The 7th Continent

   BUENOS   AIRES DAYS   DAY 2 Florida street is a tourist mecca here. It has malls, brand stores, outdoor cafeterias and no traffic. It’s a walking only street about 2.5 kms long.   It was just a short walk away from our hotel. As a   country with Spanish culture, things are slow to start here. We stepped out by 11 am and   things were stirring. As our hotel clerk laughingly told us the previous day , 6 pm is still tea and snacks time   and happy hour ends at 9 pm when the serious business of food and drink begin. We leisurely   window shopped though Florida,   and settled down at   an outdoor café for   lunch. It was lovey weather and the sun wasn’t warm and the beer tasted good. It was predicted to ba a rainy evening and we just went for shirt walk round the block and wentfor an early dinner.  The htel guy was right. All restuarants serving dinner opened only after 7 pm and happy hours was from 7 pm to 9 pm. The ser...

  DAY 1 BUENOS AIRES   We landed in Buenos Aires in the morning by 7.30 am by United Airlines from Newark via Houston. The Airport was large new and shiny. Unlike the USA, atleast 15 or more of the immigration counters were staffed and it took less than 20 minutes to be cleared. But   at the embassy in Delhi and at the airport, there were plenty of questions about duration and place of stay. We had to show the hotel confirmation to the immigration officer. But they were very polite   and after having seen SRK in DUNKI, one cant complain. Baggage claim was a very short wait and overall the airport experience was quite impressive. We had booked a taxi from the hotel which was waiting for us and we were quickly on our way to downtown BA. Now, the impression I had of Argentina as a country was that of a poor nation with hyperinflation.   I was pleasantly surprised to find a wide expressway out of the airport all the way to downtown. Greenery all round and st...

  THE UNFOLDING OF THE PLAN     Among the various eye popping things on my wish list, which includes para gliding, para jumping, ballooning and  watching Northern lights, was visiting  theAntarctic. I had quietly struck out para jumping and paragliding mainly  because I chickened out, though I virtuously told myself I was too old ! Now with time running out, I had sort of slowly started of thinking of Antarctica as a distant dream. We had come close to going in 2011/12 , but a fellow traveller fell seriously ill and we called it off. I thought we were done and dusted. Then we met a    college roommate of Devika, Viji ,who has been to Antarctica 3 times   among other interesting places, and couldn’t stop raving about it.   She lit a spark and we decided to take it up seriously sometime in   2023/24. Planning for Antarctic is a serious business and bookings typically start a year ahead , if one wants to get good deals. ...