Buenos Aires

After flying almost 7 hours from Los Angeles to Panama City, a 2 1/2 hour layover there and another seven hour flight on to Buenos Aires, we arrived around 7AM Thursday morning. Clearing customs and immigration took a good hour and then with set an almost 1 hour trip from the airport to our hotel, we arrived at the Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel and Convention Center. I had planned for this very early arrival and booked our stay beginning the night before. Having arranged with the hotel that we would not arrive until the morning of the 27th, our room is ready and waiting for us.

Our first day, was spent relaxing, napping and resting by the pool. So that we didn’t go to bed too early, we took a later afternoon walk along Avenida Florida, a mile long pedestrian only shopping street, walked by La Casa Rosada (The Pink House, The President’s Office) then walked to Puerto Madero. Puerto Madero was the mid-19th century port, but after the New Port was opened in 1911, Puerto Madero fell into disuse and disrepair. A revitalization project that began in 1990 repurposed the area into a high end residential, commercial and entertainment district.

On Friday, we spent part of the day by the pool, took a walk around Buenos Aires went to a wine tasting in Miravida Soho, a small boutique hotel in the Palermo District. We ended having dinner there as well. We had a very nice selection of Argentine wines. Here are a few.

And, a favorite wine was a great tasting Malbec from Argentina’s Mendoza region, although I forgot to take a picture. We did enjoy both the tastings and the very detailed discussion about Argentinian wine and wine region regions.

On Saturday, we had a rerun of the day before, some pool time followed by exploring Buenos Aires and then, for dinner, we went back to Puerto Madera and Cabaña Las Lilas, one of Buenos Aires highly rated steak houses.

• 

• 

Sunday morning, we woke to a much anticipated sight: the Celebrity Eclipse moored at the cruise terminal, patiently awaiting our (and 3,000 other guests’) arrival. After a quick breakfast at Starbucks we packed up and, just as soon as logistically possible, headed to the port to begin our month long cruise back to San Diego.

My next post will cover embarkation and our first few Days aboard. Stay Tuned! Just a quick word about ship wifi. It is horrible. A post with 10 or so pictures can take up to 12 hours to actually get posted, so I, and you too, need patience.