The Story of our trip to Rio, Iguazu and the Antartic with the MV FRAM, Feb. 09

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And this is Eva Peron & her family, Duarte´s mausoleum:

When we finished in the Recoleta, we went to Puerto Madera with a taxi to take the ferry to Colonia in Uruguay.

TO BE CONTINUED ……………………..

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Thursday, the 5th of March.

We went in a taxi to the Buquebus station in Puerto Madera, Buenos Aires.

We had made a reservation for a day trip by Internet from Spain directly with the company Buquebus. The day trip included the return ferry fare plus an excursión to show us Colonia and with lunch included.

In the Buquebus station everything worked perfectly. We handed in our ticket printed from internet with our passports and within a couple of minutes we had our boarding pass for the boat.

The ferry:

and inside:

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The crossing between Buenos Aires and Colonia, Uruguay only takes one hour, so we arrived in Colonia at 12 o´clock midday. The guides from Buquebus were waiting at the terminal when we arrived and they organised the people onto different buses according to their nationalities.

As you can see from the following photo we had very good weather:

It didn´t take us long to realise that we were in Uruguay, we only had to look at the car registration number plates:

As we had taken some time until all the passengers were on the bus and time was getting on, we were brought first to the restaurant for lunch and would do the excursion afterwards. On the way to the restaurant we saw the first images of Colonia and its typical streets from the bus:

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The restaurant was called:

It has its history:

It was really very good. We were positively surprised as we expected it to be much more simple and basic being a lunch included in an excursion.

The starters were a buffet buffet:

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And the main course was a choice from the barbeque, followed by a dessert:

As the weather was good and warm we sat outside on the terrace and after a short while some musicians came and started to play, although the music was the style from the Andes, Peru with the pan-flute and was not music from Uruguay!!!

The view from our table was interesting, this was the street:

There were many old cars and the majority were the models SEAT 600 or FIAT 500, like the red one in the photo above.

Or this model which I can not remember which one it is:

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Even the mopeds and motorbikes were old………… and absolutely nobody used safety helmets:

But on the other hand we also saw modern vehicles, and we were surprised to see so many people driving around with golf buggies, but they are nice and cool and very conveniente for driving around the town:

Or this blue one:

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and this one:

and several classical cars like these:

We thought that we had seen nice classical cars and then we saw these ones:

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But when we got closer we realised that these were not normal cars ................. as this one even had a table set up for food inside it!!!! :

And this one with the plants and trees inside:

It turned out that they belong to, as decoration and publicity for a bar-restaurant:

And then the bus took us for a general tour of Colonia………….

We went towards the beach, and on the way saw several things,

The Bull Ring with an Arabic style:

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The guide explained that there were only 8 bull fights held there and then bull fighting was banned in the country so the ring was closed down and today only the ruins remain.

The majority of houses that we passed on the way to the beach are holiday homes for people in Argentina.

I liked this last one with the built in garage:

We arrived at the beach:

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It was a nice and natural beach as it is not exploited:

The views from the Beach in Colonia:

We then returned by bus to the centre of Colonia where we had approximately 30 minutes of free time.

We started directly in the centre where we saw many typical cobble stone streets.

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and the old doorway arch, the city walls and the bridge:

The ruins of the San Francisco Convent and the Lighthouse. The convent was built in 1694 and destroyed by a fire in 1704 and they started building the lighthouse in 1845. The work was interrupted by the war and then were restarted and eventually finished in 1857:

We walked along the typical streets and I found them very colourful:

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It was obvious that we were in Uruguay, we were constantly reminded..... by the souvenirs that we saw in all the ships, like these Pictures etc.:

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We arrived back at the Buquebus Terminal and our ferry left puntually at 5:30pm, arriving back in Buenos Aires at 6:30pm.

 

We had just enough time to go back to our hotel and change clothes and freshen up to be back downstairs ready in the reception at 8pm to go to the Opera Pampa dinner show

 

 

 

 

This is an explanation of the show from a publicity leaflet:

 

Be entertained on an exciting evening on the town in Buenos Aires. You'll experience the drama and equestrian displays of the Opera Pampa gaucho show, enjoy a typical gaucho barbecue and visit a winery to sample Argentina's finest wines.

Pampa Opera's sound and light spectacular includes fireworks and thrilling equestrian displays. The brilliantly choreographed epic show is a dynamic and entertaining introduction to Argentina's history, from the arrival of the horse to the birth of the nation. Argentina's gaucho history comes alive in a succession of scenes featuring 50 folkloric dances, musicians, singers and brilliant horsemanship.

After the show, you'll feast on Argentina's famous beef, grilled in a typical gaucho barbecue pit.

 

We were collected in a minibus from our hotel and we picked up the other clients from their different Hotels on the way, and we arrived at the premises, which was situated in the middle of the Palermo district, at 9pm.

 

 

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I was surprised how central the location was in the centre of Buenos Aires considering that it was as large as a sporting arena.

 

This is the location:

 

 

 

 

As soon as we arrived we were immediately served a glass of wine and some puff paste turnovers filled with meat “empanadas”. The show was before the dinner so we went outside. The seats were in elevated rows so we had good views. The photos didn´t come out well as there wasn´t enough light and there was a lot of movement with the horses and the people so they came out mainly blurred……. but some came out ok, like these:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And these last 3 are not my photos but they help to give you an idea how the show was:

The following photo is quite dark but the horseman was really incredible, I can hardly explain the things he could do on horseback, turning somersaults on the sides and nearly under the horse, absolutely fantastic to see:

We really enjoyed the show, it was worth seeing. We were also so lucky, as if we would have had the same torrential rain as the previous day then the show would most likely have been cancelled, but when we went we had a fabulous time.

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After the show we had the dinner. It was a lot more elegant that we had imagined and the service and the waiters were excellent. The constantly were at the table filling up our glasses of wine, and with an extremely good wine. The meat was also very good.

This was the menu:

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The minibus was waiting for us outsider the main Entrance and we returned to the hotel at about 12:30am.

Friday, 6th of March.

We woke up to another sunny day. We had an appointment at 12 o´clock midday in the hotel reception with the local representative of Hurtigruten in Buenos Aires for our transfer to the airport, for our flight to Madrid at 3:20pm.

After breakfast we took advantage to have a last look at everything near the hotel, the Plaza de Mayo, La Casa Rosada (The Pink House or the The Presidential Palace),

The Presidential Palace:

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and the police on horseback:

 

 

 

 

and from behind:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw some soldiers marching along the street:

 

 

 

 

Then we went to see the Cathedral:

 

 

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When we went inside I saw the other soldiers, who had been changing guard:

I soon understood why: they were guarding the mausoleum of the General San Martín which is inside this cathedral:

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They were also working to restore the floor of the Cathedral:

We returned to the hotel, and did our checkout and we were ready in the reception when the Hurtigruten representative arrived. The chofer left us at the airport at 12:40pm and we joined the long queue for Iberia.

We saw on the tv screen that our flight would be delayed:

What we didn´t know was that the delay would be 27 hours as the flight was cancelled and we couldn´t leave until the following day.

We finally got home, one day late and very tired after the long flight, and without suitcases……… they arrived a few hours later!

The summary of the whole journey ...... all I can say is that it was incredible and I will remember it as the best trip of my lifetime, an unforgettable experience.

I hope you have enjoyed the story…..I also enjoyed sharing it with you.

THE END!

[janisutx]

Thanks for sharing your story with us. Your photos were an added bonus. It will be hard to top your adventure on future vacations.

[caramelo]

hahaha, thanks, Janis. :)

[kaliterri]

Thank you this is great! Would you give me information on who arranged your precruise tour and if you would advise using them again. Thank you.

Terri@synertx.com

[janisutx]

hahaha, thanks, Janis. :)

 

After our wonderful 49 day cruise around South America, it is harder for us to get excited about another cruise. I guess it's a good thing since I was laid off while on the Carnival Splendor. My focus now is finding a job.

 

Where do you live in Spain? It is such an interesting and beautiful country. My daughter and I did a land trip in October 2001 and loved it. We were among 16 of the 41 originally on the tour who didn't cancel after 9/11. We went to the Royal Palace on a Sunday morning and were usually alone in the rooms with the security guards. I've also been to Barcelona three times on cruises.

 

I hope you have another great adventure soon.

[Alter Ego]

I almost feel as disappointed with the end of your trip as I am with one I took. I really enjoyed reading of your adventure.

 

Where are "we" going next? :)