!   You get a chance to see bits of glacier fall off, creating great amounts of spray.  But you don’t hear the sound of the break for about five to 10 seconds after the event.  Some of the group, Alastair and Jasmine included, decided to take a hike to a waterfall.   Part of the trek was being ‘baptized’ in a waterfall running probably at 40F  (6C) high up in the mountains.  They were soaked when they got back.

In the afternoon we disembarked to get close to the Pia glacier.  It also cracked and creaked dropping pieces into the bay as we watched and listened.  Of the two glaciers, the Garibaldi is the more impressive, but we were able to watch Pia from land rather than from the boat in the rain.  We also hiked up to a vantage point that was really rough going.   The paths are rudimentary because this is a national reserve and the walkways are limited to single file slices through the grass and low trees.   The rocks, of course, are slick with moss and water.  You don’t always  know whether your footfall is deep mud or rock, so you come back with wettish, and if it is you get drenched feet.  The vistas are magnificent and make the cold wet feet a worthy fee for the views.  

Last night we anchored at Wulaia Bay and this morning disembarked to see the old ruins of an estancia and the site where English explorers encountered the Yanguan people.   These folk are rather interesting because they lived in this inhospitable climate naked, didn’t eat cooked food even though they had fire, and spoke a primitive language that now has one remaining speaker.  

Off Whale-watching Dancing with Penguins and the Barking Seals

February 11, 2014  

This morning, Tuesday, we headed out on a Zodiac on to the cold waters of the maritime park San Carlos III to go whale watching.   The bay is gorgeous, surrounded by the snow covered peaks of the South Andes, at the actual end of continental South America.   All land south of here is islands, not physically attached to the continent.

Leaving on the Zodiac rubber boats

Off we go!

The zodiacs hold about 12 people, 8-10 passengers and two or so crew.  They are rubber rafts with outboard motors that probably will do about 30 knots when wide open.   When they are wide open on the swells of the Straits of Magellan,  be ready to get wet.

Whale Tail

Whale going under our boat--He is well-known and playful

Our first siting of a humpback whale

Whale watching is a wet business in small boats.   The ocean spray can come over the edge as you bounce along the waves.   But at the same time in this difficult climate where the temperature ON the water scarcely reaches 45F (6C) you can be sure you are going to be cold.   Add to that the rain that falls on you as the low level clouds pass and you can be sure too that you are going to be wet, very wet.  (As John writes this we have been back aboard about two hours and our pants are still drying out.)

But the scenery and seeing the whales as they spout, flick their tails and almost come up under the zodiacs is phenomenal, brilliant, and fantastic.  The whales we saw today are about 60 feet long, live to 80 years or so, cannot be sexed by sight, and move between this San Carlos III bay and sites as far north as Colombia and Panama for their winter homes where they mate and the females give birth one year later.  They can travel slowly but they do put the miles behind them when they move about the bays and canals here.  The particular pod we saw today comes back to the same area near Prince Rupert Island every year.   

The only way to tell the sex of these humpback whales is through a DNA test.  We are sure the whales certainly can tell their sex, but this is not allowed to mere humans by sight.   The females take a year to gestate and give birth to one child per pregnancy, no twins.  The young whales stay with their mothers for one year until they head off by themselves.   They feed on krill and fish.

Sometimes at sea you see the whales with seals around them, and many birds, often cormorants and sometimes albatross, who follow them.  Penguins come around them to play in the waters and probably eat whale detritus.  The exhalation from the spout of the whale stinks.  Whales obviously have bad breath although they do not have teeth.

There are several colonies of sea lions on the shores here.   We saw a large colony on Prince Rupert Island where they live next to their lunches and dinners—the penguins.  We watched as one penguin turned into sea lion lunch.  Not sure whether the sea lion ate the feathers as well.   The penguins try to be careful and live above the shoreline where the sea lions keep their eyes our for  possible meals.  We are not sure if the sea lions hide under the kelp along the shore.

Lunch for us was a big buffet, spent at our table.  No penguinl 

Punta Arenas, we meet friends and begin a ride...

February 11, 2014, Monday

We arrived, painlessly, on Sunday, February 9, in Punta Arenas (Sandy Point in English) and then to the hotel.    Hotel Carpa Manzano is a smallish place, on a rather desolate street about six blocks from downtown.   The wi-fi system was down when we arrived, but working this morning.  The accommodations are clean and simple. Comfortable bed.   Chileans seem to know beds, they have all been good. 

The town is mostly one-story buildings with an occasional two story home or a tall apartment building  Lots of buildings in reinforced concrete art deco style with porthole windows and fins. The town apparently was a boomtown because of wool production 125 years ago and now is a petrochemical center.   Wide streets, wide sidewalks.  On Sunday evening it is dead.   We’ll explore more of it before we leave today, but we are not expecting much.  The guide books don’t rave ecstatically about any “must-sees” here.   The multi-colored lupins along the road from the airport may be the high point.

We decided against dining out last night.   We both were suffering from some internal distress, and decided on going to a Unimarc supermarket for some bits and pieces.   We grabbed an empanada (once again of the cardboard exterior) and a milcao.  The milcao is apparently unique to this part of Chile:  “prepared by mixing both cooked mashed potatoes with raw grated potatoes and some lard” according to a Chilean cookbook, then it’s fried.  Our milcao also had bits of cooked meats in it.    We heated it in the microwave at the crowded supermarket (a bit higher class than a Dollar Store but not much, though much bigger and a much better selection) and did the same with the empanada, which had a meat (carne) interior.  Neither screamed “Enjoy another.”  

Groceries here, and the people too, could easily be transported to any North American city with a large Latino population.  Not much difference, except the language and labels are in Spanish.  Some mango piña cookies, and to bed.  (Piña is pineapple.)

Monday, February 10, 2014.   

We had the hotel’s breakfast, a traditional Chilean buffet of small slices of salami, fruit, yoghurt, toast, and coffee con leche.   Then we left our bags and went down to the center of town.   We shopped a little and then walked around the central square, the Plaza Muñoz.   We checked to see what time we could drop off the bags and register for the cruise, then walked back to the hotel to get them.   Checked in quickly at 12:30 and headed to a café, Café Tostado,for a long leisurely lunch.

A couple of large salads, cappuccino for both, and a beer Kross for John.  We looked at a group of tables nearby and tried to figure out if the francophones sitting there were Canadian or French.  Turned out they were Canadians after John asked the tour guide: from the suburbs of Québec city on a tour.   We took the long walk around town to the mirador lookout and then headed for the port.  

There we ran into two friends from John’s days working for Senator McIntyre of New Hampshire 40 years ago, Bill and Jeannie, who’d done the tour we were about to start.  They were headed to Valpo and Santiago on the Golden Princess, a huge cruise ship.  Trading stories and restaurant recommendations, lots of fun.  Meeting old friends many thousands of miles from home is a hoot.

Then we boarded the MV Via Australis for our five day trip.  After the briefing on life jackets and safety, checking out how the jackets fit, we were off to dinner.   We’re at a table with a retired French teacher and his wife (Michel and Monique), a younger Canadian art teacher from Peru (Alastair) and his Thai girlfriend, Jasmine, a retired travel executive, Alan, and his wife Heidi.  He is English, she German and an executive coach, living in Sydney and us.  Interesting group.  

Food is excellent.  Dinner last night was king crab salad, beef saltimbocca or sea bass, and a lovely crème brulé for dessert.  The wine is acceptable—it’s a combination of carmenère and cabernet sauvignon for the red and a sauvignon blanc for the white.  Chilean, of course.

The Via Australias is the little boat at the dock...carries 100 passengers