Date with NYC but Love with Jamaica!!

Why is it always a case that good times end so quickly and the hard times drag so much but I suppose that is where people like me learn to keep up with their patience levels and work more harder to get closer to good times sooner again...:)P

Anyway I so want to start writing about Jamaica straight away but I will be fair with my date with NewYork first!

I have gone to different part of the States in last 10 years but just never happened to visit NewYork again since 2006 and since it was Sumedha's first time in NewYork, she was more excited than me.

As we decided to stay in the heart of Times Square, it was easy for us to explore all main parts of the city, try some good restaurants and also to catch up with a few old friends working in the city. During our 4 days stay in NYC, we walked, we explored the hustle bustle of Times Square, Empire State Building, Financial District, NewYork Library, Flatiron Building, Central Park, Statue of Liberty etc etc, met up with the friends and ofcourse no missing out on the shopping on 5th Avenue!

Even though I watch lots of theatre in London but one thing I couldn't do when I was in NewYork 10 years back is to watch a Broadway show so that was high on my visit's agenda this time. We decided to go for Paramour, Cirque Du Soleil Musical show. It was absolutely delightful to watch the show, theme was fantastic and the actors were great. We wanted to squeeze in one more theatre show on one of the days but we ran out of the time.
Where theatre buildings in London show history and are old architectural delight to visit, NewYork theatres are quintessentially beautiful and modern. We both thoroughly enjoyed our first Broadway show in NYC!

4 days in NYC literally whizzed by so quickly but as they say, short good date experience always linger longer in the memories! We will always remember and cherish our time spent in NYC.

PS: Oh did we sing and dance on another bolly song shot in NYC ...'tumhe pata tho hoga ke mere dil main kya hai, chalo kahe deti hoon jo kabhi nahin kaha hai...hey shona-hey shona'!! Ofcourse we did, such filmy gals we are, I tell you!!

GroundZero - 9/11 site

Times Square

NYC Skyline

Our Musical broadway show

View of Caribbean from the flight

Now here starts my favourite part of the trip with which I totally fell in love with - Jamaica!
Flight to Jamaica from NYC was only 4 hours (for Americans, apparently its considered as domestic holiday destination! -wow!!) and the flight route over the Caribbean is awesome - you can see all the beautiful shades of blue and green in the sea!

Our resort stay with Iberostar in Montego Bay, Jamaica was amazing ( this was the third time I had stayed with Iberostar Hotels and Resort Group after Havana and Varadero in Cuba and I totally recommend it as they ensure to take really good care of their guests. All the resort properties owned by this group are luxurious and have amenities and entertainment for all age groups including discotheques, inhouse theatres for evening performances, good spas, different games, activity classes etc. etc.)

We managed to get lucky again this time after Mexico to get an upgrade to Ocean View Suite (though we had booked an Ocean View room but hey who is complaining if someone gives you a free upgrade without even asking!!)

30 -33 degrees temperature with perfect combination of sun and breeze, white sand beaches, crystal clear sea water and an amazing huge infinity pool overlooking the beach with a big cocktail bar inside the pool serving drinks - do I need to say anything more to justify my love for this place! Mmmmm....

Our resort beach heaven

Can't have enough pics of the sea and the pool!

Mmm...our cocktails and infinity pool

Evening on the beach

some fun beach evening entertainment

Beautiful clear sky gazing with lanterns and stars

Wedding ceremony in the resort

Next 5 days were all about soaking in the sun on the beach and the pool, sipping cocktails, dancing on RnB and hip-hop songs (ofcourse how can we miss hearing Bob Marley's famous songs in his own country) , watching beautiful sunsets and having a great time.

We witnessed 4 separate destination American weddings (2 on Friday and 2 on Saturday) as all 4 groups were staying in the same resort. We met and chatted with lots of other guests from the wedding groups which was good (infact some guys from one of the groups invited us to join the after wedding party too but ofcourse it would have been cheeky to go!!
Although I must say before we got the invite, I was already wanting to be a party crasher ...hehehe but I suppose its easy to do that in Indian weddings where you can easily get away with it in 1000 guests versus these American weddings where maximum guests count was like 40!!!)

Not sure if it is an American thing or Jamaican tradition, but we saw all these wedding couples jumping in the pool after the wedding party and they call this thing as "Trash the Dress". Apparently since the wedding is already done and the bride is never gonna wear her wedding dress again, she can trash it.....hahahaha.... Expensive trashing thing, eh!!

PS: Note to myself - ensure to only find and marry a guy who would love to do a destination wedding in one of the Caribbean Islands😂😂😂, only if that ever happens!!

One of the days we did a bespoke day trip to Negril which is about 70 kms west of Montego Bay. During our day trip which was a beautiful drive, we walked and stayed few hours at 7mile beach, visited the famous Rick's cafe and saw the sunset from the Hipstrip. Rick's cafe is famous for its sunset view and seeing the people jumping off the cliff into the sea, but we were so tired to wait for another 2 hours at the Cafe to watch the sunset, we decided to see the sunset from the Hipstrip on our way back to the resort.

View of hipstrip and the Caribbean

Hipstrip

7mile beach in Negril

Another piccie of 7mile beach

Rick's Cafe

And yet another one!

Newly wed couple jumping in the sea!

Sunset from the Hipstrip

Drive from Negril back to Montego Bay

Taxis in Jamaica charge fixed prices and doesn't matter if you book directly or through the resort, prices remain the same. You can do group coach day trips to Negril too which is much more cheaper option but ofcourse if you want flexibility on your time schedule, private trips are the best.

Oooh before I forget, only one thing that I found outrageously expensive was the massages in the resort spa. We got an hour body massage done on the last day (ofcourse which was superb n relaxing) but that cost us USD140 each, the most expensive massage I had got done till date😛.

It is so easy to get into Jamaican spirit when you are having a good times there - YA MAN, as all Jamaicans say!!!

Where did those 6 days go - can I have a magic wand to revert the clocks back please....now here we were back in London after 10 hours flight and other travel delays only to be welcomed by the rains😬 after witnessing the paradise for 6 days.....hmmmm.

Hey ho, as I said earlier work hard and party harder is the mantra now and I am already thinking about next holiday destination.....hehehe

Signing out until something else catches my fancy to write about!

Enchanting Venice....!

It has been 6 days since I have been back in London but I couldn't put my mind in place to write about the memories of Venice & Florence (damn feels like the holiday was ages back already!)...I can give plenty of reasons for being a slacker...too much work, suffering from fever - cough...blah blah blah...

Anyway here we go in nutshell!:

Friday (25th March): Exploring confusing streets and alleys of Venice

Our day started with getting up at 4.30 AM to catch our early morning flight to Venice Marco Polo Airport from Gatwick. As usual our taxi pick up was late (I definitely have to start booking some other taxi service!) but we still managed to get to airport in time. Hey ho, 1 hour 50 minutes flight to Venice was a short one followed by the public water taxi transfer from Venice Airport to our ferry stop called Ospedale (means hospital) on Venice island. I must confess though that during our whole duration on the ferry (which was roughly 45 minutes), I was cribbing about taking public transport especially when you see the private water taxis whizzing by so fast and those taxis looked so much fun too!! (camel cart in my dad's birth village must be faster then our public transport ferry! Ha!!😛😉)

First reaction of both of us when we got down at our stop was 'OMG'..ofcourse in a good way!! I asked for the directions for our hotel from one of the locals and the first word he said was 'senorita'..hahaha...it is absolutely impossible not to remember bollywood movie dialogues at such times (Senorita, bade bade shehron mein aisi choti choti baatein hoti rehti hai!!..hehehe). Anyway we managed to get to our hotel in Santa Maria Farmosa Square by asking for directions from few people on the way which was barely 10 minutes walk.

Note: Never visit Venice with big luggages as there are lot of bridges you might have to go up and down on the way lugging those big bags!!

After checking in the hotel, since it was already lunch time we decided first to have lunch in the restaurant next door to our hotel which turned out to be one of our favourite places as we ate atleast one of our meals everyday in that restaurant (also attaching the link for the restaurant from trip advisor!- https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g187870-d6371611-Reviews-Trattoria_Agli_Artisti-Venice_Veneto.html). Oh and ofcourse one of the 2 reasons (first obviously food being awesome), my dear friend picked up a fancy on this cutie guy in the restuarant - Luca!!

Touristy Day 1 finally started by picking up a local city street map and walking up to Rialto bridge. It was so much fun to get lost on the way and exploring tiny alleys of Venice. Every alley has few connecting bridges over canals. It was totally inevitable not to stop by in the shops along our way and buy a few things. We didn't realise after reaching Rialto bridge which path we took and ended up in Piazza San Marco. That was an another bollywood moment for us as San Marco Sqaure is a shooting location of one of our favourite songs "Khuda Jaane". Ofcourse I had to do few bollywood steps, afterall you don't visit such locations everyday...!!

I'm not going to bore you with the history about Rialto bridge and San Marco Piazza so giving wikipedia links here for the same!(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_San_Marco, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rialto_Bridge)

Lagoon View

San Marco Square

Walking some more along the lagoon was fun, after which we decided to come back to San Marco Square to have a late coffee and some food. We got chatty with this old English couple in the restauarant who have been visiting Venice every year for last 25 years and looked still in so much love with each other (you can easily tell this by looking at the way they were holding hands and looked at each other adoringly). The lady told us they have just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary and this time their son and daughter in law have come with them who just called in to say they are expecting their first baby!! She told us just 4-5 days back she had an heartattack and was not sure if she could make it to her 30th anniversary or visit Venice.


Beautiful thought to go to bed on day 1: how short and uncertain life could be so why not live for the day and make most of it!!

Saturady (26th March): Exploring some more Veneziano alleys and Burano-Murano-Torcello day trip:

My Antonio Banderas!

With craziness of day 1, our day 2 started bit late with getting up late, easy walking around more alleys and taking a gondola ride. Doing gondola ride is the number one must -do experience in Venice. Gliding through serene waters while serenaded by your gondolier against the stunning backdrop of Baroque buildings is an experience you definitely won't forget in the lifetime.Normally it is a fixed rate of 80 euros for 40 minutes ride whichever part of Venice canals you chose to take gondola ride in. We decided to avoid grand canal as that could get really really busy and you end up spending more time being stuck on the way rather seeing the beautiful buildings or enjoying the ride. Our gondolier, Antonio (I was deliberately calling him my Antonio Banderas all that time as a teaser), made our ride definitely very beautiful.

Beautiful Gondolas

Trying to Kiss one of the Bridges!

After that we had a quick bite in one of the restaurants along the lagoon and off we go to our 6 hours day trip to Burano, Murano and Torcello islands.

First stop was at Murano, the island known for glass making (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murano). We visited one of the glass factories and saw how craftsmen work in the factories making all sorts of beautiful glass things.Attaching some pics we took in the factory.

Glass factory in Murano

Aren't these glass structures awesome?!

Second stop was at Torcello (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torcello) where we visited the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and the Church of Santa Fosca.

Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral

Last stop was visiting Burano, the island known for beautifuil colourful fishermen houses (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burano). We walked around the centre and along the canals admiring the beautiful houses and the bright colours used on these houses.

Colourful fishermen houses in Burano

Day 2 ended with eating a big meal again at our favourite restaurant and drinking their amazing house red wine. Luca was so sweet to fetch us some awesome gelato from his friend's shop as we were too lazy to get up and going to another place for an ice cream!

Sunday (27th March): Day trip to Florence.
We did a blunder by booking our return train tickets from Venice Maestro station to Florence. We should have booked it from St Lucia station which is the central station in Venice. That means we had to first walk to Rialto bridge for taking ferry to St Lucia station, then take a train to Maestro and then get on to our Florence train which is 1 hour 50 min journey from Maestro. We only got to know about this mistake the same morning while we were asking the directions from our reception person before heading out ..arghhh!

Since our train for Florence was for 8.30 AM and we were already late to buy separate train ticket at St Lucia station, we just got onto the first train we thought is going to Maestro. I was ready to take a chance that ticket checker might not come (since it's too early morning and we might save some money..teehee!) or if he comes then taking that innocent desi shot of girl traveler by saying oh we didn't know we needed a separate ticket for this train...cheeky me!

Anyway obviously ticket checker came and I played the shot of I didn't know, thank god he didn't fine us and made us only pay for the train fare!

Dumo View from Piazza Michaelangelo

Dumo in Florence

Michaelangelo statue in the piazza michaelangelo

Dumo View from Fiesole

Day out in Florence was nice, walking in the centre exploring Dumo, Basilica and taking hop on hop off bus tour to see other beautiful parts of Florence. We stopped at Fiosele and Piazza Michaelangelo, took some amazing shots of Dumo from the various spots. Day flew away without realising and it was already time to head back to Venice. Since we got back to Venice just around 10PM, we decided to again have dinner at our restuarant. This time I tried a new local drink called 'Spritz Veneziano', a must to try when in Venice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spritz_%28alcoholic_beverage%29), ofcourse followed with usual house red wines and gelatos!.

Spritz Veneziano

Monday (28th March): Last day in Venice
Since it was our last day in Venice, after walking for few hours in some more alleys and exploring more hidden cathedrals (our english couple told us that even after visiting Venice for last 25 years, they always come across new places and streets in Venice which I can totally understand now why!) , we decided to check out St. Mark's Basilica in San Marco Square. But gosh, the queue was like never ending, we waited for an hour but after that we gave up. Note to ouselves - book tickets for such places in advance..huh!

Anyway, it was almost time to leave for the airport in the evening. We bid goodbye to beautiful Venice and headed back to the airport through water taxi. Journey back to London was painful with flight delays and long immigration queues at London airport with 2 hours of waiting time...ouch.

Another great holiday memories saved in my head! Adieu Venice until we meet again!

First foot in South America - Brazil & Argentina (my dream forever!)

2 weeks of 2015 Xmas break!!
 Brazil and Argentina or rather I should say whole South America is one continent which I always wanted to visit, atleast once in lifetime but was always unsure about.These places always felt too far and full of lot of scary stories. But when few friends visited the continent in last few years and mostly said good things about the countries, it only made me more and more enticed about the continent. Plus this year's travels to Mexico and Cuba proved supporting too!

So here I planned 2 weeks in Brazil & Argentina on Xmas time and to confess, had to really convince hard my chick friend to join me on the travels! Also not to forget, thanks to Trailfinders - my travel agency which made our experience truly amazing, with all our bespoke tours and customized itinerary for two of us.

We started our South American adventure with flying direct from London to Rio De Janeiro (which means River of January) in Brazil. Brazil is the only Portuguese speaking country in the whole of South America and rest all countries have Spanish as first language. Early morning 12 hours flight from London was not easy but our excitement pushed away all our tiredness!

Although here came a blow when we landed late evening in Rio when our tour advisor advised, we have 8am pick up for our city tour.....ha! 12 hours journey, no sleep for 2 nights (too much pre-holiday partying) , long immigration queues at the Rio airport and now getting up at 6am again....damn!

Anyway all we did on our day 1 in Rio is check-in our hotel on Copacabana beach and straight go to bed to get 4-5 hours sleep. Next day our tour guide took us to Sugar loaf mountain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarloaf_Mountain) and showed us around the other touristy spots in the city - he mentioned names of lots of cathedrals and museums that we passed by but I don't remember any as I have no interest in any....ouch, sorry I know I am a baddie!). The only cathedral's name I remember is San Sebastian as the architect of the church was very unique like a pyramid but still very modern. And one of the squares is called Mahatma Gandhi square.

Sugar loaf mountain

San Sebastian Church

After lunch we walked around the local flea market in the centre and then went to hotel, changed and spent evening on Copacabana beach (our favorite beach just a road across the hotel!)

Copacabana beach view from our hotel rooftop

Amazon Rain-forest:

Next day was an early morning 3hours 50minutes flight to Manaus to spend 3 days in Amazon rain-forest. Now this is my most favorite part of the whole holiday (Sumi will say completely opposite though!). To get to our ecological resort/park, we had a pre-booked taxi drive from airport for 20 min and then half an hour boat ride as no road connections for reaching the eco park. 3 days stay in amazon rain-forest was totally awesome, the whole feel-factor of staying with the nature can't be described in words. We did visits to native village to see local's lives, spotted alligators, birds, monkeys, turtles, fishes and various type of wild life in their natural habitat. I did a jungle trek one of the mornings and saw so many rare species of plants and trees which have so many medicinal properties. One of the evenings, we did meeting of the waters trip where rivers Solimoes and Negro meet. Both rivers have different colours, density, temperature and speed. Where Negro is black, Solimoes is brown coloured and both rivers flow together for 6 kms before finally merging and making Amazon river with one colour. You can see the aerial view of these 2 rivers with a discrete line of divide even during flight take off and landing at Manaus airport! (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeting_of_Waters)

My sweetie pie!

Meeting of waters click!

Path in eco park to get to our room!

Our Ecological Park in Amazon!

3 days whizzed past so quickly that I felt we needed few more days there :( we met lots of other lovely tourists staying at the resort who were travelling from all over the world but my favorite were Lucas and Philipe from Sao Paulo, totally awesome 15 & 12 year kids who taught us how to make bonfire with whatever stuff we have available in jungle while out on a stroll with them one of the evenings! 2 thing that we badly missed in Amazon is spotting water lilies (as this year has been apparently a drought year with water levels too low) and swimming with the dolphins.

Rio De Janeiro:
After 3 days in Amazon forest, we were back in Rio to spend another 3 days. In these 3 days, we visited Corcovado mountain to see statue of Christ Redeemer, one of the seven wonders of the world (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_the_Redeemer_(statue)), saw live music at local pubs in the evenings, spending time at Ipanema and Copacabana beaches, made some more lovely friends - a family from South Africa, a gay couple - Carlos and Yunior from Miami. Hopefully we will see all these lovely people this year when they visit London! We also saw Samba show on one of the evenings - something never to be missed when in Brazil!


When you are in Rio, you have to visit Copacabana Palace hotel for a drink atleast. It is the most beautiful hotel on Copacabana beach and thankfully for us, our next door neighbor hotel. So we decided to do Christmas dinner on 25th in their Asian restaurant. If you are not a hotel guest and fancy dining in the hotel, then you definitely have to make an early reservation. Also, since Brazil and Argentina are both Catholic countries, all  restaurants closed down on 24th afternoon so we had to do a takeaway for our 24th evening dinner!

Live music in pubs in Rio!

Samba Show in Rio

Iguazu Falls:
Now it was time to board our flight to Iguazu falls. We landed on Brazilian side of the falls late evening. There are 2 airports in Iguazu - one on Brazil side where only domestic flights within Brazil can be taken and the other one on Argentina side - which has options for both domestic and international flights. Falls are distantly visible when the flights land!
 
Also, people living in Iguazu mostly speak both Portuguese and Spanish as they cross borders pretty much for work or shopping everyday. Neighboring country, Paraguay, is a tax free shopping heaven for Brazilians and very easy to get to through crossing border controls.

Brazil side view of Iguazu falls!

Aerial view of falls from the chopper

We had a full day tour booked to see first Argentinian side of the falls (roughly 5 hours trip including an hour driving both sides n border controls) and then Brazilian side (approx. 3 hours). Our tour guide picked us at 8am to ensure we get on the first train in Iguazu National Park on the Argentinian side to avoid heavy tourist influx and traffic on the border controls - must say a very wise decision as we saw massive queues for trains and at the border controls on way back to Brazil side.

Devil's throat from Argentina side

Another shot of Devil's throat

There are 2 different timezones on each side of the falls depending on which country you are in as Argentinian side is 1hour behind Brazil time.

Argentina side has 80% of the Falls and to get to see Devil's throat, you have to take 15 minutes train once you enter the national park and 1.5kms walking trail one side. Also ensure you carry sunscreen, mosquito repellents, rain-jacket and wear comfy shoes as it rains on-off around falls and the walking trail could get very slippery. 

Apart from that there is another walking trail of roughly 3kms to see bit lower side of the falls. Each side of falls has it own charm and mesmerising factor. You cannot do boat trips on this side of the falls as this is the peak of the falls but kayaking, boat rides, chopper rides are all available on Brazil side. Apart from this, if are lucky, you can spot some wild life in the national park like deer, rare species of birds etc. People have even spotted jaguars but obviously we didn't see any!

Once we finished Argentina side, it was time to go see Brazil side of the falls where there are sightseeing decks installed to walk through the falls n stand in middle of the falls seeing them falling from such great heights. Must say every side of falls is different and completely stand out from each other and you have to see both sides of the falls in Brazil and Argentina.

Since we had a private tour booked, we didn't have to wait in long queues of buses that run in Brazil side of the national park to take you to the falls. Private taxis can drive through the park but have to manage speed limit of 30kms/hour throughout your stay in the park and officials track it through a device they give to the driver to keep it in the car. Any violations to speed limit is a punishable offence and apparently government is very strict about it!

If you have time, I would definitely advise taking 2 hours boat ride which takes you at the foot of the falls but since we were super tired with too many flights/early morning schedules and didn't have much time left at hand, we chose to take chopper ride over the falls. Chopper ride is only 10 minutes but is definitely worth it as the pilot takes you super close to the falls to have a full on aerial view.

The falls are spectacular and kept us mesmerised throughout the experience. We have yet to visit Niagara Falls but a few American tourists vouched for Iguazu falls scoring over Niagara in every aspect.

Once we finished our day tour, it was time to relax in the evening and again pack our suitcases to take yet another flight next day to Buenos Aires for which we had to drive to Argentinean side of the airport.

Buenos Aires: 
Flight from Iguazu to Buenos Aires is 2 hours and there are 2 airports in Buenos Aires - domestic airport from where our hotel in the city centre was 20 minutes taxi ride and international airport is on the outskirts of the city which takes roughly an hour drive.

Important note about Argentinean pesos, it is a closed currency .i.e. You cannot buy it before hand while travelling to the country. So advisable currency to carry for exchange is USD, Brazilian Reals, Euros (even INR and Japanese Yen can be exchanged). There is an official exchange rate but you can never get that rate while exchanging currencies. Local banks do not exchange currency for foreigners n neither do most of the hotel desks. Some 4/5 star hotels exchange currencies but only for the guests staying at their hotels. There are some shops or local brokers on the Florida street that can exchange currency but you have to be very careful as high chances of getting fraud notes. So that leaves you with only one option to exchange via a small kiosk/official desk called Metropolls in Galleria Pacifico mall and the queues are massive. We spent 2 hours one day to get the local currency. Huge thanks to our new friend, Jeffery who agreed to let us jump the queue and stand with him otherwise we could have easily spent another 2 more hours in the queue.

Locals expect that with new President Mauricio Macri government regime, hopefully this system will improve and there will be more liberalisation on the local currency. Argentina is known for its good quality wines produced in Mendoza and Cordoba regions. Food is great in both Argentina and Brazil if you are a non vegetarian but for vegetarians like us it could mean a never ending struggle. We had  limited options throughout our travel, all we ate is pizza-pastas, fries, breads, rice and boiled veggies which still didn't come any cheaper!

Argentinians who are born and brought up in Buenos Aires call themselves ‘Portenos’. The city is known for its European -style architecture and is located on western shore of estuary of Rio de la Plata. The name Buenes Aires means "Good winds" or "Fair Winds" in Spanish! Portenos or residents of Buenos Aires have a popular saying ‘God is everywhere, but He only holds office hours in Buenos Aires’– this explains the economic significance of this great metropolitan city that simply overshadows the rest of Argentina. This saying confirms the tradition of imperial politics to which Argentina is heir, all lines of power lead to the court, a conception within which the geographic and symbolic decentralisation of financial and political administration is unheard of.

On our city tour and various walks around the city, we visited lots of famous spots like their Pink Parliament house (where their President only come to work through helicopter but do not live in the building), cathedral Metropolitan where Pope Francis stayed during his visit to Buenos Aires, square where all demonstrations happen, famous San Martin's park (our road across park/area from the hotel); SanTelmo area known for its flea markets and local nightlife/hippie area ; Caminito street which is known for its colorful houses (the reason why houses are colorful is because people who lived here were poor and they used to pick whatever leftover paints from the port area and used it for painting their houses); La Boca area which has gotten its name after Boca football stadium owned by Boca Juniors, one of Argentina's most famous football club and lastly Recoleta cemetery which is not like any usual cemeteries you would have seen.Every grave is like a mausoleum in itself and the most famous/visited mausoleum is of famous lady Evita. Evita or Eva Perón was the most influential lady in the history of South America. She is much loved by the Argentinians as she used her position as the first lady of Argentina to fight for women's suffrage and improving the lives of the poor (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Perón). To buy a tiny grave place in Recoleta cemetery can cost you over half a million dollars plus annual maintenance charge for the grave. The Recoleta area is very posh so no wonder you have to pay so much if you want to be buried in posh area! Hey Ho!!

Boca stadium

Caminito street

Recoleta cemetery

Alfajor cookie

Mate is served in these cups

One of the days, our dear friend Adriana took us for a drive around San Telmo & Palermo areas again and we had a lunch in a boutique Argentinian restaurant in Palermo Hollywood area. Palermo area is now divided in 3 parts depending on the riches/society classes - Palermo Soho, Palermo Hollywood and just Palermo.

If you are in Argentina, you definitely have to watch Tango show as Argentina is tango music's birthplace. We went to see tango show with 3 course dinner in place called Esquina Carlos Gardel which in itself is a very ancient beautiful building.

Another thing not to be missed in Argentina is trying their local sweet called Alfajores which is like a caramel and chocolate cookie and ‘Dulce de leche’ which is a creamy caramel sauce made from sweetened simmering milk. You can have Dulce de leche with ice creams, cookies, cakes etc. Argentinians also love their Mate, a caffeine infused beverage which is commonly drunk in Argentina. It is also the national drink in others South American countries like Uruguay and Paraguay and very common at the south of Brazil. The right pronunciation of the word mate by English-speakers could be guided by the following examples. The m is pronounced as in "mountain". The a is pronounced as in "bat". The t and e are pronounced as in "technical". It is an infusion based on an herb called Yerba Mate. Usually it is taken with hot water. This water is carried on a tea kettle, pava in spanish, or in a thermo bottle.

There are lots of fancy restaurants on Puerto Madero area which is a new part of the city and definitely worth walking around and having a meal one of the days even though the food is very pricey.

There are few Indian restaurants around Recoleta and Santa Fe avenue like Bengal, Delhi Mahal, Delhi Masala but I would totally recommend Delhi Mahal on Cordoba Avenue as the food was really good.We did half day trip to places called San Isidro and Tigre, just an hour drive outside the main city. Tigre is known for these small islands that have been created over the years as a part of sedimentation process with the sand , mud, clay and other things that the rivers bring with the flow. These are type of floating islands and a small house can be bought in USD150k. Good part of living on these islands is there are a local school on one of the island, ferries to take kids to schools, and moving boats which can deliver whatever you need for household items. Mostly people have their summer houses on these islands.

For our New Year eve, we had a great Gala dinner with the ‘Roaring Twenties’ theme at Sheraton Hotel and must say we had a great time dancing with the locals! My ball dance partner was a 10 year old boy but hey, I am not complaining because he was a great partner....hahaha.

Tango Show in Argentina

Grad decor in Sheraton for New year Eve

Our beautiful new year eve venue

I can go on writing so much about all the places we went/heard about but going to stop here and give you wikipedia links, just in case you are still intrigued to know about all these beautiful places.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_de_Janeiro
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguazu_Falls

I am really hoping now that this year I can revisit the continent and see Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos islands. More I visit Latin and South America, my love for these countries only increase!

Final note: wish I was a guy because the girls in both Brazil and Argentina are so beautiful. Guys are good looking too but the girls are class apart....hmmm....️ They are as exotic as the land itself.

This was truly a fabulous holiday with beautiful memories to cherish!
 

Beautiful Rio - one of my fav pic!