Wow. Yesterday we finally got to golf
in Montevideo, Uruguay. On Monday when the ship originally docked
there, it was raining too hard for us to go. This time, on our second
stop there, the weather was beautiful and the golf game was on.
There were about 20 of us that went on
a bus to the course. What we hadn't realized up to that point was
this course is the Number One ranked course in South America. It is
in the middle of the city, with the sea bordering on one side of it.
It wasn't unusual to have a vista that included high rise buildings
on three sides with the sea on the other. The course itself was
challenging. It is a private course and they seldom take members of
the public. We knew how unusual it was to have a bunch of foreign
visitors there when they came out and took photographs of us for
their magazine! We couldn't take power carts....only members can use
them. We had to walk, but we could take caddies if we wanted. Each
green was elevated and very protected with sand traps on both sides
of the approach. I won't record my score here, but suffice to say
that a good time was had by all.
Montevideo has a crime problem and we
were warned repeatedly to take caution when we were in the town. Some
tourists (not from our boat) had their arms broken a couple of weeks
ago in a mugging. Consequently, we saw lots of police and even a
number of armed guards on the golf course. Canada looks pretty safe.
Last night was party night (it was
Friday, after all). Before dinner, we went to our favorite bar, the
Crystal Cove for a pre-cocktail party cocktail. Then we went to a
cocktail party for drinks. Then we went to dinner. Then we went to
our favorite evening bar, The Avenue Saloon where Joel, a piano
player from Calgary was playing. We had drinks with friends (John and
Blondie) and had lots of fun singing along with Joel and dancing to
the tunes. We didn't get back home until 1:00 a.m. but knew we could
sleep in today.
During the night, there was lots of
rocking and rolling on the ship's part, and to nobody's surprise, we
awoke to a stormy day. Our planned stop in Punte del Estey had to be
cancelled as the port authority shut down the port. It was just too
stormy for tenders to operate. So, after much scrambling (I'm sure)
on the part of the crew, a new itinerary of things to do on this sea
day was put together. We went to a lecture this morning on different
things we can do with our I-Pads, followed by a lecture on “The Man
Who Invented Money” which was about Carlo Ponci of the Ponci Scheme
fame. After lunch we are taking in a movie in the theatre, then will
go to see a comedy show tonight before dinner, followed by a walk
through the Officer's Quarters, dinner, and then a birthday party for
one of the ship's lecturers. Whew. We will need a holiday from our
holiday when this is all over!
Tomorrow we sail into Brazil and our
first port of call is Rio Grande Do Sul. Already the weather has
cleared which bodes well for smooth sailing into that port.
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