Around South America in 80 Days

February 19, 2019

Buenos Aires, Argentina

I know where yarn heaven is and it is on Avenida Raul Scalabrini Ortiz in Buenos Aires!

One of the women in our Stitchers group kept mentioning the wonderful yarn stores in Buenos Aires. I did some research on the internet and found that this street is the “yarn district” of Buenos Aires. There are yarn stores one after another for a few blocks.

Pat, Sherita, and I had made plans to meet at 8 am (!!) to go shopping. The stores open at 8:30. They changed some money in the terminal (the terminal ATM would not work either) and then we got a taxi for the ride to Av. Raul Scalabrini Ortiz.

It took about 20 minutes ($15 but we were likely overcharged) and we got out at one of the stores. We walked two block and saw at least a dozen yarn shops – we didn’t even go another block where there was supposed to be more stores! We went into at least 10 and all bought some yarn. I bought about 5 kilos of various yarns and spent about $50 – it was such an amazing buy.

We hailed another taxi and all went well until we were a couple of miles from port when he got into a huge traffic jam (we later learned there was a demonstration that tied up the roads). When we were a little more than a mile from the ship, the taxi overheated and we had to get out. It was about 11:20 by then and Sherita still had to get back for her excursion. We decided to walk since the traffic was going nowhere. It was very hot and we had to walk at least a mile (I am going to check the actual distance tomorrow).

We got back in time for Sherita’s excursion but Pat and I were dripping wet. We stopped at the little café in the terminal and got a cold drink and sat for about an hour before heading back to the ship.

Lunch in the Lido (after taking a good look at my purchases!) and then Pat and I worked on her knitting before afternoon trivia. A number of people were still off the ship so we teamed up with one of our neighboring teams. We had 15 out of 19 but the winners had 18.

1) Absolut vodka comes from which country?

2) Who played the Scarecrow in the 1978 movie “The Wiz”?

3) What was the name of the first Pope?

4) In what country was Russell Crowe born?

5) What is the fastest creature on two legs?

I ate early with Sherita, Jim, and Roy. I had crostini, a salad, beef stroganoff, and a sundae for dessert.

Chris and Pat played trivia with us again. Winners had 18 out of 19 but we only had 15.

1) What city is the culinary capital of New Zealand?

2) Name the large US city that was hit by 16 earthquakes registering between 3 and 5 between 1980 and 1995?

3) In what country was Trivial Pursuit first sold?

4) Who was the first person to see Jesus after he left the tomb?

5) Fender and Gibson are types of what?