3 ports in one post today 🙂 .  The reason for this is that all of them are on, or near, the River Plate and I spent 3 days transiting in and out of these ports with the consequent high number of hours on the Bridge.  I write now as we make our way towards the Falkland Islands and the relief of a ‘sea day’.  The River Plate is shallow, the navigable channel some 150 miles long and has depths that does not lend itself to high-speed transits.  It takes 12 hours to steam to Buenos Aires and 12 hours out again, after 12 hours in port.  A great deal of Bridge work, long hours as a result.  Punta Del Este is a city on the north side of the river estuary and, for us at least, an anchorage and tender call, 1.6 miles to the pier.  The wind was forecast to increase during the day, (it did), consequently I stayed on board.  Photographs are therefore few, (2 actually :-)) 

Having heaved up our anchor, we dashed across the Plate estuary towards Buenos Aires.  We were fortunate, our Argentine pilots had boarded in Punta del Este, so there was no necessity to slow down as passed the pilot embarkation point.  The majority of the channel is narrow, however there are 1 or 2 ‘passing’ places where inbound and outbound vessels can meet; the shallower draft ships can also move out of the channel for us, this is Car Carrier obliging.

 Heading west, into the setting sun

 Nearly 12 hours later, we neared the harbour of Buenos Aires. 

The wind had increased during the night and was nearing 30 knots, (33 mph) from the north; right on our beam and we concentrated keeping in the (even narrower) channel as we neared the harbour basin. 

Turning to the north when inside, we had a brief respite, however the turn to the berth again put the wind on the beam; switching to ‘joystick’, I waited until the Bridge was almost past our dock, knowing that when we turned, we could go sideways like a train, not a pleasant thought.  Using a great deal of power we entered the basin, gradually losing some of the wind, the containers on the dock obliging as a wind-break.

Despite the hours, the opportunity to go shore was tempting, I might never come here again and so I joined #2 tour, Highlights of Buenos Aires.

The bus took on a sightseeing tour of the city, before our first stop, the Cemetery of Recolata, a tourist destination in its own right, not least being the site of Eva Peron’s mausoleum.

Then to Recolata.  One has to be reasonably wealthy to’rest’here. There are people who ‘care take’, looking after the buildings.  Families have relatives buried there too,several generations.

Then onto the main square of the ‘Old’ Buenos Aires, the area which was first settled.

Then on to Caminto, gloriously colourful, in La Boca, an area which was settled by immigrants (and was once the main port of Buenos Aires).  We passed some magnificent murals, painted on the ‘side wall’ of apartment blocks.

 Then Caminto itself:-

Off for lunch and a superb Tango show, before returning to the ship.

An long overnight journey, back down the River Plate channel and our next destination, Montevideo.

A relatively small harbour, it’s a tight fit for the “Amsterdam”.

Just outside the north breakwater is a ‘graveyard’ of small ships in various states of disrepair…..

 I had to catch up on ‘affairs of state’ and grab a quick nap, the ladies however were off ashore, so ‘roving reporter’ photos from them.

1100 miles to our south lies our next destination and after that, Antarctica, the most beautiful place on earth, (in my opinion at least).  I can’t wait to send some photographs to you.  It may be a while though, satellite communication, (the means by which I send you my posts), is not reliable in such southerly latitudes, fingers crossed.