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January 17 - Buenos Aires Another lovely day in Buenos Aires. We had breakfast in the Executive Lounge at the Hilton, then headed downstairs to check in with the Viking Desk. We are on the third bus tomorrow morning so we don’t have to be downstairs for breakfast until 4:15 am. Thank heavens we're not on the first bus! We walked down to meet our Iconic Buenos Aires walking food tour at 12:30. It was a wonderful food tour. Our guide took us around the neighborhood to visit some of the historic buildings in San Telmo. Then we went to the Public Market area. Our first stop was at the El Horneros shop for empanadas and local beer. After this delicious tasting, we went outside of the market to a wonderful wine shop where we were introduced to three Argentinian wines - a Mastaba Torrentes from Stone Winery in Salta, a Malbec from Mendoza and a Cabernet Franc from Mendoza. Each was excellent. The tastings were accompanied by a selection of regional cheese. Following this relaxing tasting, we returned to the market to enjoy choripán, a wonderful chorizo sandwich with a nice salsa mayo. I had a glass of Malbec, Mike had another local beer. Following this, we headed over to another market stall for steak, fries, and grilled provoleta (grilled provolone with oregano and olive oil). With this, I had another glass of Malbec and Mike had another local beer. We were stuffed, but it was time to go to another stall for yerba mate and alfajor, a lovely cookie filled with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate. Our guide prepared the yerba mate in a ceremonial way - it was delicious and relaxing. Our last stop was at an ice cream shop that was outside the market. I had a dulce de leche ice cream and Mike had dulce de leche and chocolate negro. It was the perfect sweet ending to our Argentinean food tour. I highly recommend this excellent walking food tour if you find yourself in Buenos Aires! After stuffing ourselves all afternoon, we headed back to the hotel about 5:30. We went to the happy hour at the executive lounge, but found that we were too stuffed to have more than a sip of wine. We put our large bag out to be collected by Viking and decided to watch a bit of TV before we turn in for our early morning charter flight to our expedition ship.

Mausoleo del Jose de San Martin - Liberator of Chile and Argentina

The Cathedral of Buenos Aires - the parish church of Pope Francis

Nothing beats lunch at Cafe Tortoni!

January 16 - Buenos Aires, Argentina I am so glad that we have a couple of days in Buenos Aires before we head out on the charter flight. I can’t imagine flying in tomorrow exhausted and having to wake up before dawn to make a charter. I loved the lazy day we had today. Up at 8:00 am, breakfast, then out to sightsee on our own by 11:00. This is a nostalgia visit for me. 50 years ago this month, I spent a month in Argentina. I stayed with a family in LaPlata. They took me around LaPlata, Buenos Aires, their family estancia in Puan, Argentina (in the Pampas), to the seaside resort of Mar del Plata, and to the Andes to camp near Bariloche. It was a dream trip staying with a wonderful family. Somehow, over the years, I lost touch with them. I am still trying my best to reach any of the family members, but alas, my efforts have failed to date. Today, as we walked to the Casa Rosada, the Cathedral, and to Cafe Tortoni, I remembered my visits, having my husband take photos of me at the same iconic spots. I especially enjoyed our lunch at Cafe Tortoni, although I must admit, the cafe doble seemed better in 1973, Maybe my tastebuds have deadened a bit. I loved being back in the city today with my husband (I was engaged to him when I visited last), but it is bittersweet to not be able to connect with the wonderful family I stayed with back then. Me at the Casa Rosada - 50 years after my first visit in January 1973!

Our suite closet Ok, I don’t think I brought enough clothes! And I won’t even bother you with photos of the two bathrooms!

Our suite bedroom

Our suite living room

January 15 - Goodbye, Chile - Hello, Argentina! This morning, we decided to enjoy brunch at a spot not too far from our hotel. Our late afternoon flight to Buenos Aires meant we could take our time to pack up and have a late check-out. We had checked out a small bakery-cafe in a residential area near our hotel on one of our evening walks. It was a perfect spot to enjoy the cool morning breeze have a little something to eat since we knew we would probably skip lunch. After our brunch stop, we loaded up and we were headed to the airport about 1:00 pm. Since we had taken three private day tours while we were in the Santiago area or we walked throughout the Vitacura and Las Condes area, we hadn’t needed much public transportation. There is a modern Metro in Santiago, however. For our trip from the airport and to the airport, we used UBER. If I’d needed to go somewhere else, I definitely would have used UBER again because both times we did use it, a car was there within 2 or 3 minutes and the transaction was seamless. They knew where we needed to go and we knew the cost going in. Tonight, when we arrived in Buenos Aires at EZE, we also used UBER. Again, super simple and fast! Our flight on Latam from Santiago to Buenos Aires was good, too. I had purchased premium economy (the highest class on the aircraft). It’s similar to most European business class with the three seat row with the empty seat between. Even though it was a flight of less than 2 hours, they served sandwiches, chips, dessert and drinks. I had purchased the premium economy since I’m not a fan of planes with three and three seats. This solved that problem, even though the rows were still quite narrow. We booked two extra nights at the Buenos Aires Hilton - Viking already booked our night before the charter flight on Wednesday morning. Our surprise was at check-in when we were given a double upgrade to a corner suite. While the suite is a bit retro with a design circa 1980s-1990s, the space is unbelievable. Plus, it includes Executive Lounge privileges for breakfast and happy hour. And they said we didn’t need to change rooms for our Viking night - NICE! A Nice Way to Start our last day in Santiago

Next trip for sure!

Thanks, Clay. It’s been great so far. We are in Buenos Aires this evening. We do know we want to return to Chile though - so many more vineyards to explore. 😉

We are just leaving Santiago today to fly to Buenos Aires. We have used Chile Dream Tours the past few days for day-tours. We really have enjoyed being with their guide coordinator Sean. I’ve written about our experiences on the Viking Ocean Cruise Critic site.

Thanks. We’ve loved our stay in Chile, but it’s on to Buenos Aires this afternoon.

Enjoying your posts as a reminder of many of the sites we saw last month!

The Sauvignon Blanc vines at Casas del Bosque Winery

Our lunch spot

Just some of the fantastic street art

The Moai gift from Rapa Nui

It was a cool start to the morning along the coast to Valparaiso. It’s usually about 10 degrees cooler here than in Santiago.

January 14 We took another private tour today, this time to Valparaiso. Our tour guide drove us to the Northern edge of the bay (ConCon), then we worked our way along the nice beaches and rocky coves toward Vina del Mar, and finally reached Valparaiso. We stopped several times along the coastline to take photos, see the sea lions, and in Vina del Mar we went by the outside of the art museum to view the Moai that was a gift from the people of Rapa Nui. Since we weren’t going to be able to make it to Easter Island this trip, it was nice to see an artifact from that island. Once we made it to Valparaiso proper, we took one of the funiculars up where we began our walking tour. There was vibrant street art, colorful flowers, and unique architecture around every corner! Even the stairs leading from one level to another were colorful. Our guide had reserved a wonderful view table at a great seafood restaurant for our lunch. We shared their appetizer specialty - razor clams topped with Parmesan, then I had a local fish with a butter and caper sauce and roasted potatoes with rosemary and Mike had a seafood risotto. Mike had another Chilean beer and I had a pisco sour. After our relaxing lunch, we headed back toward Santiago with a stop in the Casablanca Valley for a wine tour and tasting at Casas del Bosque Winery. They specialized more in white wines since this valley has cooler temperatures than the Maipo Valley near Santiago or the Aconcaqua Valley we visited yesterday. It was fun to experience yet another collection of wines with a different style tasting presentation. Then it was back to Santiago where we decided to get in one more long neighborhood walk before the evening ended.

Porcione de Humitas

Pastel de Chocios

Wine tasting at Errazuriz Winery

Errazuriz Winery

Our view as we were wine tasting at In Situ (San Esteban) Winery