MONTEVIDEO

Uruguay now. The River Plate estuary near Montevideo was the setting for the first naval battle of WW2 in 1939. The Graf Spee, a pocket battleship, had been sinking commercial shipping & was being hunted by 3 cruisers, 2 English & 1 NZ. It was a complicated battle with cruisers heavily outgunned, 11inch to 8inch with greater range & shells weighing twice as much. The cruisers were faster & more manouervable. The cruisers took a lot of damage but in turn damaged Graf Spees fuel system that converted crude oil for use in its deisel engines. The GS moored in Montevideo but had not enough time for repair & did not have the range to return to Germany. The captain scuttled the Graf Spee & then committed suicide. The anchor is from the GS. Montevideo is a nice town, town. The big building is Palacio Salvo, which used to be the tallest in S America at 100m with a lighthouse that can be seen from 100km. There was a sale on so I bought a couple to bring home for Xmas presents. Also saw humming birds in the city squares.

BA - PUERTA MADERO

Madero is a former commercial dock that has been transformed into an up market commercial and apartment district. It has nice restaurants & hotels & is very close to the cruise port. We took a cab down to the centre for 7 USD. The pink building is Casa Rosada, a government building, where Evita used to speak. There are lots of public spots where you can rent electric scooters, which is a good way of getting about as there are loads of good cycle paths.

OTHER STUFF IN BA

Never got on to see our colon, fully booked. Did go into El Ateneo, which is a very grand theatre, converted to a book shop. We had tea on the stage. The big chrome thing is Floralis. It is a piece of art about 60 feet high, follows the sun & opens & shuts it's petals. Finally, we went for the big Argy steak, 1 1/2 inches thick cooked on BBQ grill. You just have to do it - very nice too. The currency is a pain here, raging inflation, can't get it before you arrive. Did discover that you can shop in Coto supermarket, pay in US Dollars & get change in peso. Food is good & pretty cheap. Transport is excellent but you need to have travel card as no cash accepted.

TWO FOR CHRIS

Not everything is sweetness & light in the cemetery. Johnny B Scannavino's lintel has come crashing down on the path. Couple of cwt  on your head would do you no good at all. There are also the low end crypts where you have to use the step ladder & manhandle the coffin in. Some are in complete disrepair with rubbish just packed inside while others are immaculate inside & out.

ONE FOR CHRIS

Recoleta cemetery in B Aires. Fantastic place, the mausaleums, statuary & artwork are something to see. Evita "lives" here, although she was first buried anonymously in Italy for fears that political opponents would use her in some way. The young girl was killed in avalanche in Austria just after her wedding. Family didn't want stone sculpture 'cos of association with the avalanche, do used bronze.  Dog died shortly afterwards. Ida's dropped her flowers.

PLANNING FOR FAILURE

Just in case COVID19 thwarts our journey plans we decided to try and get Japan done early by a visit to the local Japanese park. The Japs are so efficient - they change date in the floral planting every day - they let you know what your UV exposure is. The Japanese grub was good even if cutting up your fish with chopsticks was difficult. Good value here in BA as well. That meal for 2 was 25 quid, we also bought 2 bottles of wine for £2.50 in the local supermarket and 2 coffees with cake for £3. Try to get that in Enfield. Tomorrow we are going to try to into the colon!

I'VE STARTED, SO....

I'm finished, so is Lin. Run to airport was good, apart from taxi driver falling asleep. Problem with British Airways, they had overbooked the flight, so swapped to a larger aircraft & seat numbers didn't correspond. This made boarding really slow and the 2 sweet seats I had booked and paid for turned in a cramped 3 seat where the outside person had sleeping sickness, no locker storage & had luggage all over the place, including on her lap. Net result we could never get out of our seats. Nightmare on 14 1/2 hour flight. Good news was we saw the last episode of The Confession which had been taken off of catch-up. Food indifferent on plane, didn't get much sleep. Landed on time but there was so much congestion in arrivals that shut off access to passport control. So, 2 hours after landing we finally got out. Buenos Aires seems very nice where we are, the hotel room is great, it's conveniently located to things we want to do & the port. It's hot 31 Celsius, 88 F for our US friends, but we chilled with beer & Argy beef at a pavement cafe & visited where Evita is resting. We are so tired that it's bedtime at 7pm, better shape 2morrow. Just watched Goobers live on TV - what a shambles. Just had a dulce de leche croissant & coffee to caffeine & sugar rush us to alerthood. It's not worked.