Arriving in Buenos Aires

We woke up to find the ship at the dock in Buenos Aires. We had an assigned time to meet in one of the bars and leave the ship. Our bags were waiting there, and we had no problem with customs. Unfortunately, the taxi line was a madhouse, with people hollering at each other, cutting in line, etc. We eventually got into a taxi to our hotel, the Ibis.

On our taxi ride, we started to see demonstrators. Our taxi driver informed us that today, March 1, was the opening of the congress, and the President was giving her state of the union speech. Our taxi driver kept finding streets blocked, but finally got a policeman to let him get within a block of our hotel, which was ground zero for demonstrations. The Ibis was adequate, but a big comedown from the ship. The neighborhood was not good, with homeless sleeping on the sidewalks.

We took a taxi to the Galleries shopping area, where we admired the 1890 architecture and the 1940 murals. Then we took another taxi to the Recoleta Cemetery. This is where Eva Peron is buried, but we found the architecture of the mausoleums fascinating. We bought a map, but ended up just wandering around. When it started to rain, we took shelter in the porch of a mausoleum. Kind of a surrealistic experience.

After we got back to the hotel, Richard went out to get something, and was shook up to see a wraith-like homeless woman, white as a ghost with black hair, bobbing her head and talking to herself.