An evening in Buenos Aires

The first post on this trip is here..

Before I start writing about our first evening in Buenos Aires, a few things for my fellow travelers. We went to BA with a stop over at Mexico city from SFO. 

For some strange reason, there is no concept of transit in Mexico City airport. Given every page in my passport is precious (and every renewal costs time and money), I like to avoid unnecessary stamping. We were not given a choice after landing in Mexico city and were directed to go through immigration. Luckily there were no baggage to transfer or we would not have made it. All we had was carry on bags! 

We stood in a long line (which moved okay) and there were most confused international travelers and no one to answer their questions. I asked the immigration officer why we had to get a stamp when we were clearly transit passengers and he acted like he didn't understand me. The family was pulling my jacket saying "don't start something you will regret. Let's go to the next gate as fast as possible!".. so off we went. 

Mexico city seems to be sprawling and beautiful from the sky! Someday we have to visit the place and see what sights are there to see around it. 

We did get to spend 30 minutes in a lounge as our connection was a little late. There we were introduced to what I call "Corn kuzhal".. basically thenkuzhal made with corn flour. It was tasty! Surprisingly have never had this before in the US.

We landed in BA and it was raining like crazy! Took an Uber to our hotel, Faena, which was located in what was being described by the cab driver as kind of a Bandra of BA called Porto Madera.  Land reclaimed from the water and fancy residences, and commercial real estate built on it. Apparently Messi had his apartment in this area (we were thinking.. sure Messi probably has apartments all over BA)! Our kids are not easy to impress as the driver soon found out. 

The hotel was fantastic. There was a catch. No microwave, hot water kettle or Fridge in the room. The staff brings you hot water, warms up any food you give to them to put in their common fridge.. you get the idea. They were very courteous and nice, but you had to give them a 10 minute heads up. It still worked out okay. 

We had warm idlis and packed pulav for lunch, made an early dinner reservation at Marcelos , a fine Italian place on the river front (where we were told there are veggie options) and had two hours to spend to walk around the riverfront. 

We sat at a local restaurant chain called La Panera Rosa (with pink umbrellas!) and had tea and hot chocolate.. interestingly, in BA, they call it a SubMarino where they give you frothy milk and a bar of Cocoa which you have to drop into the tall glass and stir.. it drops to the bottom and rises like a submarine is our guess... 

They put locks on the wires around the bridges.. we didn't get to ask anyone on why.. it did look pretty.

It was very windy and nice and we walked on both sides of the river, had a great dinner and headed back to the hotel. 

The view from our table was amazing!

The little one had had enough and wanted to rest.

We still had the rest of the night. So we made plans after dropping her to go on a night to remember.. 

Buenos Aires is beautiful! 

A short video of the evening..

The day before we flew out, the Peso had dropped to 50% of its value. We did not know how that would impact our trip. We did find that most things like Uber rides were really cheap. Food in fancy places were as pricey as expected. The people we interacted with were going about their lives, but they were very hospitable and extremely nice to tourists. We really enjoyed the local people and their culture. It was lovely. Just for that alone, would recommend folks visit this city!

Santorini bus tour : ending with Sunset at Oia

The previous post on this series is here..

First.. our own Sangeetha Kaif walking down the famous steps.. 

oh wait? who is that dude? My god, she is married?

now what is that? She has two grown up kids as well? say what?!

Let's just keep the pretty lady in the pic! 

Sunset in Oia was a hit and miss. The clouds moved in. There was going to be no sun visible. The possibility of a glorious sunset like the one we saw at Poseidon's temple.. was not going to happen. It was going to rain possibly for the night and the next. Still golden hour is golden hour and we got amazing family photos.

We had to stand in a long line to get to this famous photo spot, which happens to be someones backyard on the hills in Oia village. This is their walking path! How or why it became a famous photo spot and when, we don't know! All we know is that Hindi actress Katrina Kaif runs around this place in movies .. other famous actresses might have shot in same location as well.. my wife and MIL have the exact details. 

My promise was to find this location and get pictures in that spot at sunset! Mission accomplished to the best of my ability given I cannot control the clouds. Then messed it all up with some indecisiveness. For some strange reason, picked up a faint orange tinge in the clouds and thought, maybe, maybe the sun will peak out and create magic. The rest of the family was pretty sure that everything was done and dusted. The little one was hungry and I made everyone walk back and forth for no reason for a good 15 minutes. 

To top things off, we had to make a dash to the bus stop below the hill before that dude was going to take off!

We did get a few more photos..

We were all happy one moment and pissed off within 20 minutes. Finally we made it to the bus when it was still bright. There were folks who got off in Oia and were not going back to Fira and that confused our guide and driver. So we lost some time in that but eventually the bus made it back to Fira and dropped off people in different hotels on the way. 

The approach road was jammed! So our driver took a roundabout route and eventually got us in. We were starving. The kids had noticed a restaurant called Convivium.. so we went there to the rooftop to get seated. Somehow the staff there didn't think we were their customer material and were hell bent on sending us out. We did not feel welcome and walked out. Very rare for us to walk out of restaurants after sitting down. 

Eventually we wandered back to the main street in Fira and they got something to go at the McDonalds! I ate fries and made Maggi. That was good enough after a long day! Maggi noodles has become comfort food for me and the little one now!

We were just exhausted after that and crashed. We had one more day in Santorini as a local sightseeing day before flying off.. even planning for it was put off till next morning!

A very short video of our time at Oia.

Santorini bus tour in parts - Pyrgos monastery, a kitten and Kamari beach

The previous post on this series is here..

After our lunch, ocean fun and ice cream at Perissa, we were back in the bus climbing to the top of the hill on this side of Santorini to go to the Monastery.. a few hundred years old, this place had reclusive monks who did not want to contact outside world for some time. They even buried their dead inside is what our guide told us.

 They did open up and have a store near the outside chapel eventually. The whole place was interesting and quiet. Then it got pretty windy and we were told not to have high hopes for later in the evening, given rain clouds were rolling in. 

We saw everyone go kiss the same objects and pictures.. couldn't have been good during COVID times! The small chapel was really beautiful. 

While we were being told that, a kitten walked out of nowhere and decided to sit on my lap. I love animals. They seem to love me too.. however god has played a cruel trick. I am almost allergic to all cats. Initially the family panicked. They did not want me sick before the last stop. A few people tried to lure it away, but no! The kitten just sat on my lap for a good 10 minutes. Finally the little one grabbed it and placed it on the floor and we had to leave. Apparently six kittens were just born a few weeks back in the Monastery. This was one of those six. Did have watery eyes for a few minutes later in the night, but didn't get sick as everyone expected. 

We got amazing views of the Perissa beach from the Monastery.

The little one was still mesmerized by the cat...

Then we drove down to Kamari beach area. Guess this tour has a tie up with some wine makers in Santorini. So we stopped at a rest area near the black beach, and were offered three wines or Cherry juice. Skipped it and ate the crackers. For some strange reason we were hungry. We walked to the beach across the street and took pictures. This beach was full of pebbles but there were no people on this side as far as the eye could see! There were pistachio trees here other than olive trees in this area.. that was a change!

Caught the little one in one of her moments..

We did get to see a real donkey on the way to this place..Apparently there was a time when every house had a donkey to haul things up and down the hillsides of this island !!

A video clip of this leg of the bus tour! 

After this short break, we were off to to go up and around all the way to Oia.. the last stop and grand finale for the tour!