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  • Argentina and Italy 2023/2024
    Dia 110

    Barcelona

    25 de março, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    After another day at sea, on Monday morning, we docked in Barcelona. Brenda and I had a short stay here while on vacation in 2013, but we restricted our wanderings mostly to the area around La Sagrada Familia and the Gaudí landmarks.

    Yesterday, we took a 2.5-hour walking tour of the historic Gothic Quarter and Born area. Our guide was a young American woman who's been living in Barcelona for seven years. She not only gave us the highlights of Barcelona's long history and descriptions of the 700 to 800 year old buildings we saw, but she also told us about some of the quirks of Calalonia.

    At Christmas, Santa is not really The Man here. Instead, families go out into the woods, select a log, dress it up, and call it Caga Tio, also known as the poop log. The log is cared for and kept warm over the days leading up to Christmas, and on the big day, kids beat on it with sticks until it shits out presents.

    There's another Yule character, El Caganer, who is hidden amongst the characters in the Nativity scenes.
    The weird thing is that El Caganer wears a traditional Catalan hat and is always depicted squatting with his pants around his ankles and a pile of poop under his butt. There's a store here that sells only Caganer figures of all sorts, including politicians, actors, and musicians.

    There seems to be an unusual obsession with feces in Catalonia.

    Barcelona was initially a walled city, and although most of the original wall has been built over or destroyed, there are still four towers standing at one of the entrances to the old city. If you look at the drawing of the original city in the photos, the two round towers and two square towers at the bottom of the drawing are the ones in my photos.

    After the tour, we stopped at a little local tapas bar for some snacks and a beer before heading back to the ship.

    Sorry, despite the crazy number and beauty of the ancient churches in the Gothic Quarter, I didn't take any photos simply because pictures don't do them justice.

    And that's it for Spain, next stop Italia.    Leia mais

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  • Argentina and Italy 2023/2024
    Dia 108

    Cádiz

    23 de março, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    A few years ago, Brenda and I took a cruise out of San Diego that had stops in Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, and Mazatlan. We were scouting for warm weather getaways that are closer to Vancouver than Thailand. We had heard great things about Cabo from friends who have property there and expected to fall in love with it as well. As it turned out, we hated Cabo and P.V. but fell in love with Mazatlan, where we spent the following winter.

    And that's the best thing about cruising. It's like buying a bottle of Scotch at Heathrow Airport's World of Scotch. You get to have a small sample of a whole bunch before you pick one you like.

    This cruise has shown us better sides of Brazil in Rio and Santos and has had us discover two places that we now want to return to: Tenerife and today's stop in Cadiz, Spain.

    Cadiz is in a tug of war with Lisbon to claim the title as the oldest city in Western Europe at over 3000 years old. It's home to the ruins of a Roman amphitheater that at one time could seat 10,000 people. The ruins were discovered while excavating for development. There was already an apartment building built on top of a portion of it and, apparently the tenants aren't overly bothered by the thousands of tourists that pass by daily to get a look at the laundry they hang to dry in the window that overlooks what once was a stage.

    Cádiz is said to be the departure point for many of Columbus's explorations, including the one in 1492. Everywhere you look, there is history, or at least something interesting to look at.

    Today was overcast most of the day, but it was a comfortable, breezy 22 degrees, which made exploring the old town quite pleasant.

    We took a guided walking tour of the old city and got a good feel for the place. There is so much more to explore in the old town with its narrow, crooked streets that were laid down with apparently no plan in mind. Without a map, one would never find their way around, so disorganized are the streets. There's a fascinating central market, a magnificent cathedral, and tapas bars and restaurants everywhere, even a vegan restaurant.

    Add another potential winter getaway spot to our ever expanding list.    Leia mais

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  • Argentina and Italy 2023/2024
    Dia 106

    Santa Cruz de Tenerife

    21 de março, Espanha ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Before today, I knew only three things about Tenerife:
    - It's one of the Canary Islands
    - It is the site of the worst aviation accident in history
    - Travelinging Brits love vacationing here.

    Of course, there's a lot more to this Spanish island, located just three hundred kilometers from the coast of Morocco, than that.

    The island was formed by volcanic activity, and the highest point in Spain is located at the peak of that inactive volcano, Mt. Teide, which is also the third largest volcano on Earth.

    The Spanish conquered the island in the late 1490s, after a two year war with the aboriginal Guanche population. Records show that thousands of conquistadors perished in the war's many battles, despite their superior weapons. Those Guanches must have been some tuff mudders.

    The architecture in our port of call, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, shows heavy Colonial influence, and Brenda and I were both struck by how clean and well-maintained the buildings in the downtown area are.

    I read somewhere that Tenerife has one of the most liveable climates on the planet. Today, as we explored Centro, the temperature was a comfortable 20 degrees with some gusty winds and a partially overcast sky. We experienced a few drops of rain during our walk, but the skies opened up a little more as we waited to get back on board the ship.

    Sadly, we had to be back on the Lirica by 2:30 pm, which made for a very short visit to this fascinating place.

    When one travels to new places, some you like, some you love, some you forget as soon as you leave. And then there are those that call out to you, where you immediately feel comfortable and at home. Tenerife is one of those places for us.

    We can't wait to spend more time here.    Leia mais

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  • Argentina and Italy 2023/2024
    Dia 100

    Hasta La Vista South America

    15 de março, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    Maceió, our last South American port of call, was a bit of a bust yesterday. It doesn't have a lot going for it other than some beautiful beaches, but the weather was cloudy, rainy, and hot, so we decided to skip it and stay on board the Lirica. We figure we ended our South America stay on a high note in Salvador, so why push our luck?

    And so now we have six days at sea before our next port of call, Tenerife. The ship had lots of activities on the go today, and the weather was perfect for lying out in the sun by the pool.

    This afternoon, we were treated to a beautiful sky as, unlike in the Westerns, we sailed OUT OF the sunset.    Leia mais

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  • Argentina and Italy 2023/2024
    Dia 98

    Salvador do Bahia

    13 de março, Brasil ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    After a day at sea since leaving Rio, we arrived in Salvador this morning at 10:00.

    Our last visit here left us with a very bad impression of Brazil, particularly insofar as one's safety is concerned. Understandably, we were a little apprehensive about returning to the scene of the crime.

    On the other hand, we are older and a lot wiser than we were nine years ago, and we went ashore with no jewelry, almost no cash, and only the bare minimum of credit cards. We also booked a walking tour with a local that we hoped would help keep us safe.

    Although we returned to the ship unscathed, both in Rio and on today's tour, we saw a snatch and grab incident where some unsuspecting tourist lost some belongings. The cruise lines need to be more vigilant about inforning their passengers of precauations to take when going ashore in Brazil.

    Aside from that, we had a good two hour tour of the historic Pelourinho district.

    A Unesco World Heritage site, Salvador was the first capital of Brazil from 1549 to 1763 and was also, from 1558, the first slave market in the New World. Salvador still has one of the largest concentrations of black and mulatto populations in Brazil resulting in the abundance of colorful costumes, and distinctive foods for which the city is noted.

    The city is divided into an upper and a lower town that are connected by road, a cable car and the Elevador Lacerda, a 236 foot tall tower containing four elevator cars and was completed in 1873 and renovated in the Art-deco style in the 1930s.

    During our tour, on several occasions, we were approached by individuals offering us different coloured ribbons. Our guide explained that, according to local legend, if you tie the ribbon to something and make three wishes, when the knot becomes untied, your three wishes will come true. The fence encircling a fountain in the town square is covered with thousands and thousands of multi-colored ribbons.

    Because of the inherent risk involved in displaying one's cell phone, I took very few photos today but could easily have gone over the twenty photo limit on this blog.

    Chances are we'll never venture back here ever again, but it was nice to leave Salvador this time with fonder memories.    Leia mais

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  • Argentina and Italy 2023/2024
    Dia 96

    Rio

    11 de março, Brasil ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    In December 2015, Brenda and I spent about three weeks in Rio de Janeiro at the tail end of our retirement trip. A couple of weeks earlier, in Salvador, Brazil, we momentarily neglected safety warnings and ended up getting mugged. As a result, once we got to Rio, we were super cautious and never left the relatively safe confines of the touristy Copacabana area.

    Today, we returned to Rio as our fourth Brazilian port of call. It was a beautiful, sunny 27 degrees when we disembarked the Lirica and walked the three kilometers towards Centro. Of course, we remembered the lessons of the past and left jewelry and cash on the ship, and kept all our cards and cell phones safely tucked away.

    We took a three hour walking tour of the historic area of Rio that brought us to Confeitaria Colombo, a very ornate pastry shop that was founded in the late 1800s, the usual government buildings and the concert hall, which is even more beautiful than Teatro Colon in BA. Our guide assured us that Centro is quite safe on weekdays when there are a lot of people around, but it's wise to avoid on weekends when stores and offices are closed. She also gave us the history of the city, how it got its name, the origins of the flag, and recommended a few of her favorite dining and drinking spots.

    We had noticed that the sidewalks here, like in Portugal, are covered in black and white paving stones, often set in many designs. I thought it was just a tradition brought over from the old country, but as it turns out, the stones were used as ballast on the ships that came from Portugal otherwise empty, and later returned to Portugal laden with an equal weight in gold that was mined in Brazil. Who got the better of that deal?

    The last stop on the tour was Escadaria Selaron, a plain public staircase that was transformed into a work of art by a Chilean expat who made it his life's work to decorate it with ceramic tiles. Spectacular.

    After the tour, Brenda and I went for a large cup of frozen acai, and I stopped at a street vendor's cart and bought a brigadero, a confection made of condensed milk and chocolate rolled into a ball and coated with chocolate sprinkles. Pass the insulin, please. According to our guide, brigaderos are eaten all over Rio, but especially when you're sad. Or happy. Pretty much whenever.

    In the end, Brenda and I agreed it would be nice to come back to Rio and spend a little more time here.    Leia mais

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  • Argentina and Italy 2023/2024
    Dia 95

    Cruise to Venice, Day 5

    10 de março, Brasil ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    On Tuesday, we left Buenos Aries, our home for most of the last three months, aboard MSC Cruise Lines' Lirica. The Lirica can accommodate 1560 passengers and half as many crew, and her maiden voyage was in 2003.

    Don't get me wrong, I consider myself privileged to be able to embark on an adventure like this with Brenda, one that will sail us across the Atlantic over twenty-five days. However, there is a BUT: so far, the ports of call have been very uninspiring, and the onboard activities have been, shall we say, lacking.

    Our first two stops, in Paranagua and Itajai, Brazil, had us wondering why they even bothered. The towns were uninteresting with literally nothing of historical, natural, or architectural value to see. Our third stop, in Santos, on Sunday, dropped us off three kms from downtown. We walked into Centro through some pretty sketchy neighborhoods in 34-degree temperatures, only to find everything, except a small tavern on the town square, shut down.

    After enjoying a couple of the local brews, we Ubered back to the ship.

    This cruise has been a bit of a whistle stop ride so far. There were already passengers on board when we embarked, and every port saw some passengers getting off and new passengers embarking. We suspect this will stop when we leave our next port, Rio de Janeiro,

    The entertainment, thus far, has been geared to the Brazilian passengers who make up the majority of the people on board. Once we leave Rio, we're hoping this will change and there will be a few more things of interest to us.

    All that negativity aside, the food has been very good, and there are actually more vegan and vegetarian options on this vessel than on the Celebrity cruise we recently took.

    The staff has been fantastic, and our cabin is more than adequate, although we do kinda miss the balcony we had on Celebrity.

    Twenty days to go, three more stops in Brazil, and we're hopeful things will only improve from here.    Leia mais

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  • Argentina and Italy 2023/2024
    Dia 90

    Buenos Aires

    5 de março, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    What a great stay we had in Argentina this year. We arrived in Buenos Aires on December 8 and saw more of this country over the last three months than we had even dreamed of. We saw Iguazu Falls from both the Argentine and Brazilian sides, we visited Ishuaia, the southernmost city on the planet, we walked with penguins in Puerto Madryn, marveled at the mountains in Purmamarca and the salt flats in Salinas Grandes and discovered some great wines in Cafayate and Salta.

    But best of all was our time in Buenos Aires. I've already written about the amazing concerts we saw at Teatro Colon and the great meals we had at our favorite spots, so I won't repeat those experiences here.

    We lived through an election that is, and will continue to change the face of Argentina. If the new president's financial plan succeeds, the country will no longer be the travel bargain it is today but will be a much better place for Argentinos. Time will tell.

    Speaking of Argentinos, they are some of the nicest and friendliest folks around. Of course, there are bad areas where tourists shouldn't venture, but we never once felt unsafe or threatened the entire time we were here. The only unpleasant encounters we had were with the very nasty and stealthy mosquitos that suddenly seemed to have propagated the second half of February. Brenda was so traumatized that she didn't set foot outside of the apartment for three days!

    Like any country, Argentina has its quirks. For example, the national obsession with Yerba Mate, or simply Mate here. It seems like half the people walk around with a gourd filled with mate in one hand and a thermos of hot water tucked under the other arm.

    Despite hearing it for almost 90 days, the Argentine Spanish remains problematic for us. Try as we may, when the locals start rattling off sentences at full speed, we continue to look at them with the same blank look on our faces as we did three months ago.

    And then there are the dog walkers. There are surely more of them per capita here than anywhere I've ever been. Some of them are handling as many as ten pooches at a time, and all the dogs are well-behaved.

    So that's it. Our three months in Argentina are up, and we're off on another adventure; a twenty-five day transatlantic cruise to Venice, Italy. We're both kind of sad to leave BA, but at the same time, we're looking forward to the cruise, a little time in Italia, and, more and more, to getting home.

    Hopefully, by the time we touch ground in Vancouver on April 9, the temperature will be higher than yesterday's 3 Celsius.    Leia mais

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  • Argentina and Italy 2023/2024
    Dia 84–86

    Salta

    28 de fevereiro, Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    On Wednesday morning, we said goodbye to Cafayate and drove 189 twisty kilometers back to Salta, where we started this little side trip. I stopped along the way a couple of times to take a few pictures of the magnificent scenery, although there were far fewer lookouts on the northbound side of the highway than on the southbound.

    Salta is the fifth largest city in Argentina and one of the oldest, having been founded in 1582. There's some beautiful, very European architecture and some grand statues here, but overall, the city isn't one we'll be racing back to anytime soon.

    Once we settled into our accommodations and returned the rental car, we went for lunch at Tantra Salta, a fully vegan restaurant. The place was lovely, the service was excellent and the food looked beautiful. Sadly, only the cauliflower wings were delicious while the other two dishes were a lame attempt at reproducing meat and fish using tofu.

    After I took a rather lengthy afternoon nap, we did a ninety minute walking tour of the old city, which was informative and interesting, but most importantly, pointed out where to eat the best empanadas in Argentina.

    Of course, Brenda and I were not about to take our guide at his word, so we went to La Tacita, a tiny mom and pop shop, and ordered three empanadas con queso and a 500 ml can of Salta Negra beer. I don't know if they're truly the best in Argentina, but they are surely the best empanadas I've eaten. They're made fresh to order with an impossibly thin pastry shell generously filled with cheese, a touch of onion and egg, and baked in a wood oven.

    One of the must do things here is to go to the top of El Cerro San Bernardo, either on foot, by funicular or by car. Most smart people take the funicular or a taxi to the top and walk the 1021 stairs down to the city. Well, no one ever accused me of being a genius, so we did it in reverse. Salta is already at an elevation of 1187 meters and the peak of the hill is at 1472 meters, so by the time we got to the top, I was sucking air and was ready for a shower. The view from the top gave a good clear view of Salta, but overall, it was nothing to write home about.

    At the summit is a statue of San Bernardo who managed to be so saintly that both this mountain in Salta AND a breed of dog bear his name.

    We took the funicular down and headed back to the apartment so I could put on a dry shirt.

    We lunched at Cardamomo, a vegetarian restaurant where I had lasagna, and Brenda had risotto, both of which were different from what we expected but were absolutely delicious. We washed it all down with a small production Torrontes from Bodega Isasmendi, maybe the best example we've had here.

    When dinner rolled around, neither of us was particularly hungry, so we decided to return to La Tacita, this time for six empanadas and a liter of Salta Rubia beer. At one point, we were joined by a friendly little grasshopper, but we refused to share.

    Today, our flight back to BA didn't leave until 7:55 PM, so we had a lot of time to kill after our 10:00 AM checkout. Fortunately, we were able to leave our bags with our host while we went on with our day.

    Brenda needed to replace some shoes, so a good portion of the morning was spent with her trying on sneakers and successfully finding a pair.

    After all that shopping, we'd built up quite a hunger, so we went back to La Tacita for a farewell visit, a dozen empanadas, and a liter of Salta Rubia.
    We couldn't resist. Besides, we couldn't get enough of the view of the Franciscan Cathedral across the street.

    We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring two museums: The Colonial History Museum (m'eh) and The High Mountain Archeological Museum, which was amazing. It's full of Incan artifacts from burial sites of sacrificed children found at almost 7000 meters altitude atop an extinct volcano. The air is so thin, the air so dry, and the temperatures are so cold that perfect conditions occurred for mummification.

    The museum has three mummified child sacrifices, only one of which is on display at a time. The state of preservation of the mummy we saw is incredible with clothing still all intact, and even the eyelashes and hair braids remain. Unfortunately, to maintain the preservation of the mummies and artifacts, no photos are allowed, but I managed to find a few online that I'm attaching to this blog.

    That's our two and a half days in Salta in a nutshell. It's a nice place to visit.....once.    Leia mais

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  • Argentina and Italy 2023/2024
    Dia 83

    Vino y Queso

    27 de fevereiro, Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Let's be honest. The only reason we came to Cafayate was to taste the wines from this up and coming wine region. We had seen a few bottles for sale in Buenos Aires, but otherwise, we knew nothing about the region nor the wines produced here.

    Here's my sommelier summary:
    -vines here grow at an altitude of at least 1700 meters.
    -the soil is sandy, rocky, and very dry.
    -the warm daytime desert-like temperatures combine with the cool nights to add additional stress to the vines.
    -the main varietal grown here is Torrontes (white) along with Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Reisling, Bonarda, Cab Franc and Merlot
    -the Argentine palate prefers young, fresh wines that are ready to drink today. Many lower cost wines see no barrel aging, only fermentation in stainless steel or concrete vats, and that includes all the big reds.

    We set out to visit as many bodegas as possible this morning at 10:00 AM, prime wine tasting time. On our way we came across four donkeys, two just hanging around, the others happily munching on some garbage.

    Our first stop at the beautiful El Esteco winery was a total disaster. The staff was uninterested, and the three wines we tasted (Torrontes, Chardonnay and Criolla) were overly acidic, tart and barely palatable. If we had been provided spit buckets, they would have been well used.

    Next was Vasija Secreta where we joined the tail end of a tour group and were served an off-dry Torrontes and an unoaked Malbec, both of which were inoffensive, but not something I'd search out in the future. The highlight there was us running into Luis, a backpacker we had met yesterday while wine tasting. He was leaving Cafayate by bus in a couple of hours, but was very happy to accompany us to our next stop.

    Las Cabras de Cafayate is a goat farm that produces very fine goat cheese. We became very bad vegans for a day and took part in the best deal available in Cafayate. For 1500 pesos
    , less than $2.00 CAD pp, we were treated to a plate of 3 goat cheeses, 2 cow milk cheeses, and one aged cheese made of both cow and goat milk. All of this was accompanied by bread sticks and a very generous pour of their house, Torrentes. The Torrontes was the perfect match for the blended cheese. Because Luis had a bus to catch, we didn't have time to visit the goats, but perhaps next time.

    Our next stop was El Transito, another boutique winery tucked in on a side street near our accommodation. When we entered, the receptionist was more interested in her phone than in the customers who walked in. But by the end of our visit, she had provided the most entertaining tasting of all. We started with a Torrontes, and another white(???), the a 100% Bonardo that we really enjoyed. Next was the big surprise. The label translates roughly to "Steps in the Night, and looked and smelled like a well-made Malbec. The young lady explained that this wine, like a secret lover, sneaks in and gives you a sweet and thrilling moment before dashing off into the night. This late harvest Malbec did exactly that, unexpectedly offering beautiful sweetness before the very brief finish even has a moment to linger on the palate. It was as delightful as our guide.

    The absolute tasting highlight of our day was our visit to Bodega Salvador Figueroa, a tiny artisinal boutique winery with only ten acres of mostly Malbec and a little Cabernet Sauvignon. They produce only about 15,000 bottles annually.

    We first tried their stainless steel fermented Malbec, which unexpectedly blew us away. The wine was complex, concentrated, and everything you'd want in a Malbec. We even asked the server if he was certain this wine had never seen oak. The next was the oaked Malbec that had spent eight months in Frenck oak. This was equally delicious, but the oak was a little over abundant on the palate, almost as if the contents of this bottle had spent time in a brand new barrel. The winery also had a Malbec/Cab blend on offer as well as their reserve which only 720 bottles were produced. Prices for the first two wines were 9,000 and 10,000 pesos per bottle respectively, and for the reserve, 33,000 pesos. All of which would be a bargain at double the price. Sadly, we had neither the luggage nor the intestinal capacity to leave the shop with any of their superb product.

    We suspect that this region is on the cusp of becoming as popular a wine destination as Mendoza, and are very happy we were able to visit it in its infancy.

    It's unlikely we'll ever return here, but I'll forever be on the lookout for a good bottle of Torrontes from Cafayate.    Leia mais

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