Buenos Aires Again

 On Tuesday, March 21st, we flew back to Buenos Aires.  After a late lunch at Dos Escudos, we had a Farewell Briefing, a sort of recap and discussion of the tour, generally very positive. Then, we took the bus back to Puerto Madero for the Farewell Dinner, at a  parilla (grill) different from the one where we had our Welcome Dinner.  Again, steak and malbec wine.  Again, okay.

On Wednesday, March 22nd, we took the bus to Recoleta Cemetery, where we were told its history (as a secular-Masonic alternative to the church cemeteries, started in the 1820s, shortly after independence was won, it became the burial place of the rich, with families vying to build more and more elaborate mausoleums).  Of course, it is now best known as the burial site of Eva Duarte de Peron, aka Evita.

Then, we drove to Tigre, a northern suburb, where we got onto a boat for a cruise of the Paraná delta.  The Paraná is a large, long river that joins with the Uruguay River to form the Rio de la Plata (the River Plate, as the English called it), the world's widest river, which has Buenos Aires on its south bank and Montivideo, Uruguay at the north side of its mouth on the Atlantic. 

The Paraná delta is a maze of waterways and islands, replete with vacation homes.

On the way back to the hotel, our local guide pointed out some restaurants possible for lunch.  One of them was Farinelli, where we went and had a nice, light meal on the terrace outside.

At this point, the basic tour was done, but eight of us in the original group of sixteen were going on the tour extension to Iguazú Falls.  Four others were hanging out for a few more days in Buenos Aires, one had already gone back to the U.S. the day before, while the remaining three would be flying out that evening.

Mary Joy and I had a reservation for a 4 p.m. tour of Teatro Colón.  We expected it to be in Spanish, but were pleasantly surprised when it was in English instead.  The opera house, completed in 1908, with terrific acoustics (tested by some of the people on tour), was beautiful and lavish.

Mary Joy and I had dinner again at Broccolino.  She had mushroom risotto (which she liked very much) and I had a Neapolitan pizza (too much cheese and a little garlic instead of basil), both of which were way too much for one person.