Grutas las Maria / Semuc Champey

After the crazy leap of faith, it was time for the Grutas Las Marias. This is a set of interconnected caves that run for some 10 kms under ground. They have pools of water that are sometimes quite deep, a few water falls, and it is pitch dark. We were given no warning about what we were about to get ourselves into. We only knew that it was going to be wet and dark. We were handed out candles that we had to hold up over the water.

As we entered the cave, I was a little apprehensive. Yannick is a confident swimmer and our friends Susana Ion and Ameya were with us so that was not a worry. The worry was Nu and me. Both of us can swim but I wasn't sure what we would do under pressure, and the pressure monted as we started our walk. At first the water was waist deep so it was ok, until I feel back a little while trying to take some photos. Next thing I knew , our group was in pitch darkness with only candles for light, and could not locate a way forward. Moments later we found the entrance but it was scary. We continued to walk through head high water, sometimes needing to swim, then climbed up a little water fall inside the cave, and a few ladders until we finally reached the spot where we had to turn back.  There were many moments where I was swimming in the water, doused my candle, and then had no idea where the hell I was and more importantly why I was putting myself through this. The caves were unbelievable but we were a big group and the guides were not really safety conscious. The trek was a tough one and they hadn't bothered to find out if all of us could swim but it was an adventure in the truest sense.

The caves have numerous stalactite and stalacmites but they were all dark and ominous looking. Getting back to the cave entrance was as exhilarating as the entry.

Next up was Semuc Champey, a natural formation of 7 lakes at 7 levels before the descending water ends in a cascade into the Cohabon river. The water is a beautiful green and the perfect temperature to swim in. Fish abound in these waters, and I got a pedicure just sitting in it. Semuc is formed because the river suddenly runs underground and at this point a part of water escapes from the underground cave that it runs into like an over spill. This over spill creates the first lake. The water then flows down into the second and so on and so forth. This forms a stunning visual.

These caves are amazing, and Semuc was stunning. This isdefinitely one of the highlights of my trip.

I really felt priveledged to be in the midst of such natural beauty.

Lanquin, Grutas las Maria , Semuc 1

From Flores we took a minivan to Lanquin. The van came by our hostel to pick us up and was already packed. This meant that the 6 of us had to use the last 2 seats at the back , 3 of the additional fold out seats that vans here attach to the existing seats, and only one of us had a decent seat. These fold out seats are like baby seats. They have a back rest that is about a foot high so no back support whatsoever. Gautemalan van drivers have a penchant for lying about schedules. When you get to a bus stop, all waiting vans are just about to leave, and when you are in the van and ask how much longer it will be, it is never longer than 2 hours. Many 2 hours later we reached Coban, and then continued on to Lanquin.

It had begun to rain quite heavily, then lightening and thunder added to the caos. The roads were dirt and I could not make out the difference between the road and the river below. The drive was really stunning. The vegetation here is thick! It covers every possible space, even the rocks on the mountains around are not spared. It seems like the greenery is having a continuous war with the road, waiting to take back what it used to own. Waterfalls cascade down hills swamped in clouds. Suffice to say it is breathtaking.

Anyway we reached Lanquin around 7 pm. It was pitch dark . El Retiro, the hostel we wanted to stay in was quite full, but we managed to bag the last two triple rooms. Dnner here was supposed to be splendid, an all you can eat barbecue was the menu of the day, but as our luck would have it, we had reached too late and they had run out. El Retiro is not a place you can get any sleep in. It is a party hostel, very scenically situated on the Corabon river but the party does not stop and I'm getting too old for this.

The next morning we headed to Semuc Champey and the Grutas Las Marias. The hour long drive in the back of a pick up with a bunch of Gringas and gringos was eventful, and the view spectacular.

We finally reached the river and changed into our swim wear. We then walked up to a swing that was tied so that it would swing high over the river and asked to swing on it and jump into the gushing river as some kind of initiation rite. I wasn't too sure about it given my swimming skills but when a bunch of guys and girls did it, and finally Yannick too did it, I had too. It was fantastic! Leaping off a swing and falling some 20 feet into a gushing river was exhilarating but this was just the tip of the iceberg.

Tikal Mayan

Flores is an island in the Peten Itza lake. The lake is small in comparison with to the huge lakes we had seen earlier. The town itself is little but pretty. Due to the huge influx of tourists, the town has become quite turistic, therefore the prices are little higher than you'd expect but the town is geared as a base for both Tikal and genereal travel in Gauteala. Its been really hot so even though the lake wasn't pristine, we did spend some time in it. We reunited with our  friends Susana and Ion here. Ameya a friend of susana had joined them a few weeks ago so now it was the 6 of us. Yannick, Ameya and Ion jumped off the peir into the lake while Susanna and I generally hung out in the lake cooling off. We stayed at a col hostel called Los Amigos. One of the owners Matheus is an indo phile and so Nu taught them an Indian recipe.

The next day we took off at 4.30 am to Tikal. Tikal is the largest Mayan ruins. It is set in the middle of the jungle and that makes the huge towers even more impressive. The oldest temple was built around 300 bc while most of the rest of the complex of temples were built around the 7th and 8th century. It is an impressive place but I think I've done too many ruins to really feel the enormity of being in such a place. We did see a toucan though! It is such a beautiful bird!!

The next day we set out to Lanquin and Semuc Champey.

Gautemala Crossing

From Roatan we headed to Copan. We ended up staying in San Pedro Sula for a night because a bridge on the route to Copan had collapsed. SPS is the 2nd biggest city in Honduras and quite unsafe after dark, which meant we were stuck in our hotel room playing cards and drinking flor de cana or local rum with our 2 friends Liz and Mel who we had met in Roatan and bumped into once again on this bus.

Copan is a beautiful little town in the mountains. It has a wonderful central square around which the entire city of 6 streets is laid out. We had a super street barbecue near here and genrally hung out here in the evenings.
The hostel we booked Iguana Azul and the Gringo owner, runs an interesting scam.They confirm a booking , then when you get there, they give you story about how they can't help it but they don't have a room anymore , but they can accomodate you in there more expensive property next door at a discount. After the discount, it still costs twice as much as the first place but it is nice room and breakfast in included so we took it. I know it is a scam becasue we met 6 people who had got the same routine! My guess is that he does this bacuse IA is a few block from the parque central, so he wouldn't get any walk ins, since normally all backpackers get to the centre of town, and look for a place to stay around there. Anyway, the next day turned nasty when the guy suddenly told us we had to vacate the room even though we had a 2 night booking. Don't want to get into the details but this was just the start of an interesting 2 days. Iguana Azul depends on good references and I will on trip advisor soon...

Anyway, the ruins are 7th century Mayan, and Copan is the location where the most pre colombian artifacts were found, so it is definitely interesting for those so interested. Yannick and I have had our fill of ruins but I still think it was worth seeing.

The next morning we got into a micro shuttle to cross the broder to Gautemala. The lady officer at the Honduran migracion would not stamp us out until we made sure we did not need a visa for Gautemala. I walk across to the Gautamala migracion and the old gentle guy across the table tells me it will cost $200 per person for the visa. I don't get it, and explain to him that the Gautemalan visa is free, and on arrival, for Indians. He brings the price down to $100 each and this is when I get what he was really asking for. I was shocked, and I told him I wouldn't pay anything for the visa. The micro was waiting and people were getting hassled. We then pulled out our laptop and told the officer we would show him a letter I had from his embassy (which of course was bull shit) when he finally asked for $10 per passport, and without waiting for me, began to stamp us in. This, without an exit stamp from Honduras!

In the confusion I gave him $10, and took the passports. He came after me and said I had to give him $20 more, but I had the stamped passports in my hand so I just walked away! Went back to the Honduran side to get the exit stamped and the lady asks me how much I paid for my Gaut visa? I said nothing, and she says you must've paid a minimum of $10 a passport, but if you did not you need to pay me to stamp you out. I acted like I did not understand any spanish and took my passports to leave when she gave up and stamped us out! Talk about international cooperation!

Not the adventure we were looking for, not the entry we wanted but exciting all the same! It has me ready for anything now! It was the most disgraceful welcome to any country. I pray this nevers happens to anyone entering India. I would be shamefaced.

Eventually we crossed and waited for our A/c PUllman bus coach that we had paid for to show up. Something that looked like a bus did show up, but it was very local, no a/c and no seat numbers so we had the last row. I guess we were now getting a real taste of Central America. Without a complain we took the 7 hour ride and finally reached the isla de Flores.
It is a very pretty island, and we look forward to meeting our travel friends Susana and Ion after travelling together in Bolivia a couple of months ago. We plan to spend a couple of weeks exploring Gautemala together so that will be fun!

Destined to Dive??

So, we're in Granada, back from a disaster called Tree Tops, find our old hostel booked out and so move into another one across the street. At breakfast, we're sitting around and we hear someone say he was from Corn Island. Abdel lived in Panama city but was originally from the Corn. What you need to know is that the corn Islands were on top of Nu's list ever since we decided to ditch Ecuador and head into Nicaragua. Problem is that the islands are right across the country and really out of the way to plan a route. Once we got into Granada we began to hear stories of how the weather (rain) was making it next to impossible to do the boat crossing from Bluefields to Corn.

Anyway, we got talking to Abdel and then a few others and were pretty unsure about the trip when Broadfoot, an older American guy staying at the same hostel piped in asking if we had given the Bay Islands in Honduras any thought. We hadn't, in fact we were planning to give Honduras a skip. He made a case for it saying the islands were stunning and that the snorkling and diving spectacular. It definitely sowed a seed. At this point two girls had joined our breakfast group. They had just been to the islands and had just got their diving licenses. Oe of them did it in Utila and the other in Roatan. From their experiences, Roatan was a clear pick. They told such stunning stories about the islands that we were quite sold on it.

We still had some doubts but that night we hung out with some friends we had made in the hostel we stayed at earlier, and in conversation we realsied that one of them was a proffessional wreck diver! After a chat with him, it was clear that the universe was colluding and conspiring to make sure we got to Roatan. Decision made, we picked Native sons , a dive shop that had been around since the 90's with an old hand who used to free dive in his earlier days helming the crew, as our first stop.

Native sons, Alex and Fiona were super as were the rest of the dive crew. Raotan has some 60 dive sites and some fantastic reefs with crystal clear water with beautiful fish, turtles, rays , barracudas and a ton of others I can't name right now.

4 days, some serious studying, painful videos,  final exam and 4 stupendous dives later , all three of us are now certified open water divers!! I hope we can dive again in Mexico...

Ometepe, Managua, Leon .....Honduras!!

We were set to leave Ometepe and decided to do the cheapest route back to Rivas and then from there on north to Leon. This meant we take the 8.30 chicken bus from Hacienda Merida to Moyogalpa, the capital city of Ometepe, with our bags. Was a daunting thought but it would only cost us $5 while the taxi was $35.

The bus got crowded but it wasn't too bad. We were the frst pick up, so we got seats, and our bags were thrown into the back. The ride itself was over 3 hours in the slowest, least powerful vehicle we've ever been transported in. We got to the wharf just in time to catch the ferry back to Rivas. A quick meal and we jumped into a min bus headed to Managua. In Managua, we took a short taxi ride to UCA where the micros to Leon start off from. The ride was much nicer than the crazy heat of the Rivas Managua ride as the micro was air conditioned. 2 hours later we were in Leon. All in all we had been travelling for about 10 hours and we were tired.

We headed to find the Tica Bus agent to buy our ticket to Tegulcigalpa. Yeah, we had decided to give El Salvador a miss and instead go to Honduras. There is a story there which I will write out soon. An hour or so later we had fixed on a hostel, got our tickets for the day after and started walking around exploring Leon.

Leon is the 2nd oldest colonial city in Nicaragua. It has an important University therefore the overall feel of the city is young. The catheral is the largests and most impressive in Central America. The story goes that the colonial head of the city got a plan approved in Lima, Peru from his superiors and then just went ahead changed the design and built a humungus cathedral in place of the much more modest one Lima had approved.

The town itself has an interesting history being build only 2 months after Granada, and being the capital city at one time. All in all, a nice town to hang around in for a day or tow. Once again we couldn't find any local food so had to make do with shewarmas and some other international food. We found a great super market and loaded up for next stop, as we knew Roatan would be crazy expensive.

The next morning we headed to the bus stop at 5.15am, crossed the border at about 9 and reached Tegulcigalpa around 12.30. A mad rush to reach the Headman Alas bus office before 12.45 to catch the 1.30 to La Cieba worked out. We got to La Cieba via San Pedro Sula at about 9.30 pm. Another long traveling day. Spent the night at a hostel, ate balleadas or Honduran tacos with a bean paste base and meat and eggs thrown into a roll. Next morning we headed out to the Ferry and two hours later we were in Half moon bay, Roatan, Honduras. Our first Carribean experience!!!

Ometepe

Something about ending up in Miami changed things a little for us.  I think we slowed down, and weren't getting into the crazy driving rhytm that we had going until this point. Granada helped! The city has a bunch of things to do but we choose to just hang around, eat well, drink many beers, and hung out with a bunch of new friends we made. We walked around the city quite a bit and just experienced it. Granada is touristy at least by Nicaraguan standards, but it was the non touristic side that had my interest. Granada is on the The lake Nicaragua or Cocibolca in the native tongue, and is surrounded by Volcanoes (Masaya and Mombacho).
We did travel out for a day to a place called Tree tops or Poste Rojo. Poste Rojo is set in the dry rainforest area around Granada and the setting allows you a beautiful view of the surroundings. The place is infested with howler monkeys. These monkeys can really howl!! They had a cable walkway that is quite fun, but everything else about the place is a disappointment. I'm tired of words like organic and eco when they are used purely as excuses! This place had an 'organic' toilet which basically meant it was a hole into a reservoir below with no water to flush, no permiculture in place, and really really disgusting! It stank so much that we left rather than use the loo the next morning. We were promised a great dinner for $6 each. Now you have realise that $6 goes a real long way in Nica, and so when we were given mac and cheese with some grilled chicken, I knew we were also paying for the volunteers dinners.

Anyway, we got out of there quick, tried to find Apoyo, the 48 sq km lake that the volcano Masaya or Mombacho (need to re check which one) left when it blew its top off a long time ago. we got to Apoyo but no one could get us to the hotels that supposedly lined the lake. After a couple of hours of trying we gave up and took the chicken bus back to Granada. The chicken bus is basically the old American school buses that are used extensively in South and Central America for local transport. They are really quite quaint and interesting. The locals will take anything onto these buses, livestock, dogs, birds, ...

The next day we headed to Ometepe, an island formed by 2 volcanoes, Volcan Concepscion and Volcan Maderas. We took the chicken bus once again to Rivas. The drive was truly calming. The lush green vegetation has such a wonderful effect on the senses! On reaching Rivas we took a cab to San Jorge and then a ferry to Mojogalpa the capital of Ometepe. From here we jumped into a van with 4 others since that was the best way we could get a deal. The other 4 were headed to a place called Hacienda Merida while we planned to saty in playa Santa Domingo. Luckily for us we couldnt find a decent hostel in SD and so tagged ablong with the others to HM.

This is the nicest hostel we've stayed in yet for the price! The rooms are beautiful, and place has been built with love. The owners do a ton of great work with the kids of Merida so all in all it feels nice to be here, even if it is gringo infested. We've spent all of the last 36 hours hanging around, kayaking to the different islands and swamps around and just being! Anu just cooked a meal for everyone!

We've also just decided to go to the Honduras before heading out to Gautemala. we'll probably head out to Leon tomorrow and then move on the Honduras in a coupe of days. The best part of this kind of travel is the freedom to choose when and where we want to go....

NEW PHOTOS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonflydreams2011/?saved=1

We ate a good although not gourmet lunch in a small restuarant across the hotel in Mangaua and then rushed out in a taxi to the bus station for Granada. The ride took us through downlown Managua which reminded me of a mid sized city in India. Sadly the chains have inundated this city and so its a mish mash of natural beauty , immense green patches and then some horrendous buildings selling hamburgers and rottiserie chicken. Btw rottiserie chicken is the biggest selling food item in both south and central America.

We jumped into a micro that was in fantastic  shape, was air conditioned and only just a bit crowded, and it cost us $ 1 each for the 1 hour ride. The route reminded me of Kerala with a 2 lane highway that had lush green on either side. The houses we passed were again similar to Kerala or Mangalore. Tiled sloping roofs, the quadrangle structure for the bigger houses and wooden boaded shops.

Granada is the oldest colonial town in central America. It is very pretty in the colours of the building, the massive church in the central parque, the cobbled stonne alley and the beautiful tiles that they have used to tile the sidewalks. Outside of the centre, it is a poor central american city with massive crowded markets the dirty building next to each other in a haphazard fashion.

We found a really cheap hostel with a bathroon Yannick labelled 'The Inca Bathroom' because of the old tradition style. Honestly it wasn't a very exciting bathroom but it would do, at least for me. Like in  traditional Kerala houses, it had a receptacle that stored water, and an excuse for a shower that creapt up from it. A hole in the ground was the drain and there was no wash basin.  Luckily the centre of the hostal was a beautiful quadrangle with plans and hammocks, and some of the friends we made here made up for a bad bathroom.

Nicaraguan food tantalised only to disappoint. The Gallo Pinto is nice but not outstanding, the meat isn't really their forte, so one would imagine fish and sea food but once again it hasn't really hit the spot! Don't get me wrong,  Its no Argentina, but its just not great! The women here are the prettiest I've enountered on this trip although as people South Americans are far more friendly! Nicaragua is inexpensive, maybe even more inexpensive than India in many situations, definitely on par with Bolivia so that feels real nice! Petty crime is high but that should be expected since most Nica's are so poor that anything they find might mean the difference between having a meal or not!

The depressing part is the levels of education here. It is pathetic! I've encountered many many people who voluntered at teaching jobs and every one of them has the same story to tell. The kids are bereft of imagination, don't have even the basic math or language skills even at 14 and 15. The test papers are a joke and there is no attempt to remedy these questions. It looks like the govt prefers a dumb populace. It is a long discussion but one that i find really interesting especially given the Indian context!

Machu Pichu Pix

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonflydreams2011/5919078287/in/photostream/

a bugging day and a failed volcano

So as papa said we had to go to miami to get to managua....now i dont know what papa and mamma have against big cities, but from how we got to granada ( a small city )will tell you that they definitely do have something against big cities. We got to managua at about 2 30 am. I was tired and when we got to the immigration place they needed 30 dollars for our visas, but papa did not have any cash with him so mamma had to go to the havasacks and get some cash and just then we realised that they would not except 100usd notes, so papa had to exchange the dollars or some thing and i dont know what he did but finally we got in. By that time everybody had probably left the airport.
Our hostel had a pick up service and so we got to the place in no time. When we got there, there were a bunch of guys hanging around in the common area and they were staring at mamma, talking in a weird language. Later we found out that they were Indians from punjab and thay were actually speaking Punjabi.

We slept for about 7 hours and then we decided that we should leave Managua, so that was it...we had spent 9 hours in managua out of which we spent 7 of them sleeping. We got a minibus to Granada and i was still tired, but we had to walk and find a hostel. Everybody told us to go to the bearded monkey...and so we did but they were full, but we found a nice hostel except that the bathroom... well i named it the inca bathroom.

After a few days in granada we decided to go to the tree house and apoyo  ( a volcano crater in which a lake formed ). So we left for the tree house. The tree house was nice and quiet. The view was great, they had a cable bridge that connected two platforms together and i ran across it many many times...that was fun. The also had a fireman´s pole that u could use instead of the stairs to go up and down. I slid down it  many many times.
The people we met there were really nice and we played group solitaire which was fun... but the best of all was our backpacker chess board. Papa and a guy named Edgar wanted to play chess but the tree house guys did not have a board, so mamma ( and i helped ) made a paper chess board with standing paper pieces.

The tree house was a really great experience except for the stupid bugs, once we put the light on above the chess board some flying bug kept falling on me and papa and me discovered a new insect in our room. It was like a snakes body but like 6 cms and it had dragonfly wings....i dont wanna encounter that bug again. After the tree house we headed to apoyo, but it was really hard to get there, cos we did not know where to go.  We were not in the mood to try too hard to find it, so we left apoyo and came back to granada.

yannick

Central America finally

We were in the US so we decided to ship out about 15kgs of our warm stuff to Sharad and Stella in NJ. We also decide to stock up on cheap shampoo, some basic medication etc. we had time, and it was the 4th of July so we hit the beach once again! Only this time we took public transport and it actually wasn't so bad. Buses run only once every hour but it costs only$1.75 each. We got to a spot between hollywood and Dania beach, and it was amazing how different it was from the spot we had got to the day earler. Firstly it was predominently black. Secondly, it had a bunch of barbecues lit up just off the beach and the food looked damn good! We walked towards Hollywood beach and slowly it became less black and more white. It was quite strange how black people hung out with black people , while white people hung out predominantly with white people and hispanic people with their own!

we had a decent lunch and got back to the hotel and to the airport to take our flight to Nicaragua! For the second time on this trip, the airline refused to take us on unless we had a ticket out of Nicaragua! Once again , put in an impossible situation I had to buy a fully refundable one way ticket out of Nicaragua for $3000, get into Nicaragua and then cancel the ticket. While the ticket is fully refundable, I'm pretty sure it will cost us an additional $100 or so t the very least! Sucks but at least we were in Nicaragua!!!!

Getting into Nicaragua was straighforward except for the fact that I forgot to carry cash in my wallet. We had to pay $30 as an entry fee and I had no cash and they wouldnt take credit cards nor did they have an ATM machine anywhere around! Luckily we had some reserve cash in Nu's checkied in luggage! we convnced the authorities that we would not run away and brough them the money! Of course they would not accept a $100 bill, so once again , get to a cambio, change the money etc etc...

We had a hotel booked and a car waiting for us since it was midnight in Mangau! When we reached the hotel we weren't pleased! 4 or 5 men sat around the reception and just stared at Anu! And then they spoke...In Punjabi!!! These guys were from Punjab, in Nicaragua for 90 days, apparently traveling, but they never left the hotel, and Mangua! They said they really liked going to the mall. They spoke no Spanish and very little English , but the girls who worked at the hostel seemed to have a thing for them, even if one of then was terribly underage! We slept in, and I woke up to a typical Nicaraguan breakfast which includes Gallo Pinto (rice and beans), fried eggs, and fried or boiled banana! I couldn't have asked for more!! Evrytime I eat the cooked bananas , it takes me back home!

The morning was another scary scene, so we decide to run from managua! We took a micro to Granada, a colonial city, the oldest colonial city in central America! It was a nice ride even if we were worried about out  haversacks that were loaded on top of the van! The van itself was pretty new, and air conditioned and the 1 hour trip cost $1 each, so no complaints there!

Nicaragua via Miami

Getting into a Miami was interesting. Spirit airways has the smallest seats, and its a discount airline so you psy for your seat, your bags and pretty much anything they can charge you for. I guess that is the principle of a low cost airline but it does take some getting used to after the airlines in India. The 5 1/2 hour flight was only the beginning of the welcome to Miami!

We got in and queued up for our immigration. The non American citizens queue had about 100 people ahead of us while the American citizen queue probably had 4 times that many people queed up. Two hours later there were about 70 people ahead of us, while maybe 600 Americans had gone through their queue. Not surprising, given 7 agents were taking care of the Americans, while our queue had one! When asked, we were told that it was federal American policy to make sure the American citizens were taken care of first!
We were still ok, but a bunch of poeple ahead of us missed their connecting flights and they weren't even given an apology! WELCOME TO AMERICA! And they wonder why Americans are hated everywhere in the world! Its not the people, it is the govt and policy like this that makes them so popular! What pissed me off even more was the officer asking me how we were this morning,when we finally go to the counter? I asked him how he thought we were, given we were waiting in a fucking queue for 3 hours while American citizens breezed through!

Selfishness is ingrained in the American psyche...the country is built on that principle, so maybe I should not have been surprised, but to see it this obviously shocked me! Funny thing is most Americans I've met hate their govt, but somehow that doesn't change policy! Last time I enter through Miami even if it costs me more! Having vented, I think this is a Miami problem because the last few times I entered the US through NY and I haven't ever faced this kind of in your face discrimination.  Also everyone we met enroute had warned us about this particular treatment in Miami.

Anyway, we put that behind us, got into our nice hotel, and hit the beach. Apparently, there is no public transport to the beach on sunday, or at least it is so infrequent that its not worth waiting for. So we shelled out $40 to take a cab ! The beach was nice, a bit of a fashion parade but its trying to be a latin american beach, so its forgivable! Fried calamari and buffalo wings were great, the poeple we met really nice, so all in all a fun time.

Since I cursed America, I must write a line about the Americans we met in Miami. We got chatting to some really nice middle aged bikers from Alabama. With them was Patricia, who worked at the hotel bar. In a bit we were ready to eat so we asked her where we could go. It was time for her to finish work so she actually took us in her car to a nice restaurant even though I don't think it was really in her way home. The staff at the hotel were super nice too! Once again, the American people save the country from its ridiculous policies!

Paracas

From Haucacina, we took a taxi back to ICA , spent a few hours around the bus terminal, got lunch and then jumpedx back onto a bus to Paracas. Paracas is a beach town with a cold current that makes it haven for Pelicans, Inca terns, penguins, sea lions etc. It is still strange to see these creatures this far up north!

The town itself is basically one street and a beach front boulevard! The beach is pretty and the sunset beautiful. We found a local joint and ate a local meal with many locals as they enjoyed themselves laughing incessantly at a Jackie Chan movie that they played on their TV. The people in Peru love Indian films and Indian so we always got a really warm reception once they knew we were from India. Actually that is true of Bolivia and Niaragua too.

The next morning we took the tour to the Isla de ballesteros! These Islands are about an hour away from the shore in a speed boat Enroute we saw an Inca astronomical drawing on a hill side akin to the Nasca lines. It was very basic but significant I guess. Allalong you get to see huge Pelicans, and it is fascinating!

The isla de Ballesteros is a rock formation that apparently sprang up due to the earth shifts. I don't knwo enough to know if that is true but the islands are the huge rock foramtions with tunnels of beatiful green water flowing through it making it ethereally beautiful! The rocks themselves hve more birds sitting on them than you can imagine! Star fish, and molluscs of all sorts cling to the bottom of the rocks, and octopus abound in the water! The problem with so many birds is a lot of shit! There is so much bird poo on the rocks that they have tirned white. Apparently once a year the peruvian govt actually harvest the sht as fertiliser. They apparently scrape out 20 feet of the stuff in some places! I think that a bit exxagerated but it definitely puts things in perspective.

The birds were beautiful in the setting, and so were the penguins and the one sea lion sitting atop a rock preening! Two baby sea lions swam around to add to the excitement.
The ride back was bizzarre! It was big waves, high speed, and very cold!

We got back rushed to bus station and got on a bus to Lima!

Huacacina - an oasis

the less said about the Inca equinox festival, the better. The run up was nice in its parades and general air of festivity, but the celebration itself was just sheer pagaentry , super touristic with no sense of tradition. It was a badly acted, directed and produced play. they even faked a lama sacrifice!!

We took off the next say for ICA and Huacachina, the sand boarding capital of south America. This time we took the bst bus and it was good except for me and Nu getting a bout off altitude sickness! Anyway, we reached ICA in the morning and immediately took a taxi to Huacachina.
Huacachina is an oasis in the middle of the desert with the biggest dunes I've ever encountered. These dunes are huge, and the small like in the middle of the village with palm trees surrounding it make a pretty picture.The food in haucacina was great. We ate Cebiche and other really nice sea food.

That evening we took the tour to the dune. Dune bashing in a open buggy with a put together engine was crazy! I think I pulled a neck muscle as we climbed and dropped down what looked like impossible to navigate dunes! Yannick was being thrown around because of his size.

Soon we stopped , and our driver guide pulled out the sand boards. These boardsa re basically wooden planks with two velco straps for you feet and hands! The slope he started us off on was a small one in comparison to the others. His instructions bagan and ended with BE CAREFUL...DON'T FALL OFF! Yannick and I decided to try standing on the board and pretty much succeded in going down more than halway down the slope at one go! Nu did it on her belly. It seemed like the belly style was more fun so we swiched to it ! The next slope was huge, andd crazy! the last was a monster! I'm dying to sandboard again!

Machu Pichu

We wanted the trip to MP to be adventurous and inexpensive. We hadn't booked the Inka trek months in advance like everyone else who wanted to do it had, because we had no idea when we would be in Peru. The other trekking optiions seemed interesting but given the price to excitement ratio we thought better of doing it. That meant we either tkae the train which costs about $80 each at the very least or we find another local route. Naturally we picked the local route. This was going to be fun.

Early morning we took a cab to an area called Cemetario from where we caught a 11 seater collectivo minitaxi to Santa Maria. This was a 4 hour ride through some unbelievable terrain. The setting for this road is the most stunning I've ever been driven through. First we got a view of Ollantaytambu, a very important Inca religious spot in the sacred valley and then we climbed to over 4800m with the clouds below us. The jet black road divides the clouds into two. Waterfalls and rivulets dot the valley, while thick lush green vegetation calms the senses. These roads are fantastic for mountain biking.

3 hours into the ride the road ends abruptly, and the next hour is sheer torture on a bumpy pot hole and boulder filled excuse for a road. Thankfully this is partly because they are trying to tar this section of the road. By now we had come down low enough for the heat to get menacing. Finally we reached Santa Maria and jumped into another collectivo taxi to get to Santa Theresa.

The taxi had a deadline, as he said the shorter road to SM would shut at 1 pm and it was already 12.30. He raced along the next stretch as we held our hearts in our mouths. The road that we labelled The Peruvan death road is no wider that the car wth a couple of feet on either side. The drop ranges from 500 to at least 1500 feet or so we imagined. Naturally this is a 2 way street so cars come speeding down at each other. ah I forgot to mention that the road is gravel with tons of loose pebbles and the constant warnings that loose boulders may fall from the sheer walls on the side of the road. At one point I believe we had one wheel hanging of the road, as the car had to negotiate a boulder that had fallen on the road. Natalia choose to get out of the car and walk, a wise if somewhat cowardly decision she will never be able to live down.

Finally we reached Hidroelectric. From here we trekked alongside the railway line for the the next 2 hours covering 10 kms through the most beautiful terrain. Sheer mountians ran on both sides of the track. These magnificant walls of rock were truly awe inspiring. The stood sheer all the way to where the clouds covered them a wonderfully mystical aura. The tracks follow the sacred Urbamba river which was the life blood of the Inca civilisation.

Aguas Calintes, the town from which you base your mount to Machu Pichu was a disaster. The tourist office and the officer in charge were a revelation in how to be rude and inefficient. They screwed up on Yannick's name age and then refused to fix the problem. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise later. I brought the house down and finally managed to create enough trouble for the office to bring in their seniour most officer who promised to deal with our problem next morning.

Dinner, for the first time in Peru was a disaster, but Machu pichu beckoned next morning so nothing could ebb the excitement that we felt. We decided to take the bus up and trek down when we heard about how disastrous the climb normally was. Trekkers were trying to get in line first because only 400 people were allowed to climb Wayna Pichu. This meant man becomes animal, shoves, pushes , screams, does anything to get up before the others.

We woke at 5 and got to the bus stop at 5.15 only to find that we were probably 200 in the line. Add to that the 2 or 300 that had started trekking up at 3 am and wayna Pichu was clearly a distant dream, but the INCA gods were smiling down on us. We got to the gates and I walked up to the front of the line to find the officer who was supposed to sort Yannicks ticket out. As I got there, I heard someone screaming out asking if anyone was interested in climbing Wayna Pichu. I calmly walked up to him, called our bunch, got us all stamped in and suddenly we were in front of the wayna pichu queue. I have no idea why the rest of the people in line did not react to the screaming voice, but later I had people curse us when they realised they had waited since 4.30 am in vain!

Machu Pichu was breathtaking!!! The ruins are extremely well preserved and the setting of the city is indescribeable. Wayna pichu was a crazy crazy tough ridiculous climb. The path was  never wide enough for 2 people and so precarious in places that often people , some rather big strong men, put their reputation on the line, sat on their butts and crawled up. Coming down was another problem all together. The view was worth the trouble and risk!

After coming down from WP we spent the entire day exploring and just enjoying Machu Pichu. Trekking back into Aguas calientes was a quiet affair given we realsied rather late that it was the centenery celebration of the discovery of Machu Pichu by Hiram Bingam!

That night for the first time I bargained a restaurant menu down!

The next day we were ready to do the trek back,death road and 5 hour drive back to Cusco. It was a little less eventful than when we did it last but it was fun. We had beaten the system and done the road to Machu ichu and back for under $35 each!!!

added a few photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonflydreams2011/page1/

The Japanese Connection

Nu decided to use the time to try and work in a Peruvian restaurant and learn a few recipes. This did not work out, but instead we eneded up meeting a Japanese guy who has been in Peru for 24 years, who invited us to his house as he was cooking japanese that night for a few friends. Tomo and Masako were unbelievably welcoming. We walked into their house, learned to cook Japanese, I got pretty drunk with Tomo on his whisky and Sake, ate their food and had the time of our lives. What was most interesting is that Tomo speaks almost no English, but that only added to all the fun we had. We immediately fixed another date for an Indian dinner which Nu cooked. Another crazy fun afternoon, where we also learned how to make Sake!! Add to that, Dahlia an Isreili friend we had travelled through Bolivia with joined us in Cusco and at Tomo and Masakes house and cooked us a Shashooka.

One of the highlights of the last few months has to be the people we have met along the way. The unexpected beautiful friendships we have made, and the times we have spend with these people enriching each others lives. Often times you know you may never meet again and so living and enjoying the moment takes on an all together new meaning.

We had a few days and so started trying to figure the best route to Machu Pichu.

Cusco

We took the worst bus we had taken since arriving in South America. It was freezing cold and it did not help that the locals who filled the bus were dressed for poles while we had light jackets on. The fact that the windows were stuck together with tape psychologically destroyed us! Anyway, we reached Cusco at 4 am which was 3 hours behind schedule or at least the time we were told we woulod reach.

Cusco is a beautiful city, and arriving a week before the winter solstice meant it was week of pagentry and parades and lots of fun. Inti Raymi, or the big Inca winter solstice festival is celebrated on the 24th of June so we planned to spend time in and around Cusco to check out the festival.

Cusco has a bunch of churches, museums and a lot of Inca and tiwanaku architecture. The Inca built one hell of lot for a civilisation that only lasted 100 years. Most Inca walls are huge, built with large blocks of stone that have multiple edges, sometimes going upto 36 surfaces in one block.

More than anything, we needed to slow down,and so we took this opportunity to do not much else. The hostel was nice and pretty reasonable, food was good and we found some great deals. We even found an Indian restaurant that wasn't too bad. I think it was our first Indian restaurant meal on any of our travels.

We did travel around Cusco. We went to the Salt mines which were fantastic! A warm spring in the middle of the Andes that is salty, and feed an entire mountainside of salt evaporation mines. Then we went to Maras Moray where the Inca's created a laboratory to test the effect of altitude and temperature on plants by creating a huge complex of concentric circles in a valley using the walls of the mountain to create differnt temperature and altitudes . Each level is about 5 feet deeper than the next and 4-5 C higher. A natural water drainage system below the circles makes sure that there is no flooding even in the rains. It is an amazing structure although I'm not sure it was really used as a lab. It is an impressive struture!

The Urus - Floating Islands

The Urus or floating Islands are a bunch of man made islands that have existed in the lake for over a few hundred years (some say 900 years). I wasn't convinced by any of the explanations that the guide gave us about why they were created in the first place.

Each island has five or six families living on them. They are made of a very tough reed that is used in multiple layers in defferent froms so that the islands float but there is a solid surface on which to build huts as living quarters. Even so, it is all very wet and I imagine that this can't be very heathy for the population living on it. This reed has a soft inside which is supposed to be rich in nutrition and forms one of the staple foods along with trout or tricha as it is known in Spanish. The local boats that looked pretty solid are also made of this reed. Apparently sometime in the middle of this century a local fisherman crossed the Atlantic in one of these boats just tp prove how god they were. Naturally his island is a star attraction now.

All in all the Urus as a concpet is unique and really interesting but tourism has taken the charm out of them. The islands have become a show and when that happens, it is quite depressing. Having said that, the islands themselves are quite a revelation of mans ingenuity.
I came away wondering how young couples met...