Buenos Aires lies up the Plate River/estuary and is on the opposite bank from Montevideo.  We were overnight in port making it possible for Viking to bring aboard a tango troupe for an evening performance.  In addition to tango, a performer dressed as a gaucho dances around with a boleadoras (or bolas), a device made of leather cords and three iron balls or stones that was thrown at the legs of an animal to entwine and immobilize it. It makes an incredible dance I can’t describe that is very rhythmic due to the striking of the balls on the floor.

We did a bus tour of the city the first day that showed us lots of monuments and buildings, including the brightly colored houses poor Italian immigrants built, plus the incredible above ground cemetery where Eva Peron is interred.

The second day we drove to the Parana delta and took a boat ride.  This was our first actual rainy day, but the boat was enclosed so no problem.  The delta is huge (they say the biggest in the world) and also unusual in that it empties into a river (the Plate) instead of into the ocean.  In a maze of  rivers and creeks, islands of the delta have no roads, and inhabitants travel by boat.  There are bus boats for school children (primary and high schools are on the islands) and taxis, boat supermarkets so you buy groceries at your dock, as well as a boat bringing doctors and dentists.  Bottled water is required for drinking and cooking; otherwise water is from the river.  I gather it was a popular place once, but the population decreased drastically in the 1970s and a majority of houses are unoccupied (and falling apart).  But there are some nice houses and boats, and real estate is inexpensive…

260 ‘members of the Viking family’ disembarked in Buenos Aires (the end of the first of the five legs of the cruise) and a new group arrived headed for Valpariso, Chile, the end of the second leg. e