When word of Incan gold reached Europe in 1512, Buenos Aires was just a stop over along the river. In 1536, Spanish colonizer Pedro de Mendoza originally named the city Nuestra Senora Santa Maria del Buen Aire, "Our Lady St. Mary of the Good Air". The settlers were forced away by attacks of indigenous people. The Spanish were more successful in establishing a quiet isolated town in the 1580's.
The cattle boom of the 1880's brought an influx of European settlers. Soon beautiful buildings with architecture reminiscent of Rome, Paris, and London lined impressive wide avenues.
Today the population of the greater metropolitain area is more than 15 million .
At 5:30 p.m. we docked at the newest of the three ports that have been established over the years. It is very entertaining watching the shuttle buses that take everyone to the Terminal and seeing all the containers ready to load onto ships.
