Fair winds!

This is an auspicious day because we start our Antarctic season, here in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This amazing city gets it’s name from early sailors when describing the good or fair winds blowing in the area, which allowed them to reach the coast (Buenos Aires in Spanish literally means “Good Airs”). The Fram has spent the last 18 days crossing the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to here.

So why is “BA” so amazing? Where do you start? Maybe with a superlative: it is the second biggest city in South America and that is saying something! With around 16 million people it is actually one of the largest cities in the world. Your faithful blogger comes from Canada and half the population of my country lives in this place, as does a little less than half the population of Argentina itself! You get a feeling of the size when you drive from one side to the other- a trip that can take easily over an hour even when the traffic is good. As with many Latin American cities there is a wide range of wealth amongst the people living here. Many move to BA from the countryside to get a job or better their life, but end up squatting in barrios or shanty towns like are to be found right next to the richer parts of the city.

Casa Rosada (Pink House). The Presidential Palace.

Buenos Aires is a city of trees, parks, birds, buildings, restaurants, steak, cars, people, Evita, shops, culture, coffee, matte…. you could go on! At this time of year the Jacaranda trees are in bloom with their amazing purple flowers (and no leaves at this time of year). The Jacaranda almost became the national tree of Argentina,  but the beautiful red Ceibo beat it out. Neighbouring Uruguay also has the Ceibo as it’s national tree, as you learned from our last blog entry.

Jacaranda in full bloom

Ceibo- we couldn't resist showing this beautiful flower again!

Our passengers boarded Fram in the middle of the afternoon and settled in quickly to life on board. The winds were blowing hard at the time and whipped up coastal seas nearby. Our departure from the harbour required mandatory help from two pilots, one for the harbour and one for the Rio de la Plate (River Plate). Here they are modelling our blue jackets. They were very proud of them.

Our two pilots for Buenos Aires and the Rio de la Plata

The Fram alongside in Buenos Aires

Boarding- Exciting times!!!

So we are off on our first adventure in the southern hemisphere for the 2014-15 season. No one can predict what we will see and experience. In a big way, this an important part of exhibition cruising. Next stop: the Falkland Islands in three days!

A wonderful tour comes to its end

We spent our last day of our Atlantic crossing in Montevideo, Uruguay. One day for this wonderful country is of course not enough, but we got at least a good impression of Montevideo and its surroundings.

Montevideo

FriedaPhoto: Monumento La Carreta

FriedaPhoto: Dogsitting

Palacio Legislativo

Palacio Legislativo

Palacio Legislativo

Many passengers explored Montevideo on their own as the ship lay quite near to the historical city. Others went on a full day excursion to see a bit more of Uruguay. It was amazing to see all the flowering plants and listen to the singing birds after all this days at sea. It’s just springtime in South America, perhaps the nicest time of the year to watch birds. South America is very famous for its huge variation of birds and flowers, and we got at least a glimpse of it.

FriedaPhoto: Ovenbird

FriedaPhoto: Monk parakeet

Martin Overbuschmann: Green-barred Woodpecker

Martin Overbuschmann: Chalk-browed Mockingbird

Who hides here?

FriedaPhoto: A Kiskedee

FriedaPhoto: National Tree of Uruguay and Argentina, Ceibo

FriedaPhoto: Acca sellowiana

Amaryllis

Hibiscus

The excursion ended in a winery where we got the possibility to taste different whines in a combination with a typical South American lunch. It was a little bit a pity that the weather was not nice enough to have the BBQ outside, but the grilled meat, different sausages and vegetables tasted inside as well. Tango dancers made our dessert even sweater.

Lunch at the winery

Our last evening ended up in an enjoyable Halloween party together with the crew.

Tomorrow morning we have to say good bye to new friends. Nobody wants really to go home – here in the southern hemisphere we have the late springtime, nearly summer, but at home the darkness of November with its wet and cold weather is waiting for us. Some passengers made the right decision; they stay just on board to see the springtime on the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctica.

Penguins! Here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A view from horizon to horizon

Today it’s our 17^th day on board MS FRAM and at the same time our last sea day. Tomorrow we will reach Montevideo and the day after we will leave the ship in Buenos Aires to fly home again. With the exception of the day in Mindelo (Cape Verde) and Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) we had “only” sea days. In the last blogs we tried to show that these days have not been boring at all. We had different daily programs and there was always something to do. But there is something very special and unique on a crossing over the Atlantic. Every day you have the view from horizon to horizon. Nothing disturbs your observation. From the sunrise in the morning to the sunset in the evening, your sight is free. Day by day you feel more relaxed and it looks like that sea days are perhaps the best holiday days you can have.

The following pictures give you hopefully a little impression about the magic of clouds, sunsets and sunrises – and of course the moon.

View out of the plane on the way to Las Palmas