Final sunset in Chile viewed from the plane.

Contrasts

Flying over the Andes.

Business class lounge

Enjoying hospitality as we wait to board Air Canada plane bound for Santiago, Chile and then on to Canada.

Lunch

After visiting the Recoleta Cemetary we stopped at a street cafe for lunch. Lunch companion was of course - a dog.

Brazilian embassy in Buenos Aires

Lions on guard.

Endless little streets in the city of the dead.

Guard cat.

Tomb of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak (1944-1970)

The most touching statue in the Cemetary, I think. The newly married 26 year old Lilianna was killed when avalanche struck her hotel in the Alps. The tomb was designed by her mother. When Lilianna's dog, Sabu died his bronze sauté was added. He is the lone dog in the Cemetary.

Evita

Eva Peron was born in The Pampas, rural Argentina in 1919, the youngest of 5 children. She moved to Buenos Aires when she was 15 to pursue a career in theatre. Married Colonel Juan Peron in 1944 who was elected President in 1946. For the next 6 years Evita (as she was fondly called) actively supported the unions speaking up for labour rights and championing women's suffrage. Cancer claimed her at 33 years.

Statuary

There are more than 4,700 family crypts in Recoleta Cemetery.

Tribute to an Italian immigrant

Angel

Many angels hover over the graves.

Cats in the Cemetary

Many cats guard the graves here and are fed by the custodians. 

Recoleta Cemetary

Strolling around the famous Recoleta Cemetary in Bunoes Aires.

Horses everywhere

Waiting for the elevator we encountered Black Beauty. I was surprised Dick didn't leap up on him.

Horse theme carried to the lobby

A Christmas tree in the lobby decorated with polo equipment.

The route home

Leaving Uruguay December 21st, we flew to Buenos Aires and put up at the Four Seasons as our flight to Santiago, Chile didn't  go until evening. The Four Seasons had a horse theme going.

Flowers

Everywhere flowers and flowering shrubs. 

La Paloma

The ever present dogs.  While we were having lunch across the street was a very lively little pug dog was being pampered by his family. No street dog him. Eventually he went inside the house and then appeared up on the roof garden. King of his domaine. Not nearly as interesting as the mongrels who walk the streets.

New bridge

Crossing the river we got a good view of the new bridge under construction.

Road trip to la Paloma

Before leaving Uruguay we drove along the coast to a small village, La Paloma. The road came to an abrupt end and we had to wait for this barge/ferry to come across to our side of the river. One car was driven off and we drove on. No cost involved.

Breads & pastries

Can't get by without the strings of garlic.

Oven at the French restaurant.

Herb & veggie garden

The French restaurant used fresh herbs from their garden.

Breakfast menu

We went to the French restaurant a couple of times for dinner and were taken with the waitress who reminded us of Gillian Misener in her mannerism and pleasant deportment. She spoke very little English but did yeoman's service helping us interpret the items on the menu. For example she baa-ed like a sheep to indicate a dish of lamb.

The breakfast menu is a piece of cake compared to the dinner menu.

Lemon aid...

Made with freshly squeezed lemons & mint leaves from their little herb garden.

My favourite restaurant in Jose Ignacio was Almacen El Palmar, a little French restaurant.

Sitting at a table outside we had the best, absolutely the best jug of lemon aid EVER!

Street signs in Jose Ignacio

Jose Ignacio is a very small town in southern Uruguay on the Atlantic Ocean. All the streets have been given the names of local birds with an appropriate bird illustration. Garzas is a heron.

Red sky at night

Ocean view from fire pit at Playa Vik

Sunset

Precisely designed and situated to receive the sun's final rays - Playa Vik's main building.

Tero birds

These fellows hang around Playa Vik poking into the lawns for tasty treats. The Tero, a type of plover is the official bird of Uruguay.

Oven Birds

Leaving the tour we came upon these two nests and a couple of the residents. The Oven Bird is the official bird of Argentina.

Headquarters

Where did they get these stones to build this structure? The answer came from a driver who was taking us to the airport. In Uruguay jail prisoners are not coddled & are given the task of busting stones. Punishment for being caught with bring drugs into the country is an automatic 30 year sentence. Uruguay has very little crime. Hummmm....

Wine

Two white wines and a red Tannat.

Tasty spread

Of course the tasting included tasting 4 different kinds of olives, cheeses, almonds, bread (produced in another building on this farm) and 3 different wines also produced here. Hard work indeed.

Olive oil tasting

At the conclusion of the tour we were treated to a tasting of 3 different olive oils.

Grafted trees

The almond trees were grafted onto peach tree roots. You can see the ring near the bottom of the tree where the graft was made.

John Deere

We toured around the orchards in a wagon pulled by this John Deere. There are 750 people employed here and an extra 200 are brought in during the harvests.

Production facility

It takes 13 kg of olives to produce 1 litre of extra virgin olive oil. The olives are shaken and raked out of the trees onto the ground which has been covered with large cloths or mats. The olives are put into a cleaning tank where they are washed with water, leaves and other debris separated. Then they go into a crusher, pits and all which blends them into a paste. The resulting paste is put into a centrifuge where the oil is separated from the cake. The cake is used in the orchard as fertilizer. The oil is further purified by centrifuge. The extra virgin olive oil is then stored in stainless steel storage tanks filled with nitrogen so no oxidation takes place. This whole process takes no more than 2 hours.

Olives groves

Today we went on a tour of a olive producing farm. There were approximately 13,000 acres under cultivation. This included olive trees and almond trees as well as a new planting of grape vines. The olives trees like a dry, well drained, less than fertile soil while the almond trees prefer lots of moisture so must be irrigated despite the 100 cm of rain annually. We asked why they combined olives and almonds and were told that the almonds were planted at the request of the wife of the owner. Dick said how important it was to obey your wife. Good advice I'd say but he needs more practice.

Beach bum

Sooo friendly. This dog seem to make the beach and a nearby restaurant called La Suzanna his home. He lay under our table at La Suzanna while we had lunch.

Unfortunately many people come here for the summer & simply leave their dogs here. There are many dogs roaming around and virtually no dog fights despite the fact that they all seem to be in tact.

Dead Duck

A couple of little girls tried to give this duck a decent send off. 

A whale

While we were swimming a Uruguayian woman came over to point out a huge fish out about 300 yards in the ocean. I told her we were from Canada and didn't speak Spanish but thanked her for the fish information. Then she went back to where she was sitting on the beach and called her daughter on her cell phone, came back to tell us it was a whale. She didn't have the word for whale but her daughter filled her in. Unfortunately neither Toby nor I had our super new cameras with zoom lenses so it was pointless trying for a photo.

Swimming in the ocean

A short walk to a good swimming spot. 6:30 in the evening - an excellent time to swim.

Roof garden

Ryokan and Zen apartments.

Zen

Dick enjoying our 'zen' garden.

Ryokan

Ironically we have been assigned two rooms with a Japanese theme. Romy is in Ryokan and we are in Zen. Each room has a small private garden. This is the traditional stone garden.

Playa Vik

After our stay at Estancia Vik we drove ourselves a few miles down toward the ocean to Playa Vik, a sister resort.