From Buenos Aires to Rio to Barcelona

Buon viaggio, CI...

have a great time.

¡Buen viaje! Enjoy .... and relax, c.i.!

checking departures from buenos aires , it looks like c.i. will be on the m.s. insignia .
the poor fellow will be slaving away again ... have pity on him :wink: !
just look at what he'll have to put up with :

I have bad news; my camera was stolen today in Montevideo while walking alone a few blocks from the dock area. A young kid snapped the strap of my camera and ran off with my camera case and all.

The good news is I'll get it replaced by my insurance company.

Sorry folks. T.

oh no.

Im so sorry to hear that.
Your camera is apiece of you.

I am glad to hear that it will be replaced.. but what a shitty way to get a new camera

Yeah, we did a city tour of Montevideo, and those pictures are now gone foreever. T.

sorry 'bout that , c.i. !
we'll have to post some montevideo pictures for c.i. now .
hbg

Here's one of him pulling into port... Oh, yeah, I think I see him right... there!

I~m now in rio where most of thé pássengers got off for their trip home. There~s about 35 of us staying on the ship for the pond crossing to barcelona, and we~~ve been told it~ll be only half full. As for pictures, a couple of passengers have said they~ll be sending me some pictures, so I may be able to post some pictures after all. Also, I bought two disposable cameras with 27 shots each. Nothing much to take until we hit the Canary Islands, so it~s gonna be a very restful, stress-free voyage.

Tenerife, Canary islands will be very nice..

Hi sattfs, Tenerife is really a fascinating island. My roommate and I joined another couple from Vancouver, and saw a good part of the island. We went to the volcano and the pyramids, and saw some of the most amazing geology and flora that one could find in such a small area. Too bad I only had a disposable Kodak camera, so my photos will be limited, but we can all hope they came out half decent. Will tell more when I get home on April 11.

Well, the Canary Islands are one of the favourite holiday places for Germans and Brits :wink:

(Even from our small airport there are at least three flights per week from April until October there.)

restful and stress-free sounds perfect. Enjoy the rest of your trip, CI. Looking forward to hearing all about it.

You must have enjoyed the scenery of Tenerife..

24-day Cruise From BA to Barcelona With Four Nights in Barcelona

Not to worry; out of the 29-days, 12-days were cruising days, and two port of calls were two days each. Including BA, we had only ten ports of call where we "toured." I didn't go into Rio, because of my visit last April, and the higher crime rate warnings. We also "lost" two days for travel.

March 15: Buenos Aires is always a nice city to visit with it's European architecture, main square with the pink palace and cathedral, La Boca, Florida Street, and 9 July Street. The cruise line provided us with a morning tour after our early arrival in BA, and participated only in parts of it.

March 16: Montevideo was a big disappointment for me, because this is where a young man stripped my camera bag with my camera and accessories in it from my shoulders (breaking the strap) and ran off with it. Unfortunately, it was after I had taken the optional tour from the cruise line, and I had taken some pictures that I would love to have. As my wife told me, it can't be helped, and at least I wasn't injured. This is the first time something have been stolen from me in all my travels.

Montevideo is the capital and largest city of Uruguay with about 3.3 million population, and one of the major ports of South America. The history of colonial rivalry between the Spanish and Portuguese in the early seventeen hundreds is the foundation of Montevideo.

March 18: Rio Grande, Brazil: The most interesting aspect of Rio Grande is the settlement by Germans who established farming communities between 1824 and 1859. The Italians arrived between 1875 and 1915, and settled on the hilly land, and specialized in wine production.

March 20 - 21: Itajai was settled by Germans, Italians and others from Europe such as the Czechs, Russians, Poles and Austrians by the thousands who settled the valleys to the north-eastern side of this port city. This port stop is made for the optional overnight stay at Igassu Falls ("the big water" in Guarany) for about $900pp. (A bit pricey.) It's a good thing I saw Igassu Falls last April. The city of Itajai is very small, and one can see the most interesting parts in a few hours of a self-directed walking tour.

March 22: Santos is the port stop for people like me who wish to do an excursion to Sao Paulo. Since I learned last year that Sao Paulo has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, I wanted to visit and see for myself. I got off the ship and walked to the front of the terminal to see if I could find a couple or small group going to Sao Paulo. I saw a gentleman talking on his cell, and after he finished his call, I asked if he was going to Sao Paulo. He said "yes," that they had hired a small van for their small group. I asked if they had space for another passenger, and he asked me if I was Jewish. I pointed to my face with both hands and said "can't you tell?" He invited me to join them, and I became an "honorary Jew." Herb was the head of the group, and an older gentleman about my age was "Herbbie." (Not father and son.)

Before we headed to Sao Paulo, our driver and guide took us to the top of the hill in Santos to view the beach area. It was breath-taking beauty even more so than Copacabana in Rio! It was about an hour and a half drive to Sao Paulo. We first made a stop in Japanese town where there are many Japanese restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses. It felt rather strange to me, because I hear Japanese in the US speak either English or Japanese, but in Sao Paulo they speak Spanish. We also visited the Jewish-Arab section of Sao Paulo before we got a quick van tour around the many parts of Sao Paulo including the "central" park. Sao Paulo is huge!

Sao Paulo has 17 million people, and the largest city in the southern hemisphere.
It's an exciting city that offers everything! Music, arts, museums, dance, opera, theater, excellent restaurants, and where many languages are spoken. I only wish we had about one week to visit this metropolis.

March 23 - 24: Parati (means "white fish") is considered by some to be the "most beautiful colonial city in the world," but I think some others are better such as Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay, and Bruges, Belgium. We were tendered to Parati from the boat. It's a Unesco World Heritage Site, and therefore worth the visit. The old town atmosphere is unique with stone roads and some colorful buildings.

March 24: Ilha Grande (big island) was discovered in 1502 by the Portuguese, Andre Gonzalves. It's mostly noted for its beaches - about 102 of them - but also boasts 56 waterfalls, caves and rivers, and home to the "Mata Atlantica" (rainforest), and the Brazilian government protects it as a wildlife preserve. It's lush forests and lack of development makes this place attractive to any visitor.

March 25: Rio. I stayed on board the ship to relax, because of my visit last year in April. I had also learned that violence against tourists were on the rise, so it wasn?'t difficult to remain on the ship. Most of the people on the cruise from BA departed for home or stayed in Rio for a few days before returning home. Only about 35 remained on the ship for the back-to-back to Barcelona. When we departed Rio at 6pm, our ship was only sixty percent full - a good omen that it?'ll be less crowded at the two special restaurants on board, the Toscana and Polo Grill. With a staff ratio of almost 1/1, we expected and got good service.

We cruised for six days before reaching land at Cape Verde Islands.

April 1: Cape Verde located west of the African coast became an independent state in 1975. Most of the inhabitants are mesticos, or descendants of enslaved Africans and white Portuguese settlers, the Spanish and Italians. About 90% are mesticos, 7% whites, and 3% all others. What is an interesting note about Cape Verdians is the simple fact that more Verdians live in the US (about 500,000) than at Cape Verde.

After two more days of cruising north, we arrived at Tenerife, Canary Islands on April 4.

Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, is a jewel that offers so much to the visitor. The best description for this island is paradise. Tenerife offers lush forests, deserts, mountains (the highest in Spain), exotic fauna and flora, beautiful coastlines, Teide Volcano (21,188 feet), and even snow. It also offers Piramides de Gumar Ethnographic Park that measures 60,000 square meters with black pyramids. Thor Heyerdahl, who dedicated his life to research cultural origins of ancient civilizations hypothesized that they were built with the same principles as those in Sicily, Mexico, Mesopotamia, Polynesia and Peru.

Our taxi tour around Tenerife, I believe, took in most of the important sites of the island. Although we didn't take the cable car to the top of Teide Volcano, we did stop by the terminal for a rest stop, followed by our visit to some interesting rock formations near by. I really enjoyed our visit here.

I will end this travelogue for now, and post a continuation to Barcelona where we spent four nights when I return from my Balkan's tour on May 3. I'll follow that with some pictures.

Any attempt to remember the details of this cruise from BA to Barcelona after returning from another 18-day trip is not only difficult, but close to impossible. The good news is simply that the remaining cruise days were restricted to cruising through the Straights of Gibraltar until our arrival in Barcelona.

On the morning we were scheduled to pass through the Straights of Gibraltar, I woke up early that morning while it was still dark outside hoping to view both Tangiers and Gibraltar almost simultaneously. When I went up to the Horizon room where they serve coffee and pastries before the restaurants open for breakfast, I found the lounge already full of people. So much for "private" viewing. We sailed for quite some time before the lights of Tangiers came into view. As we were passing by Tangiers, the daylight started to lighten up the sky, and by the time we were passing by Gibraltar, it was full daylight with many more ships in the straights - both freight and cruise ships.

We arrived earlier than scheduled at the port in Barcelona, so many took the opportunity to get off the ship and walk a few blocks away to Las Ramblas, the main pedestrian street in Barcelona.

As you know, my camera was stolen in Montevideo, and the only pictures I took were taken with Kodak disposables. Some pictures were sent to me by a friend I met on the cruise from BA to Rio, but I've included only a couple of theirs that shows ports of calls in Brazil.

These pictures are in no particular order, although I've tried to keep them in chronological sequence.

Santos


Ilha Grande - tender to


Another view


Scene at Ilha Grande


Mercado on Las Ramblas


Gaudi's apartment house


Gaudi's segrada famalia


Cable ride


View of Las Ramblas and Columbus statue


Overview of Barcelona (Segrada Famalia and cone office building)


Hunting for more pictures.

thanks for sharing your pictures , c.i. !
hbg