South America
March 2023

I recently returned from sailing with Regent on the Seven Seas Voyager from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro and had a fabulous time. We stayed one night at the Four Seasons Buenos Aires before the trip to experience a glimpse of the city. The hotel is located in the exclusive Recoleta neighborhood with easy walks to most everything. Across the street were a variety of wonderful restaurants. Hard to go to Argentina and not have an Argentine steak!

We had a short 15-minute walk to the world renowned La Recoleta Cemetery. It’s really something to see. The cemetery is all mausoleums and it contains the graves of notable people, with the most famous being Eva Peron. I highly recommend taking advantage of one of their tour guides. They are so informative and make the tour even better than just walking on your own. They’re very affordable and most just ask you to tip them what you feel is fair.

The following day we did a private half-day city tour with a great guide that gave us some history and took us to the new part of Buenos Aires. One of the stops was in the colorful town of Caminito. All the buildings are painted bright colors with vendors, artists, restaurants, and open BBQs along the street. It’s really a charming area and worth seeing.

We then boarded the ship for our 10-day cruise up the east coast of South America. Seven Seas Voyager is an older ship, but still a beautiful ship. The suites are quite roomy and have a nice balcony. The food and service on Regent is hard to beat. The staff can’t do enough for you and one of the newest perks is free laundry, which we took advantage of. They picked it up and brought it back the next day folded and packaged like a gift sitting on our bed!

My two favorite ports were Porto Belo and Búzios. Both are beautiful beach ports in Brazil. Porto Belo has 106 private beaches, with one of them recently voted one of the best beaches in the world. I had visited Búzios before, so it was great to return. Their claim to fame is Brigitte Bardot! Someone took a picture of her when she visited in the 60s and published it. Next thing they knew, everyone wanted to come to Búzios where Brigitte had been! A statue of her sits on the boardwalk! It’s such a pretty port with loads of restaurants, shops, and small hotels. We did a trolley car tour, which was a great way to see the island. We made several stops for pictures and beaches.

The cruise ended in Rio de Janeiro. A trip to Corcovado and Christ the Redeemer is a must-do in Rio. We got lucky, as the cloud layer was high enough that we had great views and could see the statue up close. That didn’t last long because as we were leaving, the clouds rolled in and hid the views, but they also rolled out again soon after.

Copacabana Beach is so beautiful, as is Ipanema. They’re clean and nice with vendors selling things and strolling the sidewalk. You can stop for a drink at any of the cute little drink/food stands. It’s a nice way to spend the day. We had a day room at the lovely Hotel Fasano, located around the corner in Ipanema with spanning views of the sea. The roof top pool/bar is everything! Such a relaxing way to end the trip before the long flight home!

The dollar is so strong in Brazil and Argentina, it makes them affordable places to visit. This was my third trip to Brazil and I’d go back again!