Blog postings should be short and frequent, but the Internet connection on the ship is spotty, so this is the first chance I've had to write. The trip is going splendidly. Rio is, as the guidebook says, "Manhattan with bikinis." Some 45 miles of beaches, including enathe ones you have heard of, Ipanema and Copacabana. Jack and I bypassed Buenos Aires, choosing to fly three hours west to Iguazu Falls, one of the seven wonders of the natural world. It was quite a schlep, with Jack having to transfer from the ship to a bus to a plane to a bus to an open air train, From the train stop I pushed him about a mile and half on a metal bridge over the river and to the view immediately above the falls. (A couple of other tourists spelled me, so I didn't do it all. In any case it was fun to push. I get so little exercise on board.) "Poor Niagara," Eleanor Roosevelt is reputed to have said on seeing Iguazu. Instead of one sheet of water, Iguazu has a couple of hundred individual cataracts. Yesterday we were in Montevideo, a dingy city compared to modern B.A. and Rio. I don't know the history, but someone said a dictator bled it dry fairly recently. Now that we have done the basic tourism, the serious part of the adventure begins. We're due at Puerto Marin tomorrow and will see seals and penguins galore.

I'll write when I can.