Tango, Salsa & Samba Voyage Cruise
on the Azamara Pursuit
12/8/19 to 12/21/19

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Page 1 – Pre-Cruise in Buenos Aires, Embarkation & Ship
Page 2 – Cabin, Dining, Activities, Entertainment Ports of Call: Montevideo, Uruguay
Page 3 - Ports of Call: Sao Paulo (Santos), Brazil; Parati, Brazil; Buzios, Brazil
Page 4 - Ports of Call: Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Page 5 - Ports of Call: Punta Del Este, Uruguay

Ports of Call (Continued)

Punta del Este, Uruguay

After two days at sea, I was ready for our last port stop. This would be my second port stop at Punta Del Este, but the first time that I would get to go ashore. On my first South America cruise, I was sick and couldn’t go on the ship tour we had scheduled. It was the only time that I had ever missed visiting a port where the ship visited. This is a very popular resort area with lots of hotels and condos lining the beaches. The weather for the day was supposed to be great in the morning, but rain was expected after noon. We hoped that it would hold off until after our ship tour. This was also a tender port, which worked out quite well, since it gave me the opportunity to get the best photo of the Pursuit during the cruise that I was able to use on the front of the review. The tender we used was one that is more of a tour boat that is docked in Punta del Este. It had a large open seating area on the top of the boat. The best part was that we were anchored about five minutes from the dock. Too easy!

For this tour we were on a big bus, which is not my favorite type of touring; but for this tour it worked out just fine. Our tour guide was a local named Rosalia. She was a very nice and happy person, who provided us with great info about Punta del Este.

Our first stop was not far away at a scenic viewing spot. We were able to see a rocky shoreline, where parts of the Graff Spee wreck had washed up; as well as a nice view of the beach area.

There were some interesting mosaic paintings on the ground.

Our next stop was at the most popular photo stop on the peninsula, La Mano (The Hand) statue on the beach. It is also called The Fingers and the Monument to the Drowning Man. The statue was completed in 1982 and has become the symbol for Punta del Este. It is quite a unique statue. It was difficult to take photos without people in the photo, but they probably made the photos even more interesting. The thumb seemed to be a popular photo opp. Bob climbed up to the tip of it for a photo and Paul and Gail stood in front of it.

There are some large hotels and other monuments across from the beach.

Our next stop was at a most unusual looking pair of bridges. It is the Leonel Viera Bridge, which is stressed ribbon bridge. It was built in 1965 and was the first of this type bridge ever built. I’ve never seen one like it. We were able to walk under one of the bridges to get in between them.

The next stop was our primary destination for the tour, the Ralli Museum. This was the first of the five Ralli Museums around the world. These museums focus on Latin American artists and modern art. Modern art isn’t one of my favorite types; but this museum is one of Punta del Este’s most popular attractions.

Rosalia told us to be sure to go into the courtyard to see the sculpture garden, so that was the first place I went. As I walked outside, the yard was full of beautiful black statues. I had to walk around to see them all. Just a fascinating exhibit.

Around the outside wall were small statues behind glass. As I read the signs on the walls, some of them were Dali originals. The reflection on the glass made it difficult to get photos, but I still want to show some of them.

There were some larger ones along the wall that weren't behind glass.

I then went back into the building to see the other artwork. The building itself was quite attractive with the many arches. I also liked how the building had a very open uncluttered feel to it. The artwork was most beautiful and interesting. Quite different from the more traditional art museums I had visited in the past.

The building also had a lower level that I was able to look down to; but I didn't have enough time to be able to check out the exhibits down there.

In one section they had a Marc Chagall display that was a temporary exhibit borrowed from one of their museums in Israel.

I went upstairs to see the displays up there. I liked how I could look down onto the paintings I had just seen, but from a different angle. They also had some unusual looking brightly colored statues.

At one spot, I could look out to a patio with more of the black statues that I hadn’t previously seen.

I had really enjoyed visiting the Ralli museum. It was much nicer than I had expected. Our last stop on the tour was to Casapueblo, the home of artist Carlos Vilaro. We could only get a view of the home from a distance, which looked to be quite an awesome place. Our tour did not get to visit the home, but some of the other ship tours did. In the first photo, you can see how far away we were from it.

The road where we parked was at the end of a peninsula. It was quite a pretty place. To one side was a large beach. It is obvious, why the spot was chosen for the artist’s home.

When I got back to the ship, I took some more photos of the popular resort town, and a final one as we were leaving port.

I then headed back to the cabin to pack for my flight home the next day.

Disembarkation

With Azamara, disembarkation is just too easy. They tell you the time window for when you are to leave the ship and you can go pretty much whenever you want to. It was even easier, since we didn’t have to go through immigration there. We had arranged transfers with the fellow that had provided a tour to our group before I got to town. He easily found us. Paul and Gail had an earlier flight, so they took one van to the airport. Bob and Holly were spending the night at Hotel Madero, where we stayed at before the cruise, so we went there to drop off our luggage. We didn’t have any firm plans for sightseeing, except that we were going to go back to the San Telmo area to find the larger market that we couldn’t find during the earlier stay. We did find it and it was quite a large market in an old metal building. It could have used some TLC, but the metal work was quite pretty.

Much of the market was a food court, but there were many other stores that appeared to be more for locals than for tourists.

On the way back to the hotel, I took a photo of an interesting statue of people dragging a stone. It was in front of some government buildings.

I used the same transfer company that I used when I arrived in Buenos Aires, Manuel Tienda Leone, to go back to the airport. They arrived a little bit early and we headed to the airport. With it being a Saturday afternoon, the traffic was great. Since the American Airlines flight was being done on a Latam Air plane, the flight was leaving from the new terminal. I was originally glad about that; but when I got inside the terminal and saw the very long lines everywhere, I was not happy.

I had gotten to the airport almost 4 hours early to allow plenty of time. Looking at the lines, I got a bit concerned. The lines to just use an American Airlines kiosk ran almost the whole length of the terminal. I had checked in online through the Latam site, since the AA site wouldn’t let me. But I still needed to print a luggage tag. While waiting in an information line, where the attendant never got off the phone or helped anyone, I noticed a small group of kiosks that had just a couple people in line. I checked them out and a couple of them serviced Latam. I was quickly able to print my luggage tag, but then had to figure out where to drop off the bag. There were long lines for every airline. I got in a line that looked like the correct one; but after a while, I realized I was in the wrong line. I moved to the correct one and only had to wait about a half hour to drop off the bag. The attendant told me to go up the escalator and go to the left for security. When I got to the top of the escalator, I saw a lot of people waiting in line for security. I was trying to find the end of it, when I realized that the line extended so far away that I couldn’t see then end of it. Good Grief! It extended to almost the end of the terminal.

This was not an enjoyable airport experience. I was so glad that I had plenty of time. I must say that the EZE airport security people did move the line through quite quickly, probably because they didn’t require shoes to be taken off or liquid to be disposed of. It only took a half hour to get through. Then I had another line for immigration. The whole process from entering the airport to getting through immigration took over 2 hours. But it was December 21 and there were lots of holiday travelers. When I got in the line to get on the airplane, everyone’s carryon had to be inspected. This was different, but they were pretty efficient at it. I was very glad to finally get on the plane and head for home.

Recap

With this being my first cruise traveling solo, I didn’t know what to expect. Since I had dear friends on board, it made it a most enjoyable cruise. The ship was great, and I will happily cruise with Azamara again. The small ports were better than expected; with Rio being totally awesome. I still can’t believe that we had such perfect weather for the whole cruise. I hope that I am as lucky with the many other adventures I have planned for 2020.