Buenos Aires to Seabourn Quest. Sunday, February 3

Went to San Telmo Market this morning.  By a fortuitous accident we started out at the big undercover food market which I think is actually called the San Telmo Market.  From there we walked the many streets with crafts stands set up.  Really interesting with some nice crafts.  We never actually made it to the “antique” part of the market which was just fine since crafts are more our thing.

Picked up some empanadas for a quick lunch then back to the hotel to shower, dress and pack.  The car arranged by the hotel manager (a Mercedes!) picked us up at 3 pm and we went to the port.  Good-bye Four Seasons; hello Seabourn!

The registration and boarding process was amazingly smooth and quick.  We saw at least 100 people (passengers on Celebrity) waiting in line at security.  The Seabourn rep whisked us past them and literally stopped the line so that we could walk right up to security.  Maybe a little obnoxious but also such a luxury!

Cabin is efficient but seems small to us especially as we tried to put away all of our clothes.  

Super Bowl party

·        We'd read about San Telmo market which is held only on Sundays.  Have cab drop us at La Brigada for an easy walk.  Cab driver is uncomfortable leaving us at closed restaurant!  First we go to the covered market.  Able to use bathroom.  MJP gets dolce con con leche stuff.  It’s like anywhere else (people are people) with a South American tilt.  So cool!

·        We walk up and down street.  Debate buying a piece of art.  MJP gets custom key ring (I should have gotten one too) from guy who has 3 tools to his name -- everything fits in a gym bag.  Feels extremely poor but well intentioned.  Sad that there aren't more job opportunities.  I get a BA beer mug that's hand made.  Safe.  Pleasant.  I’m extremely glad our schedule permitted going to this.   I’d been concerned it would be unsafe but absolutely NO issues at all.  Even police presence several places

·        Note.  Police every 2-3 blocks throughout sections of the city that we visit (other than bus ride).  Not clear if the city is unsafe and this is necessary or they’ve had a problem and are solving it like this, or they realize that tourism is so important!

·        Ride to ship at 3pm Mercedes limo arranged by hotel manager due to issues with HVAC. Very nice.  Despite it being Mercedes our luggage still a challenge.

·        On way out the door a staffer asked if car reservation was under Morris or Pollack while trying to verify that it was ready for us.  BUT MJP does not recall ever using her name at hotel.  Impressive!

·        After car drops us off, we are literally whisked through the port including private immigration line and them holding the check in line for us!  Again, impressive.

·        On board, our steward Susan says howdy but also that she’s leaving and doesn’t really know name of replacement.  Never does the “soap ceremony”

·        All luggage arrives. We note that they have LOTS of passports in hand already.  Are we among the last to arrive.  Later Jim and Sari say they’d gone to San Telmo and STILL arrived for lunch.

·        We have a quart of rum and bottle of wine.  I never open the rum.  I only touch it to make it safe during motion

·        Unpack.  Walk in closet is smaller than it looked!  There’s a place for everything but it’s tight.

·        Instead of dinner we go to the super bowl party.  They have food and drink, including special Patriots or Rams colored drinks.  Food is relatively boring -- we should realize that this is a warning of things to come.  That and the drinks.  In bed by 11

·        Ship has given us each 300 free minutes of internet.