South America - Part 2

Sunday 11^th January Buenos Aires

Today we join our ship – Zaandam. We got up for our champagne breakfast again, then packed and checked out. We waited in the foyer for our car and we arrived at the cruise terminal just 15 minutes later. HAL shore operations staff helped me out of the car and took all our luggage, including hand luggage. We filled out health declarations and waited for our ticket number to be called to go through security.

 

Upstairs we were offered complimentary lemonade and cookies and queued for check-in proper. Once we had our cruise cards we went through immigration - thumb scans and photos  - before queuing for the shuttle to the ship. Again I was helped with my cabin case up the gangway. On boarding we were taken straight to our cabin, no 1868.

 

Unfortunately we had missed the free embarkation lunch for Mariner Society members. Although this was my first HAL cruise my Cunard points counted to make me a 1 star Mariner.

 

After a lunch in the Lido and a quick exploration of the ship we returned to the cabin to unpack our luggage which had by then arrived in the cabin. There was generous hanging storage and cupboards but drawer space was limited and the cupboard next to the sofa under the table lamp meant crawling on hands and knees to use. Why don't designers actually try using their furniture?

 

Showered and changed, we went to the Pub Trivia quiz in the Mix cocktail bar, which we won! Then we went to dinner in the Rotterdam restaurant. Although not a fan of it, we chose Freedom dining on this occasion to allow us flexibility during the days of scenic cruising to come. After dinner we went to the singles and solos meet and got a free drink. Then to the welcome show followed by bed.

 

Monday 12^th January Buenos Aires

We spent overnight in port. We headed for breakfast in Lido - red fruits with yoghurt and topped with toasted granola - yum. Orange juice was also good (with or without bits) and chilled lemonade available all day. We had booked a tour to the Tigre Delta by boat but as it didn’t leave until around 10am, we walked to the terminal and tried to connect to their free Wi-Fi – it was too slow however so we gave up. After assembling in the lower part of the Mondrian Theatre, we boarded coaches and drove through Buenos Aires suburbs, stopping at San Isidro where we had a look around the church and a small park where a Monk or Quaker Parrot was making a lot of noise.

 

Then it was time to drive to the boat terminal for the river trip. To board the boat we had to walk down steep steps to a floating pontoon. In full sun, the handrail was too hot to hold! We all had to sit down inside until we were past the coastguard boat after which we were allowed on deck. It was once again very hot but the movement of the boat created a nice breeze.

 

Local people were relaxing by the water with children playing and splashing into the river. There were cormorants fishing and a large black and white striped bird flew overhead, possibly an Andean Flicker? Three and a half hours later we arrived back to a sailaway deck barbeque.

 

Sadly a passenger had to be Medevaced before we left at 7.30, later than scheduled. On deck we watched the sun set over Buenos Aires before going to the Gaucho show in the Theatre. It was excellent with a mixture of Gaucho skills and tango. Midnight snack and bed.