Our journey to Antarctica started in earnest, on Dec 28th 2023, with a pit stop in Buenos Aires (BA). We came from the cold to a sunny and hot Buenos Aires, where the temperature was in the 80’s.

This time our travel group was down to 3 couples – Patel and Amin’s from NJ, and another couple (our namesake) from London (UK). Regrettably the Balani’s could not make it this time – our long-standing members of the travel group. We met up with the London Patel’s at the hotel; it is always nice to see our “British cousins”, and good friends, no less. Besides they bring a whole bunch of local goodies for us to munch on. It’s not like we have not seen each other in a long time, we were all together earlier this August, along with the Balani’s, on Viking’s Danube river cruise.

This was our second trip to BA. I love the beat and rhythm of the city. Our last trip to BA was in Feb 2020. At the time we stayed in the chic Palermo neighbourhood, full of restuarants and bars, and the place was vibrant, bustling with people seated outdoors, eating, drinking, and cacophony of sounds filling the air.

This time we stayed the night at the InterContinental. The hotel has seen better days, with its hey day being the 70’s and 80’s. The lobby looks nice, inviting, and big. The rooms look dated. It has a feel of a dingy room, and similarly, the bathroom.

Viking cruises ought to look for a better place than this – I understand that they use them around the globe. We encountered the same at the InterContinental in Budapest, again courtesy of Viking cruises.

Whilst I highly rate Viking cruises, regrettably the same cannot be said of this hotel chain.

• Full disclosure, during my formative years – at 16 or 17 yrs of age I got a summer job as a Room Service waiter at the InterContinental Park Lane, in London. The hotel was in its heyday, and glitzy. It was a beautiful hotel, and loved working there. I made more money per week, including tips, than my parents.
• My second job with the same hotel chain was at the Frankfurt InterContinental, three yrs later. Again, had a wonderful experience, though with a rude awakening, initially. I got interviewed remotely via a phone call with the HR dept in Frankfurt. I was accepted for a position on the Front Desk, however on arrival on my first day at work, the HR manager took one look at me and told me that the position was already filled – not one to take a no for an answer, I showed him the acceptance letter with the start date, and with his signature at the bottom, and demanded an explanation. I reiterated that I came all the way from London given the signed agreement, and was not going back.
• This was my first encounter of racism, at work. In London I encountered such happenings while growing up, from white kids and teenagers, who would call us (brown skinned folks) “paki”, a derogatory term. The guy had to find something as I was not going to leave!
• Whilst I did not get the Front Desk position, I got a position of a mini-bar filler – really a bottom of a totem pole position but was not going to give him comfort of walking away. I accepted and made sure he saw me everyday for the next 10 weeks.
• I enjoyed working there – it allowed me to meet guests, and improve my German. I met some amazing staff members, and it so happened that I befriended the front desk staff.
• One of whom, a young German offered me a night stay at his parent’s house in Nuremberg, from where I hitchhiked across Germany for a week. Around midnight we arrived from Frankfurt, as we entered the house, his grandma shone a torch at us, and asked if that was Helmut, to which he responded affirmatively, and she asked who the person was next to him, and he replied that it was his friend.
• In the morning when I came down for breakfast, Helmut, his parents and grandma were already seated. Grandma leaned over to take a closer look at Helmut’s friend – touching my face, moving her fingers across my face, and then asked whilst touching my chest if I was brown all over. I intimated that I was. She gasped, holding her hand over her mouth. Apparently, she had never seen a brown person. All burst out laughing, including myself. To this day, I still cherish their wonderful, and warm hospitality. I just kick myself that I cannot remember Helmut’s last name.

Back to BA, the downtown side street was filled with street-vendors hawking their wares, and with pesos in a tailspin, every ten steps or so one kept hearing, “cambio de dolores“.

On our first evening in BA, we had a dinner reservation at the D’oro Italian Bar, couple of blocks from the hotel, in the Monserrat neighbourhood. It was no Palermo, but perfectly fine for one evening.

Calling it a bar, does a disservice to the exquisite meals it serves. The place looks small from the outside. However, walking through the front door, it transforms to a long, somewhat narrow open space with a rectangular footprint – the minimal design gives it special character and a warm, homely ambience.

As one walks in, on the left side stands a preeminent Italian aperitif, a bottle of Campari, and on the right side is their wine collection; a few steps past this is a grand bar, and than the dining area opens up.

A view from the dining area, looking towards the front of the restaurant …

The meal was delicious, the wine was sublime – Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino, the waiting staff were excellent, and a good time was had by all – yapping, laughing, aah yes, and spilling a glass of this fine wine.

With an early morning flight to Ushuaia awaiting us, we called it an early night.

Adios to sunny Buenos Aires, for now, and onwards to the relatively chillier climes of Ushuaia, and beyond!

One Life Many Travels means One Life Many Trips; One Life Many Journeys means One Life Many Memories; One Life Many Journeys means One Life Many Experiences; One Life Many Journeys means One Life Many Moments

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