If you want to conjure up an image of Buenos Aires, think Manhattan with everyone speaking Spanish. It’s a place you need several days to see, so having an overnight here is better than our usual one short day.

Some popular things to do:

• Pass by the beautiful Teatro Colon and the Obelisk monument along Avenue 9 de Julio.
• Stroll the promenades of Puerto Madero, an upscale new neighborhood lining both sides of a long canal with apartments and restaurants.
• Visit the Recoleta Cemetery, with its thousands of fantastic family mausoleums, where Eva Peron is buried. Explore the surrounding neighborhood with café lined streets, beautiful gardens, and grand sculptures.
• Stop at the Casa Rosada, the very pink and ornate executive mansion and office of Argentina’s President.
• Don’t miss the Boca and San Telmo neighborhoods, noted for their brightly colored houses, tango dancing in the streets and artists residences.
• Attend a tango show- there are hundreds throughout the city.
• Attend a wine tasting featuring the sought after Malbec.
• If you want to get out of town, you might consider a trip to an estancia or ranch to see gaucho life on the Pampas.
• If you really want to go for the unusual, fly to Iguazu Falls. There is a 14-16 hour ship excursion that will get you there and back the same day.

We loved the Paseo de Rosedal, a huge park famous for the over 1,000 different species of roses that grow there. Many were in bloom, so it made for a great walk. Another more hidden treasure of this city is the Japanese Garden. Just as you would imagine it with koi ponds, little bridges, and soothing fountains, it also has a museum, a sushi restaurant, and a balcony that lets you look out over the serene grounds. 

The highlight of our stay was our evening tango show, complete with one of the greatest small world incidents we have ever encountered. We’ve attended one of these on all our visits to Buenos Aires and they have all been different and excellent.

The show consisted of three musicians (guitar, bass and bandonio – the accordion like instrument that is characteristic of tango), one singer, and one dance couple. It was an entertaining performance, covering the evolution of the dance, as well as the changes in music and clothing over the different eras

.

Would you believe that we knew the male dancer?!? As soon as he came out, we recognized him as a dancer we had met on the 2014 Grand South America Voyage, while he was working as half of the Tango team brought on board the ship as part of the enrichment program. He’s from Columbia but has recently moved to Buenos Aires to study and teach Tango. Hugs were exchanged after the show and we had a few minutes to catch up on what we’ve all been doing.

Cruising The World

http://bobby.mycruisemasters.com