Saturday, February 17, 2018- Cruise Day 25. Departing Buenos Aires

Saturday, February 17, 2018- Cruise Day 25. Departing Buenos Aires

The ship was just pushing off the dock as we awoke.  As we sailed out the channel leading to Buenos Aires harbor, you could see how big and modern Buenos Aires is, with several clusters of shiny high rises filling the skyline.  The Rio de la Plata, the widest river in the world, stretches beyond the horizon and is a muddy brown color as far as the eye can see.  It will take the better part of the day to clear the river’s mouth and enter the Atlantic ocean.  

We had breakfast and met a couple from New Bedford, MA, who happen to spend two months each winter on one of the border islands near St. Petersburg.  The husband speaks fluent Portuguese, which reminded Janet of the movie Mystic Pizza, which involved a coastal New England fishing town inhabited by Portuguese.  He was able to get a very cost effective taxi tour of Rio because he was able to negotiate with the Portuguese speaking driver, and translate for the rest of the party in the cab.  

We attended the 10:30AM morning trivia and reunited with our group of John, Kathy, Bob and Roger.  Bob had done the one day Iguazu excursion with his wife Mary when the ship arrived in Buenos Aires.  They said they enjoyed the tour and had seen the Devil’s Throat observation platform and walked the upper trail on the Argentina side, but passed on the lower trail because it involved stairs. They had lunch at the same buffet in the park as we had the day before, but missed out on a boat ride.  

Our trivia team scored 12/20, but there was a new cruise director’s staff named Monique who seems to not be the sharpest tool in the shed.  One of the questions was “What is the name of Peter Pan’s Island?” and she would not accept “The Island of the Lost Boys”, despite that being the name of the Island in the fictional Neverland.  She would only accept Neverland.  She nearly refused to accept Martin Luther King Jr. for the answer to “Name the Nobel Prize winner who as jailed 14 times before his untimely death” because her slide said Martin Luther King (no Jr.).  There were a few feathers ruffled that morning.  

We had a light lunch and did laundry.  We also went for a swim.  The outside pool wasn’t salt water any more, presumably because we were in a freshwater river.  Presumably, they filter and treat the pool water from outside the ship for the Lido pool, but use vacuum distilled fresh water to fill the Lotus pool.  Janet finally got her prizes for the Wake Show drawings after dropping Martin a note saying the prizes were never delivered.  She got a couple $1 cash vault game coupons, which were promptly fed to the machine without effect.

We attended the 3:30PM afternoon trivia with our usual team, and this time we won by a 2 point margin.  That was a good feeling.  We won string bags and silly left-over Valentines day head bobbers.  

We had an early dinner and saw the early Princess Theatre showtime, featuring Bernie Fields, a harmonica virtuoso.  He put on quite a show, playing a variety of pop and classical music like you’ve never heard it before on a harmonica.  He was backed by the Island Princess band and full stage effects.    

We met up for the 9:30PM Movie Lines Trivia, where a line is quoted from a movie and you have to variously name the actor, character, title of movie, director or year of release.  We were tied for first until the last question, which we got wrong, so we ended up in our more customary second place. The first place winner was a gal who usually just plays by herself, and likes to wear a lot of bling.  Some of the cruise director staff address her as Ms. Cartier.  She has managed to win at least 2 trivias by herself.  

After trivia , Ben went to the buffet for soup and tea. He started coming down with a cold- undoubtedly from one of the millions of Brazilians, Argentinians, and Paraguayans that we were crammed onto the observation platforms and trains at Iguazu on the first two days of our excursion when it was so terribly crowded.  He’s been popping Airborne and sucking on Zicam to try to head this off.  He also watched the last part of Passengers on the Movies under the stars.  It was actually quite pleasant out on the movie deck as it was 71 degrees and not too windy.  Janet, meanwhile, was watching the Wake Show and saw that she had her name drawn again.  This time Martin mentioned on the air “Janet seems to be winning a lot of these drawing”.  

Tomorrow is another At Sea day as we work our way to Puerto Madryn, and tomorrow night is another formal. night.