BUENOS AIRES

We picked up the Rio Plata pilot at 3 p.m., then it took until 8 the next morning to get to Buenos Aires.  The whole delta area is very shallow, and very muddy with all the flow from the rivers in central South America. 

Coast Guard watches our approach

It was a tight fit getting into the port… we were next to a COSCO container ship and there were three other cruise ships that day.  Chaos reigned in the terminal and on the street.

Luckily, we had picked a tour that took us out of the city.  We went through one of the older suburbs – San Isidro – stopping briefly at their cathedral before heading to Tigre port for a visit to the delta.

our tour boat

cruisers!

This is an area of islands where there are many homes, rowing clubs, parks, etc.  Although most of the city people visit on the weekends, there are people who live there permanently.  There’s regular mail deliveries, and groceries are sold from market boats that you signal by putting out a flag.

market boat

Boats come in all shapes and sizes (“paddlewheel” and catamaran tour boats, workboats with cranes for construction, garbage boats, water taxis, scheduled “bus” service that haul people and cargo… even down to kayaks and canoes.)

coast guard

artificial beach at delta hotel

On the way back we found we had made a good choice to avoid downtown… there were protests by conscripts who had been in the Falklands war and never got veterans status.   Our guide told us to avoid the main squares.

COSTCO Vietnam, fuel barge wait as Costa Fortuna passes

As we were leaving port, the captain announced that we were going to be part of an convoy of large ships.  The port groups traffic because the channel is so shallow they have to limit who can be inbound or outbound.    We were supposed to leave right behind the Costa Fortuna, but our fueling barge took forever to clear the berth…   (We did note that the Costa ship had two tugs attached, while we had none – perhaps a response to the recent grounding off Italy.)