February 23, 2025

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - Day 1- Don't cry for me!

Casa Rosada, the red palace, known for Eva Peron famous speech farewell from balcony. Guards parading grounds, today Casa Rosada isworking offices of Argentina President, he does not live here. We did a mix of HoHo Bus - Hop on and Hopped off alot.

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Sunday Market in San Telmo area, with all their comic characters. We walked this part of town, had some empanadas and saw some street performances of Tango!

We then headed to the Puerto Madero commercial area alongside the river. The Puente de la Mujer is a rotating footbridge with a cantilever spar cable that is illuminated at nightby showcasing it's asymmetric lines. Architect was Santiago Calatrava. Here we had a dinner reservation set up by Bob Meyer's childhood friend and local resident Mirta ( retired attorney) , who spent the afternoon with us, giving us local insights to the City and People.

Carribean 7 group - left to right Sarah, Scott, Me, Jimbo, Anna, Sheri, Mirta ( Bob's friend - was an exchange student in high school ) & Bob. Enjoying a Argentine Steak Dinner at Villegas. After dinner we went to a neighborhood Carnival band performance in a local park. Five neighborhood groups performed. We caught the tail end of the last 2 groups. A good taste of what is come in Rio.

HA LONG BAY, VIETNAM

By Pat Patrick • August 31, 2026
Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is one of those bucket list places I have had in my sights for years. It's the iconic picture in my mind's eye, whenever I think of Vietnam . We had made plans to go with 8 others on a brand new, swanky Red Dragon Junk boat for a harbor cruise and overnight stay, but sadly the weather did not cooperate the whole 4 days we were in port. No ships were permitted to sail, per the local government. Many of us were bummed! This is typhoon session and there was a lot of rain and high winds our first couple of days - we were hoping it would blow out the last day and we could at least do a day trip but no luck! 

HAI VAN PASS to HUE, VIETNAM

By Pat Patrick • August 30, 2026
To get to the final stop on our Vietnam FUN Tour in Hue, we had our driver take us on the scenic route called the Hai Van Pass. This 3 hour drive took us back through Da Nang and then into mountains and along coast for what is generally a very scenic route. Unfortunately for us, it was mainly covered in clouds and fog.

HOI ' AN, VIETNAM

By Pat Patrick • August 25, 2026
Next stop on the VIETNAM FUN TOUR is HOI'AN - The City of Laterns! I had arranged a private car to take us between all the major locations and towns for the 5 days we were touring the interior. He delivered us to Hoi'An in just about an hour from Ba Na Hills . Here we stayed 2 nights and had lots of relaxing time built in. Again the heat was oppressive! The driver recommended below tailor to me as I mentioned I might want to have a dress custom made as that is another thing the town is known for with 24 hour turn around.