We flew into Buenos Aires, Argentina. Our cruise booking was a package deal, so they put us up for the night at the Alvear Palace Hotel. This is a luxury hotel that opened in 1932. If the movie "Pretty Woman" had been filmed in Argentina, this is the hotel they would have used. As a friend of ours from Argentina said, "That place is so fancy they charge you a tax just to look at it!"
We only had a day in Buenos Aires, but one thing we had both always wanted to do was visit the El Ateneo bookstore which is regularly rated as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. It was gorgeous. My heart ached to be in this beautiful store, surrounded by so many wonderful books, but all in a language I could not read.