Then we drove over it, twice. The second time, our bus driver went about as fast as he dared, laughing. You want to hear a bunch of geezers giggle? We visited some excellent viewpoints and passed the famous La Mano, on the beach.
Finally, a stop at a quaint little automobile museum that was installed in the basement garage of a former gas station. Nothing fancy here, but hey, we're car guys so we had to go.
And then onward to Montevideo, Uruguay. This is an upcoming urban area, again, condos, restaurants...reminded us of Florida.
We visited the local agricultural market and then the new Ferrando market, which is located in a former furniture factory on a residential back street, and given over to mostly gourmet goodies. We were hosted by the manager and treated to churros and fresh orange juice. Delicious. But then, our guide introduced us to the Uruguay/Argentina national tea, or rather, national habit. This is the famous "mate" or "yerba mate". What you do is put a whole bunch of this crushed up herb in a special, leather-covered cup, then add warm water to fill. A very special straw that resembles a perferated spoon is then inserted and handed, if to welcome someone, with the straw facing the individual who is to sip. The sipper, if uninitiated, then takes a small sip and says: "Yuck! This stuff is terrible!". And indeed it is. But it's like coffee to them, and they carry their mate setup around with them just like we drag our thermos of Starbucks all over the place.
Montevideo, for some reason, is home to a whole lot of shipwrecks. All sitting in the bay...
The final destination for this segment was Buenos Aires, Argentina. Here, we took the good old "highlights" tour to get the overview. A famous area of town is La Boca, originally settled by Italians. El Caminito Street is especially colorful.
Finally, no trip to Argentina could be complete without a visit to the Recoleta Cemetery. All above ground, although many of the tombs have basements where the caskets or urns are actually stored.
Here, we visit Evita Peron's grave. Our guide warned us not to be disappointed. You'd expect some fabulous gravesite, but in fact, she's entombed with the rest of her family Duarte. Still, the people love her and leave flowers and gifts, and there is always a line to pass by.
After disembarking the ship, we were headed to the next great adventure, Iguazu Falls. We were unsure of what we were about to see...
