Our ship the Holland America Veendam was late getting into the Rio port due to politics in Argentina. That country does not like it because Holland America often stops at the Falkland Islands which the Argentines and British have had disputes over for years, so the Buenos Aires port people "punish" Holland America ships at their port and put them at the end of the long lines of ships that go in and out of there. So instead of boarding our ship early in the afternoon, it was about 8:00 PM before we got on. But they had made arrangements with a hotel, across the town on another beach, to provide seating and snacks for 1100 passengers until we could be bused back to board the ship when ready. We enjoyed walking on that beach and watching the kite surfers, etc. The Veendam was all decorated for Christmas and looked very festive. We had 2 days at sea on our way to Buenos Aires by Dec. 24. The port there is closed on Dec. 25, so had to get there for Christmas Eve. It was about the hottest and most humid of all the places we were on the trip. We toured the city in the morning and saw a lot of government buildings, the president's Pink House, the colorful artsy area where the tango dance originated and many artists live there now. At the end of our tour, 7 of us from our ship got off to go visit the burial place of Eva Perone in an elaborate cemetery. The cemeteries are beautiful with lots of burial buildings which make them look like little towns. Then we walked in the heat for about 3 hours or so around the city. Eventually got back to the ship to cool off. Buenos Aires is a beautiful modern city. However, it is where we were warned the most about the robbers. Thankfully, we did not have any problem, but some of the other passengers were attacked for camera bags, etc.