Time Flys When You Are Having Fun

I can't believe it has been a month since I have posted anything about my days on the Odyssey. I haven't taken a lot of pictures - but I can blame it on Sea Days. Out of the last 28 days we have spent 11 of them out at sea. You would think "Boring", but not at all. The days/evenings are filled with things like:

A Mexican Train Domino tournament. We started out with 4 tables of 7 players at each table. The first round covered 2 days with 2 tables playing either in the afternoon or after dinner. We each put in our $5 ante. After all 4 games had been played, then on the 5th day, the top 7 winners of each initial round played against each other. Last place winner of this game received their $5 back. Winner took home 90% of the pot and 2nd place got 10%. I, sad to say, did not make it to the final round.

A Wine Tasting. Initially a small group of wine lovers formed a group which we called the Wine Tribe. At each port we would try to find a wine shop or vineyard that would do a wine tasting for us. There have been several of us gathering for these investigating searches. I actually found a lovely Rose that I never expected to like. Brought a bottle back home.

At one of our stops in Argentina, the Tribe decided that there were so many good Argentine red wines that we should have our own tasting. One of our Odyssey Founders has a large cabin and balcony and they offered to host. We (all 19 of us) were requested to drop off an Argentine Red, as well as something else to share (cheese, chocolate, chips, etc) the day before the tasting. Our hosts put all the wines in bags and on a beautiful Sea Day, we enjoyed all 19 different Argentine wines and, of course, evaluated each and every one.. OMG. We are awaiting our next monthly tasting to learn the results of this one.

Entertainment. We have an amazing group of talented singers on the ship. As well as talented actors, musicians, and people with amazing careers. We recently had a Talent Show with 10 residents performing, under the direction of another one of the residents - a couple of singers, a clarinetist, piano player, and hula dancers (obviously from Hawaii). I just learned this week that we have 2 Nobel Prize winners on board and we recently had an Apollo astronaut stay with us as a potential Villa owner. About once a week we have The Speakers Corner. Sometimes it is a resident talking about what they did in their career, or how to take better pictures with your i-phone, or what to see and do in the next port we are visiting.

Solo Get Togethers. Every month, the Entertainment Director announces that all the Solo Travelers can get together in the Morning Lounge (we call it the Living Room) for cocktails and conversation. I would guess that 40% of us are singles. We have our share of Gay couples and even a female impersonator (his 92 year old mother is in the villa next to me). And it turns out, they are my favorite people.

Well, enough about my life at Sea. We have travelled from the southern most point of South America, and are now moving up the east coast of South America. We have visited Southern Argentina, Uruguay, then back to the northern part of Argentina, and now Brazil (which is a huge country) where we will spend almost a month visiting 11 different cities. At least, up until now, most places I could speak a little of my high school Tex-Mex Spanish but not any more. Not a clue how to say anything in Portuguese. Tried to say Thank You and they just smiled.

Montevideo, Uruguay was a fascinating city. Amazing facts from our guide. Small historic country.

• Came into existence when Brazil & Argentina argued over who should own a huge bay which would control the shipping. Britain finally came in and they all agreed to form a new neutral country and every country could use the port.

• Extremely liberal country -

  • Almost no religion. Nothing of religion is allowed in state offices. Over 50% of the populous is either agnostic or atheist. We expected it to be a Catholic country.

  • President & legislature is elected every 5 years and not allowed to run for office a 2nd time. Every person MUST vote or be fined.

  • Most young people do not marry until their mid 30's - when they want to start having children (or their parents want grandchildren).

  • First country in South America to allow Gay Marriage and Transgender surgeries.

• The story behind the Fence (pictured below). Our guide explained that there are many many parks around Uruguay and we saw a lot of them during our tour around downtown Montevideo. He said that if we asked a local where Park XYZ (using the name of the on-the-visitor map) was, they would not know. That is because every Park has a local "nickname" and that is all they know. Then he told us the story of the fence around this particular park. It wasn't very big or beautiful but it has a very unique nickname. And the story goes.... years ago the government of Uruguay hired a Frenchman to design a beautiful fence around a new park. About half way through the design of the fence, the government told the Frenchman that they were cutting his payment in half. (No one remembers why). The Frenchman was naturally furious and vowed to get even. He would not show the design to anyone and the first anyone saw it was on the day of the unveiling around the park. It is now known as the Penis Park. Look closely. The French do know how to get even.

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These are pictures of our tour of downtown Montevideo. 1) Street art 2) The tallest building in Uruguay 3) Presidential office. Open to anyone who wants to come in 4) Revitalized area with tribute to soccer hero, Lionel Messi, 5) The Pink Palace which houses the Government offices. The statue is a of a hero. But what was interesting is all the stones below the statue. Each one has a name and sometimes a date of birth & death or just the date of death. They are the stones of rememberance of those who died of Covid in Montevideo. He said that most cities in Uruguay have memorials like this remembering those who died from Covid. Over 100,000 people lost their life in this small country. 6) The National Theater with a lantern atop that shines red when there is a performance that day. 7) A close up of the Covid stones.

And then we had a wonderful long visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Pictures: 1 & 2) We heard there was a Racetrack & Casino in town. So, here we go. The Track was beautiful. But, I had to have Argentine Pesos to play slot machines. And they would not change my US$ to Pesos nor did the US credit card work in the ATM. And on top of that, after the Racing started (2:30-9:30pm), the bars closed so we couldn't even get a drink! 3 & 4) We hired a 30 ft sailboat to take 5 of us out for a sunset sail on the widest river in the world. It was a beautiful night for a sail. They too, never mentioned that neither wine nor beer were provided. 5) After a day of touristing, we found a lovely place to stop for an ice cold beer and a deep-fried Brie empanada. The other one was a beef empanada, but the Brie one was the very best. 6) Buenos Aires Cathedral was simple but very impressive. 7 & 8) Our last night in Buenos Aires: an Argentine Ribeye Steak, a Patagonian beer and a bottle of wine. What could be better. We were recommended to go to this neighborhood Bodego for dinner but to share the dinner because the servings were big. Thank goodness we listened. We received bread before dinner, had the beer, the platter came with 2 of these steaks on it with a bed of french fries, and then the bottle of wine. We each paid US$22 for our dinner. 9) A last look at Buenos Aires before the sun set.

Well, that is it for today. Thanks for reading.