I have said before that Cunard does it up big. Today, they outdid themselves.
The Bridge—that is, the ship’s brass; captain etc.; invited all the South America cruisers to a big party. Huge buses transported us to the venue, an excellent troupe of dancers and musicians entertained, and the wine flowed freely. The finger foods they served were local beef and produce.
Equestrian bed and gauchos - at the party in Buenos Aires
The covered venue is huge. They hold the flower show and the annual farm and livestock show in it, for example. They entertained 800 guests tonight and that is about half of those invited. They’ll do it all again tomorrow night. The tango was invented right here in BA, so it figured prominently in the dancing.
The venue has a sort of rodeo arena out front, and gauchos and gauchas demonstrated riding on some really nice horses. They had barrels set up to weave in and out of. Four of the women used sidesaddles. In short it was a bang-up take-no-prisoners evening.
Happy Valentine's Day! This was on my bed when I returned.
And then the piece de resistance: when I returned to the stateroom, there was one long-stemmed red rose on the bed with a card, Virgil’s quote: Love conquers all; let us surrender to love.
I took the Tigre Delta river cruise today hoping to see some birds. Silly me, I thought it was a delta. Well, it was, but. The Tigre Delta is a triangular association of islands where the Tigre River and the Rio de la Plata come together. All silt; they wanted a beach so they had to import sand. It is totally developed with fancy summer homes for the wealthy. Lots of mowed lawns and beautiful plantings. Nearly every home has its own pier, and there are no roads or cars. Grocery stores send out barges with groceries (20% markup) several times a week, so you don’t have to go into town for staples. There’s a sort of mass transit boat system that plies the major channels. It was interesting but lacking in wildlife.
Dock on Tigre Delta - every home has its own.
I did add a bird to my life list, the rufous-bellied thrush. It stands picket-pin like a robin and hops around on lawns like a robin. Saw many, many cormorants, so there must be fish in the delta. And great egrets were colonizing a couple of trees; it may be a rookery. Other than that it was pigeons all the way down.
Like so many things go, what I anticipated from this journey was minuscule compared to what I actually found. The reality has greatly exceeded the anticipation.
I pray that all your projects and adventures similarly turn out to be more than you ever dreamt of.