Buenos Aires (BA) is the first really
modern city seen in South America. Although it has some beggars and some low
quality housing, it also has a modern business district, many modern and
classical statues and beautiful wide avenues. One avenue is allegedly the
widest in the world – 140m wide. There was money here in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries and there is money here today.
TSH and Diva did two sightseeing
excursions, which gave them a reasonable understanding of the city and its
neighbourhoods. The highlight is probably the Theatre Colon, which is an
extremely elegant opera house, certainly smarter than most UK venues, even in
London.
On the way out of the port area, TSH
spotted the train museum and the steam train which sits outside. There is also
a warehouse named ‘Manchester’.
All the excursions go to the elaborate cemetery
of La Recoleta, where there are hundreds (thousands?) of elaborate mausoleums.
One of the most famous is that of Eva Peron, although one guide pointed out
that her remains were moved around so often by so many different groups of people
that she may not actually be buried there.
During a refreshment stop at a
traditional café, Diva held her pastry at the wrong angle and all the sugar
fell off. Across the table, onto the floor and against her clothes. She would
not have been pleased if anyone at done that at her house.
BA is the end of the second leg of the
cruise. TSH and Diva saw a disembarking guest shambling off the ship in his
Silversea-supplied slippers because he had packed all his shoes in his suitcases
which by then were safely awaiting him in the terminal building.
TSH and Diva are finding the S American
attitude to the indigenous people very dismissive and lacking in respect. If
they are mentioned at all, they were ‘primitive’, ‘weak’, ‘incapable of working
in the fields’. Eventually ‘they died’ or, occasionally, ‘were killed’. (One
guide even mentioned genocide without a hint of shame.) They were replaced by ‘strong
black African people’ who ‘had no clothes’ and had to be given them. No mention
of slavery.
Other cruise ships in BA: Celebrity
Infinity.
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