Punta del Este and a Parilla Lunch

We arrived in Punta del Este on a beautiful morning, except, of course, that it meant the much-needed rain wasn't coming today. We were headed out to a winery in the hilly eastern coastal area. Punta del Este is a very popular tourist destination for Argentinians as most of Uruguay's coastline is covered with beach area, while the Argentinian side of Rio de la Plata has virtually no beaches.

The winery we visited for our Parilla lunch was Cerro del Toro, which means Hill of the Bull, a very new winery up in the hills. This winery was established in 2016 and they had plans to build the production facility at the vineyard, but Covid happened and they had to reschedule the build. They now harvest the grapes by hand at night, which is usual practice in Uruguay, and process them in a rented facility a few kilometers away until they have their own. They have built a small tasting room/restaurant up in the hills among the vines, and this is where we had our lunch.

Driving in to the winery. The tasting room is up on the
lower hill to the left. The higher one is Cerro del Toro.
There was a fire up there recently, which fortunately
didn't reach the vineyard.

Even though this winery is very new, it has already made a name for itself with its Albarino wine, and has started exporting to the US and Europe. With our traditional parilla, or grilled lunch, we were trying some of the wines produced here.

While the winery manager explained what they are doing and the wines they produce, we could smell the aromas of the food grilling behind the restaurant, and it certainly did smell amazing!

The grillmaster tending the parilla

A selection of meats on the grill

 We knew we would be having lunch, and that Uruguay, like Argentina and Brazil, is a beef-eating culture, but we weren't quite prepared for how much we would be served. We ended up at a table by ourselves rather than six or eight people, so we were served more than the two of us could eat, but we put a nice dent in it anyway.

Two types of chorizo sausage

Blood pudding that was actually quite tasty

and another version of blood pudding, that tasted
of caramelized onions, roasted carrots and
even raisins. It reminded us of mincemeat

The star of the show of any parilla is the asado, or
cross-cut short rib. The steaks and tenderloin are
exported, and the rest of the steer is consumed
locally, mainly in parillas

You've never had a rump roast that looks or tastes
like this one! Tender and delicious.

And for dessert we were served
Dulce de Leche crepes with vanilla 
ice cream

The wines we tasted here. Some were the same as
we had yesterday, but they tasted completely
different because of the growing region.

Views from the estate and the drive back down from the tasting room:

Some of the horses on the estate.

The 45-minute drive back to Punta del Este was very quiet after that big meal, but we did manage to see some of the beautiful houses the city is known for. Many wealthy people from the world over have homes in the area, from movie and music stars to politicians and famous businesspeople. It is known, along with the beaches, for beautiful summer weather and the safety of the community.

And here is one of the iconic sculptures of Punta del Este: The Hand. It was sculpted at Brava Beach in 1982 by Chilean artist Mario Irarrazabal as part of a Meeting of Modern Sculpture in the Open Air. It is probably one of the most photographed spots in the whole city. This one is a right hand, and Irarrazabal also sculpted a left hand at exactly the same latitude near Antofagasta, Chile.

We had a very light dinner at Atlantide after that wonderful introduction to traditional barbecue.

Montevideo and Uruguay's Wines

 Our tour in Montevideo on Tuesday took us into one of the wine regions of Uruguay. Agriculture is the third largest industry in the country, after cattle production and tourism. Along with being the breadbasket and the rice paddy for much of southern Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay is in the Southern Hemisphere Wine Belt, in company with New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and Chile.

We drove out to the Juanico winery, one of the largest and most established in the country. They have vineyards in the central part of the country, where we were visiting, as well as toward the Atlantic coast. On the way, our tour guide asked if anyone knew the origin of Montevideo's name. Of course no one did, so she told us: The land in and around the city is very flat, with the exception of one hill of 500 feet in height. Apparently when the Spanish arrived to look it over, someone yelled 'I see a hill!' And that's how it got the name: Monte = hill, Video = I see. This may or may not be true, but it's a great story.

The winery's land was originally owned by Jesuit monks from Europe who planted vineyards to produce wine for celebrating Mass as well as other agricultural products to support the Indians who had converted to Christianity. In the 1760s, the Spanish government exiled the Jesuits and began transferring their property, and in 1830 the land was transferred to Don Francisco Juanico. There was a period in the 20th century when it was owned by smaller family groups who came from the eastern part of Uruguay, and in 1945, after WW II, as part of the payment of debt owed by France for the agricultural products Uruguay sent during the war, a plot of vineyard was given the authorization to plant the grape varietal used to make Cognac, and to make the Cognac in the French method. It is known as Cognac de Juanico. This authorization lasted for 60 years, until 2005, and although none can be made now, Juanico still has some of the Cognac in both bottles and barrels. In 1979 the Deicas family took over 307 hectares of vineyards including the Cognac plot, and now they concentrate on producing quality wine for export.

                                   

Uruguay is in a drought at the moment, having had very little rain in the past few months, but the vine roots have reached deep enough that they haven't needed to use their irrigation systems yet. The resulting grapes are small but very sweet. We know that because we were allowed to try some 'very, very young wine' right off the stems.  

We were given historical information about the winery, the terroir and the types of grapes they produce during our tour into the vineyard, and then headed to the dining room for our tasting. The winery is a popular place for wedding receptions and other functions, and I imagine that a dinner here would be quite spectacular.

The small appetizer plate to go along with
our wines

The five wines on our tasting menu.

We had a great time during the tasting and were very impressed with all of the wines. The two varietals that are most associated with Uruguay are Albarino, a white wine, and Tannat, which is red. Both came from Europe initially; Albarino is now connected with Spain, and Tannat is barely grown in France, only used in small quantities for blending. But the Deicas family has found a way to make Tannat palatable on its own and has developed a signature wine from Uruguay. LCBO, are you listening???

We were also shown the original wine cellar that the Jesuits built. The winery uses it to age its best wines in their barrels.

On the ride back to the ship, I noticed this sculpture on the roadside near the winery. There is quite a lot of grape production in this western part of Uruguay, as well as in the east closer to the Atlantic Ocean, where we will be going tomorrow.

To cap off the day, we had dinner at 'Hot Rocks' out on the Pool Deck. This is where you are provided with a 400 degree F stone and your raw food, to cook it yourself. Now you can't blame somebody else if your steak is overdone! Being Valentine's Day, the butler crew came around delivering roses to all of the ladies.

Caesar salad

Just to keep everyone clean, we were all given
a classy bib to wear

Steaks on the 'grill' and fries. The sides come cooked,
but I put my vegetables, and even my fries, on
the rock to heat them up as they cooled. That
worked out well, too.

Cheesecake for dessert

We sailed out of Montevideo at 11 p.m., heading for Punta del Este, on the north side of the Rio de la Plata close to the ocean, a trip of about 250 km.

Buenos Aires and Tigre

After about 25 hours in transit, first to Montreal, then Sao Paulo and finally on to Buenos Aires, we arrived at the ship at about 4:30 on Sunday afternoon. The Air Canada flights were all very comfortable, although we only managed to snooze for about 5 hours of the 9 hour Sao Paulo flight.

There were 14 people from our flight heading to Silver Moon, so after waiting a while for one last  couple, we finally started toward the port.

Leaving Montreal

It seemed like we might have been the last flight to come in for the cruise, and since there weren't that many people going through the check-in process, our bags showed up within a half-hour after we found our suite. This suite is quite spacious and comfortable, with room for both of us to work on our computers at the same time if needed. Here are a few photos of the suite:

The bathroom has a separate WC with a second
entrance from the hallway between the suite door
and the dining table.

The balcony is quite large, with 2 walkouts,
2 lounges and the table and chairs in the middle.
Should be very nice on sea days.

After unpacking, we had arranged to meet Mary Ellen and Ed at the main bar, Dolcevita, and then have dinner together. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed our dinner at Le Terrazza. This dining room is the breakfast and lunch buffet, but it is turned into an Italian Restaurant in the evenings.

Caprese Salad

Lentil Soup

Eggplant Parmigiana

 

Lasagna

It was an early night, so we could catch up on our sleep as we had a tour on Monday afternoon.

Monday morning dawned bright enough, but rain was expected. There has been an exceptional heat wave in this part of Argentina, with temperatures reaching 38C, and they have been praying for some rain to break the weather and provide some much-needed irrigation water.

I was just about to get into the pool at 10 a.m. for a swim when all of a sudden the sky fell. There was thunder which we could hardly hear over the loudness of the port equipment. We were docked in the container port, and they were busy loading and unloading large container carriers. Eventually the thunder settled down to a few rumbles, and although it continued to rain, I had my half-hour swim.

We weren't overly hungry but knew we'd have to eat something before our 1:30 tour departure. We stopped at Spaccanapoli for a freshly baked Pizza Margherita. It was smaller than it looks from this photo, quite delicious, and just enough to keep us going.

 Our tour in the afternoon took us to the Tigre River delta for a cruise around the islands there. The Tigre is one of the rivers that flows into the Rio de la Plata, the very wide river that runs between Uruguay and Argentina. An indigenous tribe had been living on the islands of the delta, mainly fishing and farming, but they were moved out when the Spanish arrived in the early 1500s, and took over the economy of the whole area. The Tigre River was used by smugglers from Uruguay to move goods without having to expose themselves to the Spaniards on the Rio de la Plata. Eventually Spain allowed free trade, the smuggling ended, and the town of Tigre became a major port on the river for agricultural goods.

 The area of the delta has been, since the mid-1800s, the place for the wealthy and aristrocrats from Buenos Aires to have country homes. Now it is more like cottage lots, each with a long pier of its own out into the water. There are some very nice small houses, along with rowing clubs and the odd hotel that dates back into the early 20th Century.

Fixer-upper, anyone??

Some of the very pretty houses on the islands

These boats are used for tours or as water taxis

One of the rowing clubs had their boats out

The Tigre Museum of Art had been part of the
Tigre Hotel that was opened in 1911. It is
still a very impressive structure.

After our boat trip around the islands, we stopped in the nearby town of San Isidro on our way back to Buenos Aires. Here we visited, for a short time, the Cathedral of San Isidro. It celebrated 400 years of consecration in July of 2022.

Our two buses were the last ones back to the ship. That wasn't an issue for leaving, but there was a mandatory muster briefing at 5:30 and we were late!!! They must have known we were coming, as the briefing started just after we all got to our muster stations and sat down.

We left Buenos Aires at 6:45, headed for Montevideo, Uruguay.

We had dinner at Atlantide, which might be called the main dining room, but 1) there really isn't one on this ship with all the available venues, and 2) it is much to plush and fancy. We were asked if we wanted to join a shared table and we said yes...only to find that the other four people at the table were also Canadian, and didn't know each other before they sat down! One couple is from Vancouver, and the other from mid-town Toronto.

Larry's caviar appetizer

Monica's salmon main course

We were so busy talking that we missed the show - an Argentinian guitar duo that is supposed to be really good.

So far the internet has been pretty good for posting this blog post. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it stays that way.......

All Our Bags Are Packed....

 ...we're ready to go!

Well, almost. Just need to put the last couple of things in and lock them up.

After what seemed like forever waiting for this trip to start, we will be picked up by the limo in about 90 minutes. We are headed for Montreal and then on to Buenos Aires direct, but with a service stop in Sao Paolo, Brazil. We could have flown from Toronto, but that flight only goes to Sao Paolo, and we would have been joining the Montreal flight there to fly on to Buenos Aires.

We will get to the ship tomorrow afternoon, and have the next 32 days enjoying the coast of South America and the Caribbean Sea.

Hope you enjoy following along!

Final Sea Days.....Just a Little Late

 As you can see from the posting date, we forgot all about posting the final episode of the cruise. We'll remedy that just in time to set up the next one!

The cliffhanger from the previous post was......who won the Transatlantic Needlepoint Challenge????  It was  -----  ME! I was so surprised, since some of the other entries were so beautiful and much more colourful than mine. I had to find space in my suitcase to pack the champagne bottle as well as all those needlepoint kits!

On the second last night of the cruise, some of the crew put on a fantastic show that included some traditional singing and dancing from their home countries. There were a couple of really good singers as well, and some funny dance routines. Everyone did an amazing job and got a standing ovation at the end.

This was a very relaxed (except for the daily work on the needlepoint!) cruise. We were very impressed with Regent and with the ship. It is really spacious and well designed. There are lots of venues for drinks and dining. We will definitely cruise with Regent again.

Now to prepare the blog for our next cruise in February --- Silversea Silver Moon from Buenos Aires to Fort Lauderdale.