February 9 – Buenos Aires

February 9, 2017 – Buenos Aires, Argentina
We arrived in BsA at 7am. Once again we are docked in an operating port so everyone needs to be bused out to the port terminal.
Some people are flying to Iguazu Falls today. They will get back around 11pm tonight. Iguazu Falls are beautiful but this is an exhausting trip. I saw Iguazu in 2004 so I decided to skip this tour.
I did a tour called Gaucho Life in the Pampas. We rode on the bus for 11/2 hours to get to the estancia. We stopped on the way for a restroom break. There was a beautiful parrot in the store.
At the estancia we watched the gauchos parade their horses around. Then they put little rings at the end of a leather strip and quickly rode their horses to try to pick off the ring with a silver pick. They were successful 40% of the time. After this some people rode horses and the rest of us went through the original estancia house which is now a museum. Outside the estancia house there was a tree that was populated with parakeets.
We were given glasses of red wine (malbec) and empanadas for a snack. After an hour we were taken into the dining room. Bottles of malbec and beer were laid out on every table. They brought us bowls of 3 different salads to share. Next they brought out chorizo sausages followed by blood sausages. Only a few eople tried the blood sausage. Next was a cut of beef they call chorizo which is ok but not the best cut. We all tried it with chimichurri sauce. Next was chicken. Finally they brought out the lomo. This is the best cut of steak. Yum. Yum. For dessert we had flan with dulce de leche.
The last hour was a show of singing and dancing. They did songs and gaucho dances but also included some tangoes.
We got back to the ship at 5pm. At 9:30pm there was a tango and gaucho show. It was much better than the show at the estancia.