A cruising we will go!

The Vendam

 We sailed out of Buenos Aires at 9 pm on December 20 and before we were out of port a container ship crane swung around and hit the top of the cruise ship. It smacked the side of the "Crows Nest", the disco, on the 12th deck and the highest point on the ship. There was not much damage, and only a couple of minor injuries, but the coast guard made us anchor just out of harbor until they could do a daylight inspection of the ship to ensure it was still sea worthy. Twelve hours later we were on our way again, but we will miss one port stop (Port Madryn) to make up for the lost time. So is life, be happy, no problemo!

On the way to the cruise ship terminal in the taxi, I realized why Argentinians make great Formula One race car drivers. Traffic was extremely heavy and they have this way of straddling the dotted line to make five lanes out of four, or six out of five, and they are all very good at it. Sometimes you think wow, there is no room here and somehow they manage to slide through between two other vehicles all trying to get onto the same lane. At one point, another taxi pulled out of an intersection into our lane and for thirty feet the drivers just kept staring at each other as they played chicken about which one was getting the lane, but it worked out and with one cab half way into the next lane and the other almost on the sidewalk we eventually got to where they wanted to be.

We arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, 12 hours late so spent December 22 instead of December 21 in port while the ship resupplied and refueled for the journey south. Montevideo is an old colonial style city and the country, like Argentina, went from being a leading exporter of manufactured goods to broke and is still trying to recover. Classes here seem to be very poor (like tin and cardboard housing poor), poor, lower middle class, rich and extremely rich. Uruguay is a small country stuck between Brazil and Argentina with a population of about 3.5 million - 1.3 million live in the port city of Montevideo.

Montevideo is like other South American Spanish influenced cities, with lots of plazas and statues of their heros that gained independence. To me the best statues in Montevideo are the two that are dedicated to the settlement of the land, one of an oxcart of settlers and one of a stage coach of pioneers.



The Stage Coach of Pioneers

Another interesting statue is one depicting five indigenous people that belonged to a tribe that refused to recognize Uruguay government, so they were exterminated at the direction of the president. Five were left alive, a chief, a medicine man, a warrior and a mother and her baby. They were captured and sent to a circus in Europe were they spent the remainder of their lives on display as exhibits. 

The Indigenous

It is mostly a rural culture and now the biggest exports are beef to Russia, soy to China and wine to the US, Canada and Europe.

True to our reasons for coming to the southern countries in South America, for the wine experience, we spent our day in Uruguay touring a winery, having lunch and sampling the expressions and vintages. Like Chile and Argentina, Uruguay is known for European grapes that grow in these countries better than they do in Europe. They grow a Tannant grape from France, and the samples we had at the vineyard were vey good. I had never drank Tannat before but was impressed, especially with the merlot-tannat blends.

The Winery

We were served four samples before lunch and their premium vintage with the main course. There were about fifty people on the tour but only about five or six besides Loreen and I were true connoisseurs of wine! Some of the folks hardly sampled any, while others just drank the whites or the reds, but we true connoisseurs sampled to the fullest and emptied every glass they poured for us. We were troupers and very considerate of their feelings!

The Wines

We sat with a fellow that was born in Chile whose ancestors were from Croatia and he has lived in Britain for the past 35 years. His family still has property in both Chile and Croatia. He was great to visit with and has a vast knowledge of the settlement of the Patagonia and mining areas of both Chile and Argentina. These areas have more descendants from Croatian, Scottish and Welsh ancestry than either Spanish or Italian, which are the dominate two countries where South Americans immigrated from.

On our second day into the cruise I watched a lady walk by the pool and thought, now where do I know that lady from, but was not sure. Then later in the day she walked past again with her husband and yes it was a couple, Harm and Elly, from Holland that we had met in January at Uluru in Australia. We did not make contact that day but tracked them down at the pool the next afternoon and spent a nice couple of hours catching up. What a small world.