Day 24

Day 24  January 27, 2008   

 

     There is an old saying "you can never go home again…"  It is sort of a sad expression that life goes on, people and places change, and one can never rediscover lost youth.  We  take a different approach. We return to Paris and Mazatlan, enjoying both the changes and the memories.  So in this trip we went back to several places to see if they were as good as we thought the first time, or perhaps even better the second time. 

     OK, so we were wrong about the beaches in Uruguay. In an earlier blog we said they were rocky and not nearly as nice as Hawaii.  This morning we walked a different direction and discovered miles of beautiful white sand beaches.  They were full of people playing, sunning and drinking mate.  We came upon a group of people playing Beach Hand Ball, and the action was fast.  It was fun to watch and try to capture the action in a photo with sand flying and the ball going into the net for a goal. Gail struck up a conversation with a man from NYC who was home to deal with a family emergency.  He loves his homeland, but is glad he can live and work in America.

     The photo of the day is the man sitting on the bulkhead of the beach and drinking his mate. We learned that sharing your mate is a token of good manners, fraternity and peace. People all sip out of the same straw and pass the cup around. We were offered the drink on several occasions and managed a polite "no thank you".  Mate is supposed to be good for your health. Since when is sharing germs good for one's health? Gail tried to catch several people in candid poses with their mate cups and then we had to catch a taxi to head to the dock and board the boat.

     We took a slow boat ride back to Buenos Aires and are now peacefully settled back in the Plaza Marriott. The hotel is as good as last time. Gail had fun spending our remaining pesos from Uruguay in the duty free shops on the Buquebus. While we enjoyed our time in Uruguay, we were excited to see the skyscrapers of Buenos Aires. Our hotel is in a great neighborhood in a fantastic city. Now what to do?  We read the newspapers and see that Obama trounced Hillary.  That is good.  We watched the weather channel and see that it is still freezing everywhere north of California.  I guess we will have to go out and enjoy the 85 degree evening.

       It is easy to develop a passion for fine dining as we are surrounded with sophisticated cuisine options everywhere we turn. We returned to the Ligure as we had the best meals of the trip there.  We were not disappointed, the second time was even better. We are still having a great time in this cosmopolitan city and are not ready to come back to the cold.  And we have not been sick even one day.  This is a great place to travel. And, yes, we do plan to come back again.