Henry and I spent 7 days cruising South America with our friends, Jason and Heidi Tilley. The cruise stopped in four ports: Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Porto Belo.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Henry has always wanted to go to Rio - to see the people, to see Christ the Redeemer statue, and to visit Cococabana Beach. Rio is unique because of it's topography. There are several mountains in the middle of the city, so you have to drive through mountain tunnels to get from one neighborhood to another, and it has a large portion of beach. So if you look at our pictures, you'll see a city skyline in one, a tropical rain forest/mountain in another, and a beach in another. And all Henry and I had to do was change the angle of the camera while standing in the same spot.
The day was rainy and chilly, but we had the best time. Our first order of business was to take a tour of Corcovado National Park and Christ the Redeemer statue. We spent a considerable part of the morning doing that and then headed to Ipanema Beach to find Porcoa, a restaurant Jason heard was the best. And wow, it was delicious. Porcao is an all you can eat meat and salad bar. But the meat isn't ordinary meat. First, Brazil is know for its beef and the chefs at Porcao are known for how adept they are at cooking it. Servers walk around with large pieces of meat on metal skewers and cut off however much you say you want. We have similar restaurants in the US, but I've never eaten at one that is remotely close to Porcao in quality and taste. They also have some tasty cheese empanadas.
We left Porcao and headed to an outdoor market where local vendors set up booths of crafts and wares. We shopped for awhile then hailed a cab to Cococabana. Due to the weather, the usually characters of Cococabana were not around. It is supposedly much like Venice Beach, but it was pretty dead when we saw it. However, it was beautiful and we walked along the beach looking at what locals were out. Somewhere along the way, I was inspired to ask some locals if they would like to crush us in volleyball. They happily obliged and played two sets in which they went very easy on us. A few pictures and a cocnut drink later, we hailed a cab and made our way back to the ship.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires feels very modern and European. We started the day looking for a bank to change our USD into Argentinian Pesos. Our cabbie suggested, since the banks weren't open yet, that he could change it over for us. We tossed the idea around for a few minutes and finally decided to take him up on the offer. He dropped us in a shopping district where I set out looking for a tea strainer and tea caddy for my collections. Eureka! I found both in a general store and upon paying, we were told our Argentinian Pesos were counterfeit. Drat! Rookie mistake. We were able to pay with our credit card and set out, once again, looking for a bank. We then cabbed it down to the Congressional building for a look at downtown. We did our own walking tour down the main thoroughfare on the heels of a political demonstration by the local workers unions. We saw the palace where Eva Peron lived (Casa Rosada) and the Catedral Metropolitana.
Time for lunch! Our cabbie was nice enough to suggest a section of town with good restaurants before robbing us blind, so we made our way to Puerto Madero (I think), to grab some food. We stumbled upon a rather nice restaurant that served excellent food. We had Argentinian steak, the best empanadas ever, and salad. Oh, and the local drink, which I'm sure Jason remembers the name of, but we all want to forget. It tasted much like listerine mixed with coke. After we tasted it, we asked our waitress if she liked it and she shook her head vehemently while saying 'no!'
After lunch, we headed over to El Caminito, a famous strip of curio shops, vendors, and the Tango. After a few hours of shopping, we headed to the Cementerio de la Recoleta. Unfortunately, we arrived five minutes before closing and they wouldn't let us go in. After a few minutes of regrouping, we decided to walk across town to the Floralis Generica, a modern steel sculpture of a flower resembling a dogwood or magnolia. It was an impressive sight. Tired, we hailed one last cab to take us back to the ship.
Montevideo, Uruguay
Montevideo is a cute little colonial city that serves as the capital of Uruguay. While I'm sure there was a lot of the city we didn't see, the downtown cultural area was easily accessible by walking up the main street and back down the other side. In fact, when you walked off the ship, there was a green/blue sidewalk, much like a bike path, that pointed the way to the main street. We spent a majority of the day walking downtown seeing the old buildings and tasting local foods. We tracked down the best chevito place in town and tried the local specialty. It is a sandwich with thinkly sliced steak, loaded with toppings. A fried egg seemed to accompany most. It was interesting, to say the least, but certainly not my favorite taste of the cruise. We also went to a leather factory and had fun trying on hats and coats and even walked out with a few purchases.
Porto Belo, Brazil
There isn't much to say about Porto Belo. It is known for its beautiful beach and idylic fishing village atmostphere. We hailed a cab to take us to a nice beach. It was drizzling so we found shelter under a restaurant porch and snacked while playing a game of Rook. Jason met a local Brazilian who spoke English and the boys played soccer with Adam and his buddies in the late afternoon. We realized right before we left the water was warm as a bath and we had missed the opportunity to swim thinking it would be cold. However, we had fun relaxing on the shore.
We enjoyed the cruise and will probably look into doing another one at some point in the future. I think the biggest things we learned were: don't be late for dinner on the ship, don't exchange money with the locals, and walk out of the port and down the road to hail a taxi to avoid long lines and inflated fares. Oh, and one of our cruise mates also suggested bringing a canceled credit card to give to muggers, just in case the occasion should arrise.