Dragonfly Dreams

Diving with Sharks

2011-09-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

After the cavern dive, we hung around in Tulum enjoying the beach, doing a salsa lesson, eating some great sea food and so on. From here we were heading out to Cozumel, one of the best dive locations in the world according to Jacques Coustea the legendary french documentary filmmaker. We were too close not to be tempted.

We woke early, took a collectivo to Playa de Carmen, jumped on a ferry and were in Cozumel by 9am, and at the dive shop by 10. We checked out our equipment, set it all up, and were headed out on our dive boat by 10.30.

It was a very different dive from the few we had done before. The current was strong and so we drifted along doing very little swimming. Anu had a problem equalising while because of the drift the rest of us were drifting away from our guide, so Nu had to abort her dive. It must have been a heartbreaking hour for her on the boat!

Anyway, we continued drifting until we reached the reef. The reed wasn't quite as abundant or alive as the ones in Roatan but it wa still quite beautiful. We did a swim thorugh which was amazing. To be in a tunnel of coral is quite some visual experience. We came out of the tunnel and traight into a shark! Took my breath away. She was about 2.5m long, grey and very ominous looking. A few minutes later as we swam with her we spotted another shark, but this one was a baby. Beautiful, the way they cut through the water lazily , slmost seeming like they were aware that they were special! We saw a barracuda, an electric sting ray , many groupers including a black grouper, lobsters, and a bunch of other beautiful fish.

When we came back,some other told us they had seen a turtle. I've been dying to swim with a sea turtle, maybe a little too much, and as is with wanting something too much, I've missed every turtle that others have spotted.

Our second dive was less spectacular than the first in terms of the quality of the reef or the under water life we saw but it was great that Nu managed to equalise and do the dive with us this time.

That night we stayed in Cozumel. Cozumel, playa de Carmen, and Cancun are all places I would normally give a miss if not for the diving. They are too touristic, have no local flavour to the point where the local currency is the US dollar, expensive, and far too loud and noisy to be relaxed. Actually the Yucatan peninsula was far too touristic for my liking. Sure it is beautiful but sometimes tha is just not enough. I did enjoy the food, the sights, and the diving was exciting but selfishly I wish it had more travellers and less holiday makers.

The Chiapas and Tobasco were also touristiic but continued to retain its local flavour, which was really nice.

A quick stopover in Cancun, and we flew out to Mexico city, the last stop on our Latin American sojourn. It is difficult to describe how I was feeling at this point, and it only got more confusing as each day passed, but I'll try and put that into words in another post.

Cavern Diving

2011-08-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

We thought long and hard about diving in the Cenotes beacuse (1) we are really inexperienced, (2) have never dived in sweet water where the bouyancy can be tough to maintain, (3) Anu's ears which were not doing too well after our last outing, and the general fear of being in caverns where the exit would not be visible as we enter the tunnels. We hadn't really thought about it until one of the dive shops mentioned it, but being inexperienced we could be a danger to the formations in the cavern, and that we definitely did not want to be.

We researched hard, met a bunch of dive shops, and finally decided to do the dive, and do it with Paolo who ran his little dive shop from our hostel. We were a bit worried about the quality of his equipment but felt that it would be far more personal doing the dive with him than with a big shop. It also helped that he was always around the hostel so we could keep going back to him with our questions. He has a nice calm temperament which was key to us. With Paolo, we could go to the Cenotes after all the tours had finished their dives which meant we had the cenote just to ourselves.
Early in the day we checked our equipment. Yannick had a tough time finding gear that fit him but finally we managed. The water is cold so we had to get 2 wet suits each. We drove out to Dos Ojos around 2 pm in the afternoon. The first sight of the cavern is stunning. The cave is like an open mouth. The water is aquamarine and transperant. It is inviting although cold. We jumped in and it took a little while to figure out what weight we needed as we were wearing 2 wet suits each and were in sweet water. Finally we were set to submerge. I was a little worried about Nu's ears so seeing her get comfortable was comforting. Yannick is like a pro. He really is a fish so no worries there.

We began to explore the cave following a line called the barbie line. No idea why, but at one point they have a croc trying to eat a barbie doll strung on the line!

Finding our bouyancy was a bit tricky but once we had worked it out, the diving was easy. The formations were stunning and because the water is so calm and transperant I felt I was kind of hung in space. The tunnels can get dark and even though we were carrying torches it can still be intimidating. Exiting a tunnel, we were suddenly faced with a cavern where the light was bursting through. It was ethereal! The formations were glowing in a blue green hue, and the light played with them creating some amazing effects on the bottom.

The dive was quite long and so we did not have much time for the 2nd dive. It was a short dive where we surfaced in a Bat cave. I'm not a big fan of bats especially when they huddle together like a mass of bodies. They remind of rats, who I don't particularly fancy.

The dives were great! I think all 3 of us prefer reefs over the subterreanean dives but its definitely an experience we'll all cherish.

TULUM

2011-08-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

We got into Tulum and went straight to the hostel that friends had recommended. Lobo Inn was really basic, but Tulum is expensive because of the large number of American tourists here, so even though it wasn't the best, we took the room. The room was large but on stilts which means the room is not very stable. Everytime a semi trundles down the highway our room shakes like it is in the midst of an earthquake. Not a huge shudder but a mild tremor. The first time it happened, I thought we were in the middle of an earthquake ! I guess its a bit like a tree house. The best part of this hostel is that they give you free bicycles.

We took the bikes and headed to beach straight away. The water looked beautiful, crystal clear, aguamarine, and set against the white sands with coconut palms, it makes a pretty picture. Enroute we saw a dead snake on the road. It has been run over. Huge Iguanas were everywhere along with beautiful blue birds. This stretch looked really inviting and we began to wonder if we should change hostels but then decided against it, as it was super touristy and expensive. Taking these decision and wondering if we made the right choice have been really painful, one of the things I won't miss about traveling, once we get back.

We found some good food in the village and figured that we could base ourselves in Tulum to explore the area instead of moving around with our bags. We ended up staying here for a week.
The ruins in Tulum are small but are located on the beach which is a nice change from the other ruinas. You can see the principle ruin from the beach. Its nice but like I had said earlier we were all ruined out so did not go in to explore.

Around Tulum are hundreds of cenotes. Basically caves with subterreanean water bodies. These caves are filled with beautiful formations of stalactite and stalacmites. Generally there is an opening to the sky and from there the cavern makes its way underground into other interconnecting caverns. The light shining through the cavern openings makes the entire place look ethereal.

We chose to dive in Dos Ojos, the largest of these cenotes. I'll write about the dive itself later.

Tulum was fun. We met a really fun German foursome and hung out with them for a couple of days. Hanging out meant we went for a free slasa lesson on the beach, drank a lot of beer, ate some great tacos and tortas, and laughed a lot. Joachen, Maria, Peter and Anna were fun. We also met a French mother daughter, Aurelie and Nykita, who want to move to India, an Argentinian couple trying find a place they want to call home, a panamanian traveller, and many others. Its been relaxed, and fun.

CHI CHI

2011-08-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

Chichen Itza is a wonder of the world and so like it or not, since we were this close we had to visit. Friends of ours who had been there a few weeks earlier gave us the best advice we recieved, and that was to get there really early before the tours from Cancun descend. We left Merida on the 6.30 am bus, and go to Chichen around 8.15. We were amongst the first visitors, probably the most important factor in making the experience enjoyable.

The park is very well thought out, from a traveler point of view. They have free baggage storage for our back packs and a bus ticket vendor on site, so we did not need a hostel and could leave for our next destination as soon as we were done visiting the ruins.

The ruins are impressive. The main pyramid, El Castillo, is first on view. It is huge (25m tall) suberbly restored on two sides while left unrestored on the other two giving us an understanding of what it might have looked like when they found it. A total of 365 steps run up the pyramid, each step for one day in the year. On the solstice, twice a year the sun makes its way up one set of steps. Impressive, given a lot of the ruins are over 2000 years old. The sculptures on the panels are quite beautiful and descriptive. Jaguars, and Eagles with human hearts in their claws, stories of how the beating human heart was removed and then sacrified to Chac Mool etc are etched on these panels. The Mayan relationship with the underworld is fascinating. Everywhere you see images of skulls and skeltons, supposedly the guardians of the underworld. The ball court here is the biggest we've seen, just as everything else is. The Iglesia, and the palace are almost Indian temple in design. The market place, and the the hall of pillars, grupo de mil columnas, that were probably areas where the public got together is impressive. Carving out cylindrical pillars with no machinasation and that too by the 100's is quite amazing. El carasol is the observatory. It has a cylindrical top with windows that are laid out to see particular stars on particular days.

All this would have been more interesting were we allowed to actually interact with some of the ruins like in Palenque. I understand why we are not, but I think this is primarily why I prefer palneque to the rest of the ruins we visited.

The cenote called the Cenote Sacrada is a huge hole in the earth about 25 m across where tons of Mayan artefacts were found including 29 skeletons of children who were sacrificed. It is after this find that they realised that the Mayans did not descriminate between girls and boys when it came to the sacrifices.

Chichen Itza and Palanque show how develped the Mayan civilization was when compared to the Incas, who seemed far less evolved at least architecturally.

The setting is once again a forest and so naturally there is an abundance of wildlife in huge Igaunas who stand around like guards, and a snake that glided past Yannick once again. This is his 3rd snake in close proximity experience ... Yannick thinks the Iguanas believe that their King is buried somewhere here in the ruins which is why they are guarding it against us.

By 11 am the tours descended!! In a few minutes there were a few thousands of loud tourist everwhere we turned. Thankfully we were done and headed out.We took 2nd classe buses to Valladolid and another bus from there to Tulum.

PALENQUE

2011-08-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

Palenque is about 2 hours drive from Villahermosa in the Chiapas district. The town itself is not much, basing its existence on its proximity to a beautiful archeologial Mayan site.

We got into Palenque town, picked up ticket for the late night ADO primera classe bus to Merida, left our back packs in storage at an exhorbitant price of some $0.50 per bag per hour which meant we had to shell out some $15 later that night, and headed out to the ruins. A park forest entry of 25 pesos per person and another entry fee of 52 pesos per person for the ruins themselves was unexpectly low for a site of such importance. The best part was that Yannick did not have to pay an entry at all.

Not connected to Palenque in any way but I really like the fact that in Mexico the first class buses charge kids half price. This really makes a diference to families, and because of this you see a lot of families on these buses.

Anyway, back to our main story. The Palenque ruins are set in a beautiful, thick, green jungle. The setting makes the experience the best I have had while visiting ruins. Add to that is the fact that the ruins are actually in pretty good shape, and they allowed us to climb up and even into some of the templos. For me personally, Palenque has been the most impressive ruinas we have visitied so far. Much more impressive than the Mayan ruins in Copan, or Tulum, and as ruins go, far more impresive than Machu Pichu. Having said that, the setting for Machu Pichu is hard to beat, and it is the location that makes Machu Pichu a wonder of the world. I know a bunch of people who would jump at me right now and ask about the spirituality of the place. I admit that too is a huge factor in Machu Pichu.

As we entered the complex , we were suddenly faced by a huge complex of temples. The temple of insciptions, the huge palacio and the temple where the red queen was found or the Tumba de la roja reina. We could actually enter the tomb, which is nice, because its only then that you get a real feel of the compplexity of the pyramid. This particular pyramid is in pristine condition and therefore more impressive than the ones where you need your imagination to really understand the structure. Being built with no machanisation of any sort or even the wheel is impressive. Walking around the Palacio where King Pakal and his ancestors lived is quite an experience. Interesting stucco tells you stories and so imagining the Mayan royalty stay here is easy.

We climbed the tall structures and even though the pyramids and temples in Tulum are much larger, these were more interesting for me. Some of the temples we really wanted to visit were shut to visitors but even then, walking around the jungle that was still overgrown and experiecning the ruins within these jungles was quite exhilarating. The setting and the light tickling through the huge Cieba trees was magical, and felt right out of a fantasy film. Tulum is where Luke skywalker opens the Star Wars and Palenque is where you'd expect stange medievial creatures to emerge from the forest.

Waking around the park we encountered the small but beautiful waterfall that continues to become the Bano de la Reina, or the bath of the queen. This is a set of small crystal clear pools created as the water flows down from the waterfall. The pools are a miniature version of Semuc Champey in Guatemala. The water fall isself is beautiful as the rocks behind the water form a wonderful picture with caves and little pillars cut into the rock face.

Three and half hours later, we were done with the ruins and headed back to palenque town in a collectivo. We hung around, ate tacos, I drank some beers, we hung out at a local music session at the main square and passed the next 6 hours until it was time for our bus to Merida. While we waited, I ate the best Torta of my trip so far. A torta is a mexican sandwich, made with a hard crusted bread with the insides dug out and filled with an assortment of meat, chopped onions, tomatoes, a local cheese, and chillis. I chose the Longinizas and it was a good choice.

Villahermosa, Tobasco

2011-08-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

We got to Villahermosa in Tobasco state the next morning. (No, Tobasco doesn't come from here). Tobasco has more water than land and so they often pay the price with huge floods devastating the state every now and then. Hurricanes too make a habit of visiting these parts quite often. Apparently the hurricane season is end Aug to Nov.

Villahermosa was on our map primarily because we were meeting and staying with a couch surfing couple Daniel and Lorena. Villahermosa is a large, very wealthy town with beautiful parks and lagunas, huge shopping malls and everything from Burger King to Dairy queen to walmart. Would not have been the most interesting town to visit, but we were not counting in the Daniel y Lorena factor! They made our stay here outstanding.They made a huge effort to introduce us to their friends, show us around (drive us around town after a full hard work day), took us to the beach, and just sat around chatting sharing stories. Lorena is vivacious and full of energy while Daniel's calming presence and information on everything Mexican perfectly compliment each other. Nu cooked an indian dinner for them and their friends and the next day Sandra, another friend of theirs, invited us to the beach. It was a fantastic day on the beach Even though the beach was no carribean beach, the company more than made up for it.

La Venta, the national parque in the middle of Villahermosa, is a beautiful setting for the Olmec archilogical findings including the huge Olmec heads. The huge Cieba trees contiue to stoke your imagination. An interestingly laid out zoo makes the park even more interesting. A huge aviary means you get to interact with Toucans, macaws,and other beautiful birds.

The food, and in Tobasco, where it is 40C during the afternoon, the refershing local drinks were fatastic. Orchata, a rice and cinnamon mixed in with water or milk was my favourite refresher. Jamaica, made from a dried flower imported from Africa, and Posol, a cocao and maize drink was fantastic. The Panuchas and Sabutes were forms of Taco that was spendid. the Sabute taco is like a puri, deep fried and fantastic.

Sunday was time to go to Palanque. Daniel and Lorena were awesome and decided to drive us out there. Daniel had a new camera and wanted to shoot pictures but unfortunately Lorena fell ill with a bad stomach. Even though we offered to take a bus, Daniel refused, and drove us 2 hours to Palenque. I hope they come to India so we can try and return the favour at least some what.

Gastronomica Mexico

2011-08-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

From San Christobal we got to Oaxaha (ohaka) after a rather comfortable 12 hour overnight bus journey. The Oaxaca bus terminal is swank, much like an airport. We took a taxi into the city centre and started our search for a hostel. For low season, every hostel seemed surprisingly full and bloody expensive. After our longest search up until now, we finally found Dona Mario.

The city is a beautiful colonial city but unfortunately we've done too many now to be over excitied by it. We walked around for a few hours but the heat and midday son was really getting to us. Nu is on antibiotics and a decongesant tablet, both of whihc were making her really sleepy and tired. The long bus ride didn't help either. We got street tortilos for lunch that were decent but not exceptional.
We had heard so much about Oaxacan cuisine that we were definitely going to try some of it. One of their specialities is grass hopper or Chapulinas, sometimes fried to crisp with chillis on top, sometimes steamed, and apparently sometimes even live. The fried ones seemed ok except for the smell of dried fish. I thought about it long and hard before deciding not to try it.

Mole is another Oaxacan speciality. It is a paste made of chocolate, chillies and other spices which is then used in curries or as a marinade. It comes in a few forms Mole Negro, Mole colarado etc. We tried the mole negro and it was definitely interesting, like nothing I have tasted before. The chocolate was strong and chilli added a slight zing. I think they could use some more chilli to balance the chocolate but then who am I to play with tradition. The sauce is thick and a dark black. It reminded me of chywanprash if you know what that is. Definitely a new taste for us. We also tried a refresco made of rice powder and milk or water, spiced with cinnamon, called horchata, again interesting. It did seem like it could ferment into alcohol, a little like the first tapped toddy.

Today we continued our gastronomical journey at the Mercado 20 Novembre. It is an interesting market, with vendors selling you everything from fried grasshopper, to clothes, to fresh meat and fruit. We had the tortilla con chorizo, and consalchicha oaxaquena, very nice and then we had the Tlayudas con asiento, a taco based sandwhich filled with all sorts of vegetable, oaxaca queso or cheese, and meat...fantastic!!Some churros, and a street side pastery and our 3 course lunch was a hit.

Zocalo, the central plaza in Oaxaca is lively. A live orchestra plays on the band stand in the evening and it is a good orchestra. Streets are filled with ballon sellers, and comedians doing their act, and vendors with all kinds of fruit , potato chips, and other foods. It is very touristic but not in a bad way.

It was a beautiful sight to watch the older generation (60 to 80) dance their woes away to the live orchestra. Touching, when you notice the effort they have made to dress up to enjoy their evening. The highlight for me was the look on the face, and the brightening of the eyes of a septugenerian when his daughter arrived late, but just in time, to partner her father for his first dance.

Spice at last

2011-08-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

After the debacle at the border, we arrived in the beautiful quaint town of San christobal de la casas. The plaza is the centre of the town like all Spanish colonial towns. We did not have a hostel booked so we walked down what looked like a main street. It was an 'only pedestrian' street and very pretty. We found a decent really cheap hostel and took it.

I've mentioned before that I was disappointed with the food on this trip. Not always but more often than not the general staples have been quite uninspiring. That was all about to change... We happened upon a Taqueria called Cochinita Pibil, which means it is actually from the Yucatan and not from the Chiapas where we were. We ended up eating tacos con chorizo, tostadas, like small fried tacos with flling- cheese and some sort of cream, tortillas, and few other forms of bread or tacos with different filling. The longinizas, a flavoured sausage tasted amazing, as did all the chilli sauces. They were spicy but not out of bounds as the Mexicans would like us to believe. Even Yannick has been dousing his food with the sauce much to the entertainment of the other customers.

The next morning we walked around the city, saw the beautiful cathedral and ate a lot. This time we went to a really local although now famous cerveceria or beer bar. This place had a great deal, 2 beers and a snack for some $4. The snack I had was Camarones del diablo, spicy and crunchy. The table also got a small portable barbecue with small peices of pork in a tomato and chilli sauce, to be eaten with tacos. You can add fresh raw diced onions, capsicum and a mild salsa to spice it up. I have been in Heaven the last 2 days! The bread we picked up for breakfast was great too. I wonder why the other countries around Mexico wouldn't just incorporate this cuisine into their own!

Next lunch was at a local joint owned and run by three generations of a family. The soup was a winner, and then the albondigas con arroz (rice with meat balls) divine! I'm staying !!!

Its been raining heavily and so the next 2 days got washed out but we managed to get to the Dulce Mercado or market of sweet, which looked like an indian halwai market, with milk sweets (pedas), baked sweets, and a variety of gaudy colored local sweets. We tried out a strange desert. It was sweet, hot syrupy liquid in a glass filled with fruits. Interesting but not to my liking.

On the perifery of this market are local restaurants and taqueria. Today, I tried the huacheria con longinizas (might have got the name a little wrong). It is diced laoginiza with chopped chillis, some diced tomatoes, some kind of cream cheese, and grated cheese sprinkled on top, all layed out on a soft tortilla. Don't think they needed the grated cheese but otherwise, one more reason to love mexico!

I HATE BORDER CROSSINGS

2011-08-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Luckily this is the last one for us. At least the last one where we need to convince officials that the Indian passport is for real, and then need to explain to them the treaties that have been signed between our two countries etc etc. Sometimes coercion works, sometimes 'No intiendo espaniol' and sometime just plain waiting looking pissed off but with a smile. Tough one the last. Honestly, we haven't had too many problems crossing borders but it does take a while longer than the American and European passport holder. Well, I don't blame them because most terrestrial border migration officers have not seen Indians before. Guatemala was about a bribe but Mexico was the worst! I've jumped the story so let me backtrack a bit.

Early morning we were at the jetty waiting for our launch at 5.45 am. the sun rises quite early so it was light by then. The ride, cutting through lago Atitlan was beautiful. The rays of the sun streaming through the mist created a beautiful image. The volcano and the cloud of condensation above it was stunning.

The 45 min boat ride, and the next 4 hour ride in the minivan was super comfortable. We were only 3 of us in a van meant for 14, which meant we slept through the drive, not even stopping for a meal. The Gautemalan exit stamp was no problem even though I had been warned that an exit fee, nee a bribe might be asked of us. A bus picked us up from the Gautemalan border and drove us some 15 mins to the Mexico immigration.

Here our passports were taken, our US visas checked, and then we were asked to wait a little. Half an hour later, I tried to find out what was going on, and I was told it would take a few minutes more as they were waiting for an email form Mexico city confirming something. I must clarify that the offiers were polite and at no point in time did I feel they were gunning for a bribe.

We were hungry and the only food we could find was ice cream. It had been an hour an a half since we got here and our driver was getting anxious. Luckily for us, we were the only ones on the bus so no one else suffered while we waited. 2 hours into the ordeal, we finally met someone who spoke a little English. She explained that they had recieved a warning about travellers from our country about 3 weeks ago, and therfore had to get a confirmation that our US Visas were real. I explained that we had been in and out of the US on the same visa thrice in the last few months, but that did not help. They had to email their regional HQ, who would then email Mexico city, who would then somehow confirm that the visa wasn't a fake, mail these guys back, and then we would be on our way. Only problem was that there internet only worked intermittently, and of course it wasn't working all afternoon! I was livid because it seemed like a deadend and I couldn't help in any way.

Luckily, the boss of the office, headed out to the regional hq and just as the Bus driver was ready to leave us to our fate in a border town with no hotel, food or taxis, he came back with the news that our visas were indeed authentic!

4 hours later we were on our way to San Christobal de la casas.

Lago Atitlan

2011-08-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

Lago Atitlan is a huge lake surrounded by 2 volcanoes and a bunch of hills. Being the rainy season, the hills are covered in green. With clouds well below the top of the mountains, the scene makes a pretty picture but we had been to Titicaca before and that is a dampner where Atitlan is concerned. Titicaca from the Bolivian side is not only spectacular, it has a sense of spirituality that Atitlan doesn't. Maybe it's because of the villages around the lago. San Pedro de la laguna, the village we picked to stay at was a mix of untidy ramshackle structures. The Lago itself is too dirty to be inviting to swim in and someone we met also told us the water was cold. Indian ness abounds. In that I mean places called Shati Shanti, Yoga and finding yourself courses, medition and the rest of the pop culture with no depth to it. Someone we met told me that there were people here who he had met 8 years ago when he last came, and they were still on the same trip that they had started 8 years ago. Lots of drugs and alcohol mar any charm it could have.

Clearly, it wasn't my favourite spot. We were lucky to have a day with sunshine so the lake with the mountains as a back drop did look awesome, but it wasn't enough.

The next day Nu and I decided to take the trip to the thursday market at Chichicastenengo. Yannick and the Catalans (not sure I can call them that because they are actually from the Basque country but what the hell, it sounds good and I don't know Spanish politics enough to worry about it) decided to stay back and hang out. This is a huge 'Mayan' market that takes place twice a week. I wasn't expecting much as the term Mayan and folkloric are abused in plenty in these parts.

The drive was 2 hours long and when we got there it was like we had expected, a big indegenous market primed at tourists. Luckily a few block into the market we got a glimpse of the real market. The market where the locals shopped. This was far more interesting. Some of the weaving work was splendid, the little worry dolls that yo uput under your pillow when you go to sleep so that they takes your worries away, the ethnic musical instruments, and the raw cuts of meat hanging around made it quite a market. On the steps of the cathedral was a flower market, artisans had made some interesting bead work quetzals, and the masks were fantastic but too heavy for us. Most importantly, the churros were decent. We ended up picking a few bargains and then stepped into a restaurant for a beer and lunch.

In the end, It turned out to be an interesting day.

Back In San Pedro we reunited with Yannick and the gang. It was our last night together. Next morning we were headed to Mexico and they were headed to Antigua and then onto Nicaragua. We, especially Yannick, was going to miss them a lot, but the last 2 weeks had been fantastic!
We searched for a bar that supposedly had a salsa night only to find out it there wasn't one. A good asian dinner, a couple of beers, lots of laughter, and we were ready to call it a night. We did have a 5.30 start the next morning.

Antigua, Gautemala

2011-08-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

Antigua is a small little colonial town about half an hours drive from Guatemala city. The drive from Coban took us about 6 hours and we got a glimpse of the capital city enroute. It wasn't a pretty sight. Full of favelas and very impoverished, it has a very uncomfortable vibe, at least the parts we drove through. We did see some impressive business building but that only made the whole city feel worse.

Anyway, we expected Antigua to be a big city and so we were very surprised when we got there. we had planned on climbing the active volcano Pacaya and toasting marshmelows in the lava, but the rain killed the plan. We were also told that at this point in time there was no real lava, only hot ash.

We spent two days in Antigua, but the rain played spoil sport for most of the time. We did drink the best beer I've had on this trip so far, Gallo black draft. Amazing given that the bottled version isn't half as good. Lexi who is actually a friend of a friend of ours Lisa, drove into Antigua for a nice local dinner. the food was nice but not outstanding.

The next morning we headed out to Lago Atitlan, the deepest lake in the world, set at about 1600m. Antigua was fun but mainly because we we still travelling with the Catalan gang, Susana, Amiai, and Ion.

Laguna Lechua

2011-08-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

After the unbelievable scenic beauty and adventure of Semuc champey and the grutas we were ready for our next leg. Susana and Ion had heard of a lagoon called laguna Lechua a few hours away from Coban, that was supposed to be completely off the beaten track and beautiful. The fact that very few tourists went here was too aluuring for us to let go. None of us, and not too many locals knew how we could get there even though it is a designated national park and in some guide books. We knew we had to get to Chisec or Coban, leave our big back packs there and head on with day packs because of a trek involved in getting to the lake.

We took a local bus to Coban. There we located a hostel and convinced them to keep our back packs in storage for 2 days. It took us a few hours to find the hostel, then find a super market to get stock for 2 days since the refugio we were planning to stay at had on food etc. This meant we fianlly got into a collecctivo only by around 2pm. The next 2 hours were the worst. It was hot as hell, and there were 21 people in a van meant for 12 to 14. At some point Nu asked the driver to open his window and he casually puts on the A/C. The sadistic bastard!!

We finally reached Laguna Lechua. The route as it has been throughout Gautemala was beautiful. The national park was not what I had expected. The forest guard at the entrance took his job extremely seriously and we were told what we could and could not do. After that, we were asked to be careful and quiet as we walked throgh the park to the refugio as there were poisonous snakes around, and it was important we don't disturb them!! We were also told not to swim too deep into the lake as we could then look like food to the crocs that lived in the water. Exhilarating stuff!

The 4.5 kms trek through the forest was nice but unfortunately we did not find any snakes to disturb nor were we quiet enough to spot any Jaguars. The refugio is basic but nice except for our hatred of organic loos. The kitchen has a wood fired stove but was otherwise well stocked with utensils. In any case we weren't planning on gourmet meals.

The laguna was stunning! The water crystal clear with a lot of fish. We never did get to see the crocs but Amiai saw a nutria ( otter like mammal) and we saw a couple of large rodent like animals on our trek back. Tarantulas abound, and apparently so do scorpions. We saw a few tarantula without realising they what they were until the very end, and other large spiders but no scorpions.

We spent a beautiful morning, just the 6 of us, diving in, and swimming about in the water. A bunch of locals came in around lunch. They were noisy and the kids were making a ruckus and that spoit the peace of the place. They had been at the lake the week before and saw a croc sunning itself on the very rocks that we were hanging around. Nice not to have known before we got in, I guess.

All in all, a real fun time except for the organic loos that I've had enough of. 2 nights was the right time to spend here and so we headed back to Coban in a chicken bus. we knew there was nothing much to do in Coban but a night without insects and a real loo was inviting enough.

Grutas las Maria / Semuc Champey

2011-07-31T17:59:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-31T17:50:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-28T17:51:00.003-07:00

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

2011-07-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

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??

2011-07-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-07-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-11T15:23:00.001-07:00

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

2011-07-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-09T13:07:00.001-07:00

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

a bugging day and a failed volcano

2011-07-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-03T18:13:00.003-07:00

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

2011-07-01T11:36:00.001-07:00

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

The Japanese Connection

2011-07-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-01T10:26:00.001-07:00

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...

Back in La Paz

2011-06-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

La Paz was confusing. Everyone had a different story about the Puno border and neither could we find anything on the net that gave us any confidence. We had an option of trying to go through Arica in Chile but being Indian we needed a visa and ours wasn't valid anymore. Well, actually it might have been because we coudln't really understand if we had a 90 day visa or a 30 day visa or a visa that was only valid for 30 days from our first entry. We took a collectivo downtown to the Chilean embassy and realised that Arica was no longer an option. At least we got to see downtown La paz. It was businesslike, quite modern and very very different from the La Paz we had experienced until then.

We got back, and decided we would try and get to Lake Titicaca and Copacabana and get into Peru through Puno once way or the other. Natalia a Polish trvaeller joined us on this adventure. The bus we took was local and lots of fun. A few hours into the bus ride, we began to see the enormous lake. All in all, it covers an area of 8000 sq kms so it is pretty omnipresent. In a bit, we had to cross the lake which meant we take a small boat that seats about 20 and the bus gets on a large barge that takes it across. This is when we realised how big the waves on the lake were. It was ascary 10 min crossing but once again we were on our way.

The lake is stunning and has an energy that is difficult to explain. Apparently it is a lake that was pushed up from the ocean and so has both salty and sweet water. It is a place of riligious significnce to the Inca and much before that to the tiwanaku people. Apparently the trout in the water is now killing all the indigenous fish which is bummer but the trout is tasty!

We reached copacabana and figured out the border to Peru through Puno was open and so took a quick call to get through while we could. It was good a decision since the border ended up shut a few days later. This meant we don't do isla del Sol but we had a choice to make and the options were extremely crazy if the border closed once again so we jumped into a bus the next morning. The next day I realised I had left our Kindle in Copacabana...

The crossing itself was peaceful, uneventful and beautiful. The lake contunued to keep me stunned. It is a beautiful lake but more importantly , it is powerful and captivating in a strange spiritual way.

We reached Puno and our first Peruvian experience was a disaster. We were denied the bus we had booked and put onto a local bus. A fight ensued but not really knowing enough meant we were very easily made to believe the new bus co was good one.

Anyway, we decided to see how it goes. In the meantime we were going to visit the Uros or floating islands of the lake. Lots to look forward to. we had a few hours to explore Puno and so we did. Its a tourstic town with some good local food if youcan find it. As usual we headed up to the local market and found a great almuerzo or set lunch for $1.5 each.

We were now ready for the Urus.

The Amazon - Day 3

2011-06-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

we were to swim with the pink dolphins and so we decided to go out in swim trunks without any musquito repellant or sun block (for those who did use it). We parked in a little laguna and waited. Soon a couple of really unreal pink Dolphns lazily swam into the pool. One by one the brave and better swimmers including Yannick jumped into the water. We watched in horror as many other tourists on another boat were lathering themselves with sun block before diving in and polluting the water. Luckily, the repercussion of this, is that the Dolphins won't go near anyone with block or Deet!

Yannick was swimming round like a fish and I think the Dolphins found having a kid around interesting and wanted to check him out. They swam around him, scaring him the first time. I was sitting on the edge of the boat contemplating diving in when out of the blue this meter long pink snout pushed itself out of the water and took a nibble at my feet. I was shocked and then ecstatic. The next time it happened, it was still a shock, but since I was a little for ready for it, it was fun. Finally I jumped in but given my swimming skills I decided not to venture out too far from the boat.

The Dolphins were really beautiful and playful. To be swimming with the Dolphins in a beautiful amazonian laguna in the Yacuma knowing caymen, alligators and Piranha could well be around made me delirious and very worried when it came to Yannick, especially because he was good 3 or 400 meters away from our boat! The pleasure of watching the Dolphin try and play with Yannick is unquantifiable!

It was time to leave and as we left we realised we weren't leaving without a strong reminder of where we were. Most of us were musquito bite pock marked but it was well worth it.

What followed was a long dusty ride back to Rurrenbaque, a fun evening playing snooker in the hostel, a decent meal and some sleep. We were all set ot get bak to La Paz on the smallest flight any of us had ever been on. It was time to figure out our plans into Peru since we had been hearing rumours about the border being closed once again!

amazon - day 2

2011-06-24T06:02:00.003-07:00

Waking up in the morning to see the huge Caymen loll its way up towards our bank was a thrill. The few of us who were awake went shutter crazy. A stupid bird with yellow feet played around the huge animal dangerously. a brown furry monkey that marks its territory by barking so loud that it can be heard within an 8 k radius added to the caos. This was the perfect way to wake up in the Amazon.

Sadly this is where man and tourism comes in. The Caymen came to the island every day because they fed it. It was domesticated for the entertainment of the tourists. Wildlife tourism with no responsibility is taking its toll. People want photograohs with the Ananconda they spot when known or unknown to them the DDT on their bodies used to repel the enormous quantities of musquitoes will kill the snake once its skin contacts the deet. But then the tourist is not around to witness the horrible death and the snake is benevolent enough to die is some invisible part of the grassland, so who cares. Sun screen and DDT are poisonous so swimming in the water with all this protection is a ecological disaster but once agian who cares, as long as you have a picture to take back home.

The morning started off with the hunt for the Anaconda. It was a tough crazy walk through head high grass in knee deep slush. Luckily we were fitted with over sized gum boots but most of them had holes so it was a very wet walk. At one point my t shirt was so covered by musquitoes that I could barely see it. But we trudged on. When we all set to give up the adventure, our guide Rosaudo finally spotted a 5 to 6 feet baby Anaconda. It was well worth the painful 3 hours. Honestly, I enjoyed the trek but most of the group hated it. Rosaudo was ethical about not letting anyone touch the snake, maybe because we had made it clear that we were here to see the animals in their natural habitat and not for the photo opportunities but it felt good when we saw the snake slither away into the swamp. Nu thought she spotted one more snake when Yannick lifted his boot out of a puddle but it was too quick for the rest of us to see.

We were back in the camp and ready for the evenng session of Piranha fishing. The piranha actually have jaws and dentures. They are small but their teeth are scarily human like. The bait we used was meat. We were lucky, I caught one, Yannick managed another and Anu was excited as she fed the Piranha the bait instead of catching them. All in all, our boat did well, we had caught 5 or 6 fish while Rosaudo had another 5. We ate the Piranha at dinner. They tasted all right but seeing their jaws you can well imagine what they must do to a carcass in their own territory.

The Amazon

2011-06-24T05:51:00.000-07:00

La Paz was a fantastic few days largely because the food was great, the city inexpensive, and we reunited with friends from the Uyuni tour. We just heard that getting into Peru might be a problem as one of our Uyuni friends was turned back fronn the border which was a bother.

Since we were all together again we decided to do the Amazon here. Bolivia is probably the cheapest option to do the Amazon basin. We found a package deal that was pretty good and included airfare to and from Rurenabaque which is the base for the travel into the Pampas or the forest. We wanted to see wildlife so we picked the grasslands (pampas) over the rain forest. Rurrenbaque is a one horse town with a fantastic french bakery!! Yup, it is strange!

Anyway, we started from Rurre about 9am in a rattly 4X4 that did nothing to soften the bumps on the crazy dirt road. About two hours into this uncomfortable dusty ride, when we were driving along a stream/river, I suddenly spotted an alligator sunning itself. It was surreal! The alligator just sat on the bank of the stream sunning itself, not more than 50 feet from us. Birds of all sizes, colours and shapes can be spotted all along this route. Soon we reached the spot from where we were going to take a long boat along the Yacuma river into the Pampas.

Our guide Rosauro was a podgy smiley guy who had a great vibe. The boat is a very basic one but with a decent motor attached. Simple chairs are attached to the boat 2 by two, with Rosaudo handling the motor behind all of us. Each boat sat 8 of us with our backpacks etc. The next two and half hours was unbellievable. we saw a pink dolphin, alligators and caymen we could no longer count, some of who were 5 feet from our boat, the cutest little yellow monkeys, heron, birds of paradise or Serere, beautiful black long necked birds, and a ton of others I can't name, and the cutest and biggest rodents called Kapiberas.

We reached our really basic campsite / refugio in stunned silence. A great lunch and we were off to see the sunset. Not the most exciting one we have seen but you could buy a beer at this spot!

That night we took the boat out to see croc eyes in the river. I'm not sure how ethical it is to shine torches into Caymen eyes to see them shine a bright red but we did it. On hindsight I think we shouldn't have but ... At one point out boat got stuck in a sand bank and we could see 4 sets of eyes staring at us. I thought we were going to pay for shining torches at unsuspecting alligators and become caymen food but luckily we all managed to scramble to the back of the boat and pull us out of that tight spot. No lack of excitement in the Amazon!

The night without electricty was interesting. Musquitoes abound but we had great nets and so we were safe, Not the best toilets, especially given the musquitoes waiting inside for warm human blood! Everytime you took a crap, you came back with an arse that was red and swollen with musquito bites!

Somehow the night was not all that bad and it passed quite quickly. Of course we were all dead tired. Woke up next morning to see a huge caymen on our shore!!

A few more Photos

2011-06-24T05:29:00.001-07:00

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

NEW PHOTOS

2011-06-18T19:30:00.001-07:00

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

Ciudad de blanco

2011-06-18T17:16:00.000-07:00

Entering Bolivia was exciting. When we entered the salt flats our passport details were taken down and we were asked to get our visas in Uyuni town. When we go to the immigration office, the very nice officer told us they only had 2 visa stickers left! Yannick was to travel illegally till we reached La Paz which was more than a few days away!!

Sucre or the White city, is the official capital of Bolivia but since La Paz is the seat of Govt, it works out very well for Sucre. The city is Spanish in its architecture so it is full of arches and colonial style buildings. The food is fantastic. We ate the mondongo a pork steak with a spicy Portuguese style red sauce, the saltaenas which are basically baked empanadas are great and the fruit juices fantastic.

We hung around Sucre for a couple of days before taking the bus to La Paz.

La Paz is a stunning city. It is set on the walls on the valley so in the night the walls of the valley lights up and looks like a beautiful piece of jewelry. The setting is stunning!! The local people will tell you that the best way to get to the centre is to throw a ball from anywhere and just follow it all the way down. La paz is a surprisingly crowded city for a population of 1.5 million people.

We were staying with friends so we decided to chill out a little. Bolivia is cheap and the food great. Tukumanas, the Bolivian equivalent of the fried empanada was fantastic, as were the almuerzo, or plato completo. This is a set meal that includes a soup, a main course and sometimes a desert, and a refresco which is water flavoured with pieces of fresh fruit, all for 1 to 3 $’s. Friends from the Uyuni trip were in La Paz with us so we decided to do the Amazon together.

Musings about the Salar...

2011-06-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

the salar de Uyuni is one of most spectacular lanscapes I have ever encountered. The lack of a horizon is what makes it so unique. The white salt flats merge with the sky in the most ethereal way. The island of fish or Isla de pescadore, is an island formed in the middle of the salt flats with huge cactus covering the entire hill. It is only when you are atop this fascinating island that you realise that below the salt there is water. Crunching the salt crystals as you alight from the 4X4 is as fascinating as walking on ice for the first time, or seeing the magnitude of a glacier upclose. We were lucky to have had some rain a few days before we arrived and therefore a layer of water covered the entire salar making it the world largest mirror. When the sun rose, the reflection of the sky made it a double sun rise, one in the sky and one in the mirror...spectacular!

From the Uyuni we ended up in Potosi, the site of the enactment of the severest cruelty by the spanish conquerors on the poor unsuspecting welcoming indegenous people, to fulfil theor greed for silver. Unexpectedly, Potosi was a beautiful little city. Flanked by the Cerra Rico or rich mountian where the silver is located, we expected a sad miserable people would live here but the locals were vibrant, the food fantastic, and the hostel, an old monastery very enchanting.

We did the silver mine tour and it was everything we expected it to be. The tunnels were no larger than 5.5 feet at its very max height, and most of the tunnels were under 4 feet high. In places we were crawling on or bellies for many a minute. It was claustrophobic and pitch dark. Small little hole like tunnels led from one level to another and we crawled through 3 such levels. Oxygen levels are so low that taking a breath is difficult. Add to this the dust that mining in such tunnels creates and you feel a darkness deep within you. It was one the most exhausting experiences I've even been through and I attribute it mainly to mental fatigue. At one point I lay on my belly, closed my eyes and thought I would never be able to get out. And it was inside here that the spanish forced the local people to work for upto 6 months at a time,

It is said that the Spanish took out enough gold and silver to build a bridge of from Potosi to Spain and killed enough indegenous people to be able to build another such bridge with their bones!

The entire experience teaches you to really love the life we are lucky enough to live. Miners are still working in these mines in horrible conditions. The average life span of a miner is 35 years and even the young look 20 years older than they are. I felt profoundly sad but really glad to move on from the mines.

The bolivians we met here were really generous, they shared tales, information , and even their food. I was lucky enoguh to try a fantastic potato from a locals plate. This oblong white potato is apparently freeze dried at night for many nights and then left in the sun for a while before being boiled. It has a crunchy hard exterior and a really melty soft interior. The texture is fantastic. So also the chirimoya, the sweetest fruit I've ever tasted, and thumba a yellow orange pomogrante like fruit that has a very dry aftertaste.
It was time to move on to Sucre...

Chaos - ysm

2011-06-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

Our initial plan was to get into potosi ( in bolivia ) after finishing uyuni. But after seeing what happened to everybody at high altitude papa decided that we give it a miss. But mamma really wanted to go. Mamma thought about it and told papa we could go to Sucre ( we were planning to go after potosi ) as it was low altitude and take a day trip to potosi. So thats what we were going to do. Papa bought tickets to Sucre and almost the whole uyuni group except for three were also coming to Sucre. At about 12 midnight the bus stopped and 3/4 of the bus left leaving the uyuni group and two locals. We stayed in the same spot for about 45 mins or something and so papa went out and asked the driver something and i dont know wht he replied saying but papa came back. Another 20 mins passed by and the bus conducter came in and said that this bus was not going to sucre and there was another bus that would go to sucre and there were only 4 seats. A local got angry and shouted at the guy and went back to sleep. None of the uyuni group knew what to do. a min later the bus started to move and we took a round of the city, realised it was potosi, and then the bus came back to the same road except on the other side. The guy came back in and said there was another bus going to sucre and all could get in. But by then the uyuni group decided that we should stay here because we wanted to come to potosi anyway. So all of us except one guy stayed. Potosi was great, we went to the silver mines and papa will explain potosi in detail. So potosi was great and we left to Sucre. The seven of us from uyuni had started travelling together. Sucre was great to, we had great meals and we were there on the race day where there were some race cars going around the city...it was great fun. We did not do much in the place but we loved it.Sucre going to La paz was where the uyuni group broke up. Four of us (which is basically papa, mamma and me and Dahlia) left to la paz and three stayed. In la paz we wanted to meet these friends of ours ( also from the uyuni trip ), but we did not meet them until late at night. but during the day we went searching for amazon tours. The next few days we searched for amazon tours with ion and susana...the friends from uyuni. We had a great time it was alot of fun. On the day we were going to book the tour our tour opereator girl told us that a friend had come four times in the day searching for us. we realised it was dallia ( the person who came with us from sucre to la paz. as we paid we met her and she joined the tour. Just before leaving for rurrenabaque we heard some bad news : the peruvian border had been shut down. It was because of the elections and some thing about gold mining. We thought it would be open as the elections would be over when we came back.The amazon was totally amazing. Papa or me will explain the whole thing in detail in another blog. when we returned the border was still closed. We gave it a day before we started thinking of another route. In the mean while we wanted to go to copacabana and isla del sol. we checked some guides and theysaid the route to copacabana was shut., and they would know if it opens at 3 pm. At 3 pm we heard that the route was open the next day. We got back to our house and then we bumped into Flavia's brother ( we were staying with flavia's boyfriend ) and flavia's guest.
She told us that the peru vian border was shut and there was no way to go. We could not even go by flight becausse a volcano erupted, there were no buses through brasil and the only way was to go through chile. Now that was a problem for us as our chilean visas had expired. Now we had to figure a way into peru before we got into copacabana because if we came back and the border would still be closed, we would not have anywhere to go. The Only way other than chile was to cross the border illegaly......

San pedro de atacama - yannick

2011-06-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

Many many many adventures here....and it all started when we got picked up by our hostel owner........

.....when i saw the van he was taking us to the hostel in....i was wondering if we made the right choice booking that hostel. the hostel owner´s name was Mario, as soon as we got out of the bus we saw him with a sign with papa´s name and X3 next to it. The hostel was not at all bad, much more clean and all that than the van. It was an open air place...and it was huge. We got our room and we asked Mario where Uyuni tour companies were and which ones to take. We spent the day looking for the best deals, and which we were comfortable with. Eventually we chose the company Coirdillera, as i said in the blog before. We walked around and realized that we should book a tour to the geysers now because the tour started at like 4 am!!!!!! The first place we went to was the one we picked...because it was the cheapest. all the tours were like 15000 chilean pesos but the lady in the first office gavi it to us at 12000 because she did not like her boss :-). We woke up at 3 30 am and got ready by 3 55. We stood outside the gate and waited till 4 30 untill our van came ( apparently the others that were waiting had to wait till 5. ) and it was packed. We reached the geyser field at 6 so i got some sleep..but apparently the road was too rocky for the others to sleep. The first thing our guide told us was not to cross the stones that were around the geyser because if you do you could die. I was not to excited about the dying part of the news because the geysers were so amazing ,that i thought, while i would be gaping at them i would walk backwards into one and die a horrible death. The geysers were really amazing.... it was exactly how i thought it would be, although i thought i could sit on one just before it erupted and then go up into the air with it...that would be cool. The next thing was the thermal pool...it was supposed to be 30 to 35 degrees centigrade in the pool. I could not wait to get in as it was freezing outside....but once i got in....i double froze. buit later on i found a warm spot and it was good. We then went to a village which was not like a village..it was small but it was completely urban. I got to eat llama meat.

The next day we went to the pre inca ruins. It was hard to get to as there were many roads to chose from but eventually we found it. The main trek up was not hard...probably 45 mins. But that was worth it. the view was amazing. we could see the highway going to bolivia, sasnd dunes and salt dune kinda things. It was great.

The day after that we went to valley of the moon and we were the luckiest people in the world. In san pedro there are 6 cloudy days in the year and we got one of them.:-(. The tour was a disaster as the co9mpany did not send a tour guide with us so we almost got thrown out of a plac3e for climbing a dune that we were not supposed to. we did it cos we did not know how to go, But the whole thing was beautiful.

Once we got back our friends Maree and Clint had prepared an amazing dish with all kinds of things in it. It was amazing. It was a good way to end our days in San pedro

CHILE BOUND

2011-06-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

From Bariloche we took a bus to Mendonsa, the wine capital of Argentina and home to the Malbec. We decided not to spend any time here even though it is supposed to be quite beautiful Patagonia had taken its toll and we desperately needed to get to cheaper haunts.

We left our backpacks in the bus station and spent the half day we had free exploring the city centre in Mendonza. It seemed like a pretty city, a little laid back but with a certain nice energy. Anyway, very quickly we had to catch our next bus and were soon headed into the Andes to cross over to Chile.

The crossing is one of the most stunning routes I have been driven on. The actual border is at some 4900 m which means we drive up some 2000m in a few hours. The air is thin and breathing difficult. The chilean border security doesn't make it any easier with their checks for fruit , vegetable and to top the list of prohibited items hard bound books! We declared the masala we were carrying and luckily it wasn't on the list of banned items.

Finally we reached Santiago!

Anu had a bad migraine from a macdonalds sandwich we had eaten that morning, compounded by altitude sickness. Yannick and I were a little worried and so really happy that we were staying with friends, albeit friends we were yet to meet. The taxi to their place ran straight into a student protest rally against a planned Damn in chilean patagonia!

Naaz and Mauricio lived in a pretty upscale residential area of Santiago. Their flat was really comfortable and they made a huge effort to make us feel at home. We ate a dinner they had cooked for us with a bottle of really good Chilean wine known as the Carmenere and we were already in love with the city.

Santiago was a great refueling point for us. We hung out at home, ate great food, laughed a lot with Naaz, Mauricio and their friends and generally lazed without an agenda. Strange as it may sound, after a few hectic months on the road we hadn't realised how badly we needed a break! We really liked Santiago as a city. It was calm, beautifully constructed, very modern without being all glass and steel and the food was great. The city has been rebuilt so many times due of its penchant for earthquakes.

We did take a small trip to Valparaiso, a very pretty town a few hours outside of Santiago.

Valparaiso has some of the best street art I've enountered. The day we were there was cold and gloomy but the streets were filled with school marching bands. This port city is precariously build on the hills surrounding the ocean. The houses are made of tin, including the walls, and are brightly coloured, giving the whole city a very festive look. There used to be ascencions or whinch driven trams in many places in the city to take the citizens up the hills but unfortunately most of them have been shut down now. We did ride up in one of the functional ones.

Finally recharged, but a little reluctant, we decided that we had to continue soon or we woul grow roots. We were north bound to San Pedro de Atacama, one of the driest places in the world.

Naaz and Mauricio had made Santiago a really special place for us.

Uyuni - Yannick´s post 2

2011-05-31T11:31:00.001-07:00

we took a long long long time trying to figure out which tour company to take for the tour. papa actually spent 2 and a half weeks trying to figure out which tour to take. On the first day we had arrived in san pedro de atacama we went in search for tours. we were going to do it with Clint and Maree ( i have written there names about ten times in the diary ), so we were getting information for them. Our hostel owner gave us a small map with the agency's area on the map and the names. He recommended 2. One which was called Estrella del sur, and papa had checked them on the net and they had good reviews. The next one was called Cordilleria, papa had seen the name before but i am not sure. In the end we chose Cordilleria because the lady who explained the tour was really confident and papa and mamma liked her.

On the bus to the Bolivian imigration office there was an American called Ken, an Isreali named Dallia and a South African named jack...later i found out that it was jacque (pron. jackh). And last of all Clint and Maree. At the border the guy told us that we had to get stamped in, in uyuni, at the end of our tour. We met three other people who were joining the other 4X4. First there was a spanish couple whose names were Ion ( pron. yon or jon ) and susana who by the end of the tour ( and during ) mamma and papa really liked. The third one was a Belgian guy named Henric. he was really quiet and nice..I didn't even see him until we got together for lunch. After the border and before lunch we saw 3 different lakes: the white lake, the red lake and the green lake. In spanish Lago blanco (lago=lake, Blanco=white), Lago Colorado( colorado does not even mean red so i dont know the reason for the name) and Lago Verde( verde=green). White was, i think, the coolest. It was called white lake cos most of it is covered by a thin layer of ice and was full of a mineral called Borax which is white, so from far it looked white. It was PERFECT for skimming flat stones and the stone would stop and keep sliding on the ice. But the best was the ice on ice. I broke a piece of ice and held it in the air and then let it fly... the air speed and force was so much that it would land on ice and keep going until it hit water.

The green lake smelled really bad...like rotten egg. Later i realised that sulphur was what gave the lake its amazing colour and horrendous stench.

The red lake got its colour because of the algae in it. All the other lakes did not have a single animal in it...but the red lake was filled with flamingos. The walk from one side to the other next to the lake was not fun...not fun at all. It was not a long walk...but we did not see a flamingo in the path ( cause they were all at the starting and ending point) and the wind was blowing so hard that i had to bend my head down to cut the wind...and when i got tired of bending i would sit behind a rock. That was the end of the first day and we headed to the refugio.

We were 5000 meters above sea level, and so i got a really really bad altitude sickness. It was also like -10 degrees and I have not experienced something as cold as that…and I don’t want to experience It again. I had a tablet, i vomitted and uggggghhh. but by the morning i was compeletely fine.

Ohhh ya…before the red lake we went to a thermal pool and it was really really hot..but the problem was that mamma did not allow me to put my head into the water, so my head was freezing and my body was warm so that gave me a small head ache.

The next day we left for the rock tree, Arbola de something. Basically that was supposed to be a rock that looked like a tree. It was a volcanic rock which is basically a rock that has landed where it has due to a volcanic eruption. Once we reached there I had still not recovered compeletly from my sickness and it was cold so I did not stay out for too long.

After that we saw a million more lakes which were not impressive after seeing the other main lakes. After that we were going to a view point. The view point was supposed to be of a volcano…but nobody was interested in that as one of the tourists from another company found a cave kind of formation in the rock and so everybody took pictures of everybody sitting in it.

The day was done and we were going to a salt hotel. Hotel is not at all the right word for it… I was expecting a 3 floor building with 40 large rooms on each floor or something like that. There were 10 or 11 rooms…just enough to fit 28 people in it. There was one bathroom with a shower and the other with only a pot. But the place was really cool cause there was salt everywhere: on the ground, the walls were made out of it…the only place which was not salt was the bathroom floor. That days dinner was amazing: a huge steak. We had an early morning so I slept at about 10 pm.

The last day had arrived. Today the plan was to go to the salt flats, watch the sunrise, go to fish island or Isla de Pescadore, and be gone to Uyuni town. I was really tired cause we had to get up and be in the 4X4 at 5…. but I got to sleep till 4:55 cause I had all the clothes I needed on me. The salt flats were covered in water when we reached. We were driving on the part which was not covered by water and whenever I saw a piece of salt that was big enough to stick out of the water.. it looked like the rock was floating in midair. ( I thought it was floating cause I did not know that there was water hehe). When the sun rose we could see a double sun because the sun was getting reflected of the water….. and it looked A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. We took pictures of the sun in our hand and stuff like that it was really good fun. Then we drove on and reached a dry part and stopped at a mountain kind of thing with cactus all over it. We climbed to the top and came back down. ( was a really small hill) when we were having breakfast I asked the driver when we were going to fish island. He told me that we were on the island. I was confused, but I did not ask more. Then it struck me… since the water had gone the place was dry and the water was around it..it was an island….but “fish” island. I did not understand. After Breakfast we were going to take perspective pictures. Perspective pictures are basically when you take an object and put it right in front of the camera so it looks big and put the person far away so it looks like the object is bigger. Then you make the bigger thing do something to the smaller. We took THOUSANDS of those pictures…some of which were useless but we got some good ones.

The tour was done and they were going to take us to Uyuni. But before dropping us of they took us to a train graveyard. It was where there were many broken down trains. I thought it would be cool if I got a picture of me on top of a train. So I climbed on top of a train and suddenly I look around and everybody was climbing a train…. Copycats. We got more good pics and that was the end of a great great great tour.

yannick

Buen provecho

2011-05-24T04:26:00.000-07:00

The food in Chile has been a revelation. After Argentina we were not too sure of what to expect, so I'm guessing our expectations were pretty low, or at least thats what Mauricio, our Columbian friend who we stayed with in Santiago attributes to our excitement! The wine here is even better. To be fair, the Argentinian wines are fantastic too . Chile produces a wine called Carmenere, the grape for which is only grown here. It is a fantastic wine and a great bottle costs under $5, much cheaper than beer and sometimes even water! A really good reserse, won't put you back more than $10-$12. In Rupees that is between Rs 150 - 500. Pisco Sour is the national drink. Its a kind of Cashacha drunk mixed with a lime mixer. Its sweet, but quite nice. Pretty potent like a grapa really. They make a similar drink in Peru but its a little more evolved. They add some spice, egg white etc and so its not that sweet. I liked the peruvian version more. Chileans also have a sangria equivalent, generally made with cheap red wine in the winter, and white in the summer. Basically its wine with some sweetner, and strawberries. Its very refreshing and a pretty damn good drink! Would be nice on a hot Mumbai sunday afternoon!

The staple food as one would expect with a country that has a coast line this long, is sea food. They make a soup called Palle Marinara which is basically all sea food they can get their hands on cooked together eaten as a soup. It has shrimp, octopus, mussels, squid, fish and some stuff I haven't encountered before. I like the concept, but somehow cooking all this together did not hit the spot. The flavour of the different sea food all meld together so you can't really taste each component which is shame when you have quality sea food in the broth. Chilean food uses a spicy sauce called Aji Pembre and a chile they called Merken, both of which make me feel a little more at home. They also have a lot of different kinds of food including choclo etc, which I can't describe since we didn't eat it!! Its kind of tough to get decent Chilean food in Santiiago, and outside of Santiago we did not really know what to order in terms of local cuisine.

Chilean food comprises a lot of vegetables and hats fascinating in how inexpensive the Avacados are. We ate tons of Avacadoes, on bread, in salads, and just as a snack! Dominoes, a popular local burger chain, makes a great Chilean version of the burger. Lots of veges, a huge slice of meat, really well grilled, but they use too much mayo. Luckily that can be controlled if you take on the chef early enough. Naturally, he just can't undertand how any amount of Mayo is too much!

We ate a fish preparation that was divine. The waiter could not expain what fish it was so I guess it will remain a mystery for sometime. It was fish but tated more like lobster, and the sauce it was cooked in was a slightly spicy beautiful sauce. You could taste the sauce but the fish did not lose its own flavour!

The meat is great, and cooked beautifully. The sanwiches fantastic! The empanadas are very popular but not my favourite. They make them with mussels which is great when its fresh, but if its a few hours old then it gets a uncomfortable sea smell. We also ate barbecued lama meat, a bit too tough, fatty and gamey for me!

One intersting thing about the meat especially the beef in both Argentina and Chile is that they use the cut with fat. This makes the meat cook a lot nicer and the barbecued fat is great! Not sure its doing anyone a favour health wise, but rarely is something that taste this great, healthy!

We also got to taste some Colombian food, by far the most exciting food I've had on this trip. Bandega Paille I think it was called. Basically consisted of beef mince in a Indian type masala although not spicy, rice, chorizo, pork skin that was fried and a bit hard to eat, plantains like the ones we get in Kerala that were fried, and a friend egg on the rice. The flavours were amazing! We also tried a chicken in muishroom sauce with coconut rice! The rice was a bit sweet but it was all amazing!

Btw every Colombian we have soo far encountered has been real fun and make a huge effort to be friendly!Pity we won't make it to Colombia this time, but I guess the icing on the cake is that this forces us to make another trip tp these parts soon!

Bariloche

2011-05-23T06:40:00.000-07:00

The Road to Bariloche was a painfully long one. The bus started at 3 in the afternoon, would not stop at any decent hour for a meal and was generally uncomfortable. It did not help that the landscape was boring. Once you 've done enough 20 + hour bus rides you very quickly realise that the best rides are the ones that start in the morning and end after a night’s sleep. This one was a 28 hour ride that ended being some 31 hours so we had a full next day in the bus. At about 7 just as we began to get really itchy the landscape changed. The mountains were covered in huge green conifers, and lakes, big and small, dotted the valleys. We were passing through El Bolson. In a couple of hours we reached Bariloche. The first sight that you catch as you enter Baricloche is the huge Nahuel Huapi lago. It questions every belief I had of what constitutes a lake. NH is huge, has waves that actually break.

We stayed at the Las Moiras, one of our favourite hostels yet, not only for the hostel itself, but the staff too. Bariloche is a pretty little town on the edge of the lake districts. It is considered safe and seems to be home to lot Partenos who got tired of the big city life in Buenas Aires. We happened to reach on the day that it was celebrating its 100 something anniversary. The town was festive, and it was nice to be part of a huge crowd, the first since we left New York some 2 months ago. Yannick got himself some cotton candy as the fireworks lit up the sky.

That morning we trekked up to Cerro Campanaria, according to many one of the top 10 views in the world. The trek itself was about an hour and a half but up a stiff incline. We got glimpses of the view we would see, but nothing prepared us for what we saw when we reached the summit , a huge water body with beautiful islands covered in trees with leaves in green or bright yellow. On one island was a small log house with smoke coming out of its quaint chimney...enchanting. The lakes were set against the Andes, and that made the whole scene even more spectacular.

The next day we hired a car and drove through the 7 lakes. These lakes are huge and they make the lakes in Scotland look like little wading pools. Once again the fall colours with the lake as a foreground was stunning. It was cold, as low as -5 C but the sun was out. It felt really strange. Ice along the roadside, something I was particularly worried about since I had never driven in these conditions and I had enough on my plate driving a left hand drive for the first time and trying to keep the car on the right lane instead of the left. The real difficulty is when you get to a round-about, but luckily the route we took was pretty devoid of traffic so it was easy to acclimatise. The drive was beautiful, and we even stopped by the side of a beautiful little river, not much bigger that a stream really, to eat our sandwich lunch. I skimmed pebbles in the water with Yannick and it took me back to my school days. Tom, a young Londoner who was taking a few months off to travel before heading to university at Cambridge joined us on the drive as we had room for one more in the car. The little towns we stopped in enroute were picturesque, especially Villa Angostura. We stayed the night in San Martin de los Andes and took off to El Bolson early next morning. We took another route back and once again we were blown by the natural beauty of this route. Seeing huge horse grazing along the gravel road added to the ethereal effect.

El Bolson was a 7 hour drive and I was kind of tired by the time we got there but we had a trek to we wanted to do, and only a few hours before it got dark, so we headed straight to the tourist info office to register ourselves. This is something you have to do before heading into the mountains because it is very easy to get lost in the dark.

MUH ME LEH

2011-05-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

Something that stare you in the face is how polite people are in this part of the world. This politeness is a very deeply ingrained way of life here. No offence to my American friends, but the politeness here seems to be much more genuine and heartfelt, than the practised almost perfunctory politeness you see in the US. I apologise to my Latin American and Central American friends for calling my friends from the US American. Having complained about the US or people from Estados Unidos, as they are known here, I begin to think about us Indians. I wrack my brains to find words or phrases for cheers, or health, as the term transalates in most other cultures used before sharing a drink, or a word for Bon Apetite or Bon Provecho, its spanish equivalent before a meal. Muh Me Leh somehow just doesn't have the same ring to it!!

I love the fact that everyone greets everyone, whether on a street, in a mall, or in an apartment building. Little todlers will scream Hola when you pass, and others will always have a Buenos Dias or Buenos tardes , or Buenos Nocches for you as you make eye contact. No conversation starts without a Con Permiso, Perdon, or Per favor, and rarely will an exchange not end in a Gracias.

I guess we Indians can add a few words to our vocabulary and learn a more few things besides learning how to stand in a queue.

Photos

2011-05-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonflydreams2011/page3/

click on the link. check out page 2 nd 1 too.

The Cuisine - As I see it

2011-05-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

One of the exciting aspeccts of traveling in South America is the food,or so we've always heard. Its been a mixed bag! The food in Brasil is interesting.

Breakfast is great! Breads, cheese, mortadella (a kind of ham), spreads and tons of fresh fruit. Great coffee, and juices. Who can complain!

As can be expected luch or dinner is basically a lot of beans, in dark shades of purple, in an interesting sauce, a little different from what we make in India, lots of rice or Aroz as they call it, once again just a little different from our rice. They cook it with some stuff thrown in , not just plain simple rice. Mandioca, something we have never seen is a key ingredient. Mandioca is a root, I think, looks like sweet potato, but tastes nothing like it. The Brasilian will use Mandioca in all forms in every meal. Dryed mandioca powder is always dropped on top of the rice and beans combo. I disked it because it kind of dries out the food too much and has a sand like texture...I can see my Brasilian friends waiting to have a go at me for that comment. Lots of fresh fish, meat, not too overly flavoured, but nice enough to make it great. They also eat a lot of vegetables like brocolli, spinach so all in all a nice mix. Lots of coconut in everything so I'm generally a happy man.
Before the meal you eat a starter that is a kind of pie. It is just fantastic! The one I really enjoyed was a crab meat mixed with some herbs. Really exciting flavours and texture. They also do the pastels. These are large samosas with either meat, ham, sea food, or chicken inside. Often time you have the option of adding queso or cheese, or you can get pastels that have only cheese. The cheese is pretty good too, not the same as Italy maybe but nice enough.

The best part of the Brasilian cuisine is fruit! The freshest, most exotic fruits especially in the form of Jugo or juice. The mangoes are huge, 3 times the size of the biggest mango you'll find in India, and a juice is 2 mangoes simply run through a blender, divine, and inexpensive. Sugarcane juice, or jugo de cana, is a another favourite! A tad too sweet for me but since no sugar is added, you have to respect the drink.

Desert is either portuguese as in fantastic caramel custard they call flan, or coconut based. They have this fantastic desert that is basically acai (a local very popular fruit), coconut shavings, lots of sweet syrupy stuff poured on top. Again too sweet but very very interesting.

Drinking in Brasil, is generally kept simple, Beer or Casacha. The beer really sucks except for one called Bohemia which is barely decent, and otherwise the beer our friends Ronaldo , Thiago and team brew(fantiastic beers). He will take over the beer market if he puts his beer out into the marklet. As someone with some advertising background, i have suggested the naked girl on a horse commercial (will need to get the rights from Ali G) to hit TV stations just before the world cup. Any ideas that could work better will be listened to and evaluated carefully.

Casacha is something else. They have all kinds of flavours and mixes so it is tough to really commnet on the Casacha itself. get you nice and drunk quite quicky, no hangover so thats a good drink for me. Without any mixers or falvours, I did not love it!

Oh yeah, last but not least is the Brazilian love for Chocolate milk ! Funily enough I think this love overpowers even their love for coffee. Full grown adults will drinks litres of the stuff. NESCAU is the favoured brand! So Yannick fit in completely.

Now we get to Argentianian food - meat...meat...and well, meat! Well done, very well done! Great meat by itself, the beef is the best but man its boring! No seasoning, sauce or veges to go with it, nor do they eat fruits. Pasta is their second staple, only its overcooked and the sauces are generally runny. Breakfast is sweet and basically non existant. Their all time favourite is Dulce de Leche, or a form of super sweet condensed milk. They do have an interesting biscuit/sweet called alfagor and they do make some decent empanadas or baked samosa like snacks with a filling. In Patagonia, its not beef but lamb that is favoured. Once again the meat itself is really good, but the preparations aren't very creative. Not terribly exciting but not bad! Basically the Argentinian philosophy to food is why waste space on eating anything other than meat. Exciting as a thought but very soon it gets downright boring. I believe on average an Argentinian male could easily eat 500 g of assado or grilled meat for one meal!

Not to put down Argentinian food, but it isn't something for a palate that is used to a lot of seasoning and flavour. We did have a great meal including the best steak *in terms of the quality of the meat) that I've had at DesNivel in BA that included a great provolone starter, ate great fusion food at a Effimero Festine , a friend Carolina's restaurant, but all that was not really enough for us to feel too excited about the general cuisine.

My different point of view to the trip - Yannick

2011-05-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

After all those blogs by papa I have to tell everybody my point of view about our adventure. We started off in rio ( I know you know that, but anyway ), which was amazing. One night my parents and the people we were staying with (ronaldo and renata ) were going to a bar and so they asked them what they would do with me and they casually said " he'll come with us ".At first I thought they were joking but apparently in Brasil KIDS are allowed into bars !!!!! Well I thought they would be partying and dancing and all of that, but what do I say, you adults are soooooooo Boring. I mean on days you want to have fun and all that you go to a bar, and your idea of a fun night in a bar is talking to people with a glass of beer in your hand. Or maybe that's just with my parents and you do more fun things than THAT ( hopefully ) !!!!!!! My parents kept saying Rio is 'naturally blessed' ( I'm sure papa had written it in the blog ). I did not really care about the naturally blessed part and all that, but rio was amazing even otherwise.

We then went to Minas Gerias which to me was actually not so great. In minas we went to SJDR which was really boring. And tiradentes which was pretty and all that but it looked like a town for old people ( not as in older than me, like 70 or 75 year olds ) who just want to sit around looking at the sky. In tiradentes we had heard from some one that we could do trek to the spring of a water fountain which was in supposedly the center, but it looked like it was in the furthest part from the center, in the city of 4 blocks by 4 blocks. The trek was a complete waste as we went a long way, it was not at al hard but it was long, and then just came to a dead end. The trek was full of beautiful vegetation and all that...but whats the point if you go for a trek to find some thing and then just reach a big dead end.

We went back and forth from rio to other places because we wanted see other places but we had to be close to rio cos we had to receive our chile visas. After that we said bye to rio and left for ilhe grande. Ilhe grande was nice but if it was known for it's beaches I would not be impressed. The sea did not have a single wave, just calm waters in which u can just sit next to and gaze at. I would have put ilhe grande in my bad books if what happened the next day did not happen. Early next morning, about 11 o' clock (I know that's not early but anyway ) we made plans to trek up to a water fall. By 11:30 we reached the trekking track. It was a 5 km trek. The path was...up hill, down hill, up hill, down hill and it went on and on like that. Midway or 1/4 the way a huge ( about 3 foot ) snake slithered right in front of me!!!!!! I did not spot it until It got into the grass!!!!!! I could have stepped on it!!!!!!! Well that was NOT the reason that changed my opinion of Ilhe grande. The waterfall was amazing.....mamma said she wanted to get under the waterfall. Which at that point, I thought was a stupid idea cos the waterfall was like an air conditioner from on the rocks 15 feet away. I knew they would freeze to death so I decided not to get under the fall even though I had swimming shorts on. So mamma got out of her clothes and was in her bikini and papa took of his shirt and they went in. Just as they got In this couple reached the place I was at. Even they started getting ready to go into the falls. ( I don't think they would have if mamma and papa weren't in already. As soon as they got in papa dragged me in as well. He helped the woman get right under the fall. When I reached under the fall I stayed only for 1 pic. It was freezing. And mamma who won't get into the sea unless it's not at all cold was relaxing on a rock under the fall.

After we got out we started to chat with the couple. Their names were nana (which i thought was a short form but i was wrong ) and andreas .We found out they were german and they had sailed across the Atlantic in a sailboat which was 38 feet!!!!!!!! They asked us if we had plans and all that so we made plans to cook dinner on their boat. We bought some ingredients and everything and got onto a 'dingy'. Andreas rowed the dingy to Their boat...which I think was quite hard cos there were 4 other people to row. Once we got into the boat he told us that we were gonna go to a quieter place and papa sailed or drove or whatever you call it halfway and the next half I sailed. It was fun but 5 mins from the destination there was a spider on the wheel and, I have a phobia of them, I got distracted and kept going right and so Andreas had to steer the boat back to the proper course.

We then went snorkelling, which did not work cos it was to big and the water got into my eyes....but even without the snorkelling gear I saw zebra fish, a huge starfish and some weird glowing thing. After getting back we ate Doritos and drank coke ( adults drank beer and mamma drank juice ). Dinner was pasta and some fruit or veggie.

The next day we left Ilhe grande, nana and Andreas gave me some crepes which I ate on the bus Journey to Sao paulo............in Sao Paulo we were gonna couch surf for the second time in the trip with this girl called luiza. Well Sao Paulo was fun but it was not touristy at all..........Which is completely fine by me as they had many parties and I played füsbal. We stayed at luiza's grandmothers house as there was no place in her house ( actually she stays with her parents, she's 25 ) cos her parents and her sister Maria, who is 16, her brother henrique and herself. I have realised that I get quite lonely in hostels and all that, but I love couch surfing....it's more fun.

It was easter sunday on one of the days and luiza was going to take us cycling around the city cos on sunday, from 7 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon there is this thing where one lane of the road is shut down for bicycles. mamma didn't wanna come cos she wanted to help luiza's dad make the easter lunch. The bicycle thing was supposed to be 7 kilo meters or something....but i think luiza must have been thinking about the number 7 when she said that or maybe she was going to mutiply it by 4, but she forgot. Affter 7 kilometers passed luiza told me we had half way to go. once the next loooong 7 kms got over i thought we were back but for some reason i did not regonise this place as the one where i rented my bike. And of course this was only the the half way stop. so when i asked luiza where we supposed to leave our bikes and she told me that we had to go back...i was wondering if 7 k was actually that long. cos im sure i would have done 7 k in 20 mins in a car. the ride back was really hard cos we did not even have any water with us....and it was raining...it was not raining heavily, but heavily enough to make me tired even quicker. after the terrific bike ride there was easter lunch. it was not even really easter but luiza parents were not going to be there the next weekend which was the real eaaster..so they decided that the party was gonna happen that day. It was mamma's b'day so we ate cake and all that. But the best part was playing foosball. luiza had invited a lot of people...so when me and maria went to the basement to play foosball a whole lot of people followed. One of luiza's friends named Corneilio was 6 foot 10 inches tall, and he was the 2nd shortest amongst the 5 who made his basketball team!!!!!! luiza had only 1 rule and that was if someone beat the opponent 10/0 then the loser has to go under the table. Papa and Cornelio lost to someone 10/1 which just saved Cornelio the trouble of getting his 6 foot 10 inch body under the table. Later on maria and me beat papa and cornelio 10/0 and the picture of Cornilio trying to get under the table was priceless.

We then went to foz do iguaźu. Well this waterfall made the one in ilhe grande look like.....a needle in a hay stack......a very very big hay stack!!!!! The Brazilian side was nice and all that but all we did was look at it......and well get soaked by the spray of water ( that was fun ). On the Argentinean side we took a boat ride to get under the falls. That was probably the most amazing thing I have experienced with nature. We saw 3 or 4 rainbows, got completely soaked and had fun.

Buenos Aires was our next target. The bus we took to get there was called "rio uruguay". It was the best bus ever.......they gave us snacks, drinks ( they gave papa whisky, liquor and last of all champagne ). We thought maybe the buses in Argentina were better than in Brasil. My first impression of buenos aires through a taxi window ) was: New York. Everybody was wearing black, it was busy with people on the streets and all that. The hostel we stayed in was a rubbish hostel. Breakfast was basically just bread and.....a replacement for butter. One day they forgot to even give us breakfast!!!!! But even now papa says it was the second best place we stayed in because of the people ( not only the staff ) we met in the hostel. The highlight of buenos aires ( for me ) was the footballgame. It was between 2 teams I had never heard of. The fans of the team I was supposed to support were all yelling abuses at the other team. All ages, kids, adults, grandfathers. So when children abused the parents would tell them to stop, and 2mins later they will start abusing. My team won the match. It was great fun.

The next best thing we did in BA was lujan zoo, it was great...i got to pet and hold lion cubs and tigers, but i was not allowed into the older lions cage...which was a bummer. But it was really good fun. since the keepers liked us a lot they asked us if we wanted to take the cub to its mother...so i got to carry the cub outside the cage which was amazing. On the last day in Buenos aires one of our friends, Gaby, told mamma that her friend wanted her to cook an Indian meal, at her restaurant, for lunch. The meal was not at all spicy...but for gaby she could not even finish half of the food on her plate. Her friend Carolina had no problem and she loved it.

Peurto madryn was the next destination. we basically went there because some travellers we met recomended it . The main thing we were gonna do was a tour. We had many options but we chose the "peninsula valdez" tour. the tour was gonna take us to see penguins, sea lions, elephant seals and orca which are basically just killer whales named differently cos killer whales dont kill anything but thier food and they are dolphins, not whales. The guide told us that seeing the orca is very rare. he told us that only 10% of the tourists see them, and this tour is taken every day. The guide kept telling us we probably wouldn't see the penguinds as they were starting to leave. but we were lucky and we even saw the ORCA!!!!!!!!!!!

The hostel in peurto madryn was the best one ever, it was just amazing. if i ever go back to Peurto madryn then i will definitely stay there. The end of the world was coming up. Ushuaia was reallllllly beautiful. You could see the mountains from the hall in our hostel, which was pretty cool. We went for a trek up to a mountain, and for the first time I saw snow!!!It was proper snow when we got to the mountain area, not just some stupid, lame ice that you cant even make a snowman out of. although the snow was so cold that it burned my hand when i tried to make a snowball. Next we walked around, took pics with the end of the world sign, typical for travellers in ushuaia. That was it for the end of the world, i think people only go there, for the fact that they can say " ohhh i been to the end of the world and all that hocus pocus.We took a flight out if Ushuaia to El calafate, cos it was the same price as the bus AND it was shorter AND we wouldn't have to go through the chilean border.

In El Calafate, on the first day we walked around town and this dog followed us for hours. I named him woof. i would keep throwing stones into the lake and he would bound after them and jump into the freezing waters. Once we got into town i could not see him and i suddenly saw him jump into a car and drive of with a lady.
The next day we trekked on a glacier...it was the most amazing trek I have ever done. I never thought it would be so easy to walk on ice. The tour guides explained everything very well. It was lot of fun. In the end there was a surprise which was whisky with glacier ice, but I only got to drink water.

The glacier looked like the description of Mount Diablo in Heroes of Olympus except that it was flat and spiky rather than tall and spiky. It was huge, 30 kms long, adn 70 feet high outside the lake and 110 feet below the water.

I hope the trip continues like the glacier walk...and I have a strong feeling that it will. I thnk thats probably the most positive thing i have said since bieng above 10 years old. The trip is definitely changing me

yannick

The trekking capital

2011-05-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

Something I forgot to mention in my last post, was the surprise we had at the end of the Glacier trek in Perito Moreno. We walked into something that looked like a small landing on the ice and were greeted by a treasure box. Inside this box was a bottle of whisky... a very welcome sight indeed. The guide then hacked some ice off the glacier wall and Whisky on the rocks took on a new meaning! Great touch I thought!

Our plan was to head out to Torres Del Paine in chilean Poatagonia the next day but we kept hearing about bad weather conditions, and cancelled treks. Torres del Paine has a beautiful but very tough trek called the W. It is a 4 day trek and if the weather is bad some parts of the trek can be life threatening! we heard a few horror stories as the wind was blowing at aroudn 90 k all week. Taking into account the cost, the chance of a cancelled trek and the time we would waste, we decided to cancel. The saving grace was that El Chaltan was in many ways similar to Torres del Paine but much smaller.

We took the early morning bus to El Chalten and planned to spoend the day trekking there. As soon as we reached El Chaltan we regretted not staying on for a few days. El Chaltan is the trekking capital of Argentina, and it is beautiful! Mount Fitzroy is the peak to try and get to but that is out of question at this time of the year. This rock edifice stan upright in the middle of the Andes. It is a strange sight because it is structurally nothing like its surroundings. Sheer, with a greyish tone, and ice capped, it sits near by a beautiful lake. We trekked to a viewing point and then to this lake where we had our home made sandwiches and drank pure water from the lake. The trek takes about 5 hours in total and it is quite a climb but the fall colours with the beautiful canyon below and the mountain on the other side makes it enchanted. the weather was great, the sun shone right through the day while the temperature were around 10 /12 C so it was perfect. The trek take you through streams and rivulets, beautiful little bridges, some fantastically huge trees, and leaves of yellow and red.

If we hadn't already bought out tickets to Bariloche for the next afternoon, we would have definitely stayed on to do a few more treks. At least we got to walk in a part of the earth this beautiful!
The next afternoon we jumped on a bus, semi cama this time, and started another 20 hour ride to Bariloche.

The river that froze

2011-05-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

El Calafate is a small town with beautiful views of the Andes. Located on the banks of Lago Argentina, it is the popular base for all southern Patagonia travelers, being just a few hours away from both EL Chaltan, the trekking capital of Argentina, and from Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia, touted to be one the most beautiful national park in South America.

The main attraction of Calafate is Los Glaciers National park, home to some 47 odd decent sized Glaciers including Perito Moreno, the only stable glacier in the world. The Los Glaciers National Park is the largest ice cap after Greenland and Antartica.

Interestingly, the name Calafate comes from a local berry and not from its main attraction, so as you can expect everything from Calafate liquor to calafate flavoured ice cream (not too bad, a bit like our Jamun) to Calafate snacks inundate their markets.

We arrived in the afternoon and after settling into our hostel, decided to spend the day walking around the lake. Yannick befriended a large dog and named him woof. Woof followed us around for 3 hours. Yannick would throw stones into the freezing lago and Woof would jump in after the stones. We saw what looked like a pink tint on the far bank of the lake and as we reached there we saw that it was a group of some 30 Flamingoes! Beautiful graceful birds. There were also swans, swans with black necks, fluorescent green ducks, and so many other birds that we unfortunately could not recognise. El Calafate and the area around is home to Eagles, Falcons and Condors and seeing a falcon sitting on a wire fence along side the road you realise how majestic a bird he is.

Anyway, woof continued to walk around with us and even re entered town when we did. I was getting a little worried as Yannick was now asking if we could take him back to Bombay with us. Suddenly, woof was not around, and Yannick looked back only to see him jump into a car and drive away. Argentina is full of dogs that roam around free of leashes or collars. It is quite an amazing sight to see them that free.

The next day we were headed out to see the glacier. My expectations were pretty low, and the trip was bloody expensive. A hour or so drive took us into Los Glaciers National Park. The park is beautiful, with the water on one side and different kinds of vegetation on the other. Finally we turn a bend and get our first view of Perito Moreno! I was stunned ! I felt the river had frozen in its path! The glacier is huge, some 30 kms long. At the point where is suddenly decided to stop freezing the water, it forms a wall of ice that is about 70 feet high above the water level and 110 feet below the water. This giant wall is inundated with crevices and has a very craggy upper layer, something I did not expect. These crevices reflect a blue that I have not encountered before.

We took a boat and sailed close to the wall of ice before being landed on the opposite shore from which we had taken off. From here we trekked a short distance to the Glacier and got our crampons tied to our feet. Crampons are like rudimentary roller skates that we grew up with, expect that they have 6 steel pegs instead of wheels. You need to walk with your legs apart and you need to crunch the crampons into the snow as you walk. We trekked on the glacier for a couple of hours and saw some incredible crevices. They were deep and blue and scarily inviting! Yannick was designated co pilot and enjoyed his duties leading the pack. To see a piece of ice calve off the glacier and fall into the water is quite something, but what is of much greater impact is the huge sound it makes.

A few hours later, we had our packed sandwiches at the base of the Glacier, headed up to a few different view points from where we got a view of the whole Glacier which is when we realised how big it really was. Perito Moreno isn't the largest glacier in the park, Viedma is the largest, but unlike every other Glacier that is shrinking, Morena continues to stay stable.

Fin Del Mundo

2011-05-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

Puerto Madryn had been fantastic not only for the marine wildlife, the hostel, and the fantastic fellow travellers we met. We hung out with a crazy Italian Luca, a slovenian couple Miha and Nusa, met a bunch of others so it felt a little meloncholy as we left to the bus station.

The bus was a long one. Travel south to Rio Gallagos which is a 20 hours ride, switch buses and then do another 11 hours to Ushuaia. We cross the Chilean border and then get back into Argentine territory. This of course, is painful especially because the Chileans are painful about carrying anything organic through thier country. We were warned, but took a chance with some kori gussi masala we were carrying. They ran our bags through an x ray machine but we were let go. We heard later that someone got fined €150 for carrying in one apple! Not taking any more chances with the Chileans!

Ushuaia is the southern most town in the world. From here, you can do boat trips to Antartica if you are a millionaire but the reason most travellers go here is for that photograph with the Fin Del Mundo sign but there is more to this town. Glacier Martial for instance is a beautiful glacier a few hours trek from the city.

We decided to do the trek. The mountians here are not that high, but they are snow covered. It was cold and snowing. We had arrived at the perfect time, fall. The colours were beautiful. The trees were in reds, yellows, and green against a white snow background. The treks themselves were closed, but you can venture up if you want to, and so we did. We trekked for a about 2 hours through some of the most stunning scenery until we hit the snow. Walking on the snow was an experience I won´t forget. It has been years since I experienced something for the fist time and I felt like a child. The sound of the crunching ice was exhilarating.

We ended up spending a couple of days here and then decided to fly out to El Calafate since we got an air ticket for just a little more than a bus ticket. Thinking about the Chilean border post, the 11 hours to Gallagos again, and then another bus ride to Calafate made it an easy decision.

Taking the flight was a strange, but nice experience after all the buses. Even forgot to take out my Victorinox from my hand bag! Anyway an hour later we were in Calafate!

More Pixs ...

2011-05-03T19:05:00.001-07:00

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

People

2011-05-03T07:32:00.001-07:00

Thought I must add a small note on what I think has been the best part of our travels so far. The places and things we hav seen have taught us a new respect for nature but what is more surprising in the way we people can be when we travel. We' ve met and spent time with people from all kinds of places and of all ages (sadly not one kid yet) and they have all been wonderful, open in sharing their info, and taking us into their worlds without suspicion or asking questions about each others motives. I wonder what the world would be if we could all be this way in our everyday life.

Burnos Aires

2011-05-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

Is a contradiction, majestic colonial buildings, dog poo laden streets, charming street markets that criss cross dilapidated poorer sections, a certain strange pride mixed with a snob attitude that lives alongside a general deep dissatisfaction with the way life is.
The city itself is interesting but in a big city way. The street market in San Thelmo is great fun. Ate the best steak I've eaten at a quaint assadora caled Des Nivel.
The food is meat and nothing else so not very exciting. No salads, no soups, no spice, no salt so after the initial excitement of seeing a beatiful t-bone or rib eye , the dryness of all of it catches up. Also the steak here is well done, no medium or rare options. This meant we cooked a lot.
Once again met a friend of a parteno (as people from BA like to be known) friend of mine Ana. Gaby was super ! She spent the weekend and another day hanging out with us , taking us to the local spots. She even introduced us to a friend if hers who has abeautiful little restaurant. Anu cooked a beautiful kori gassi at the restaurant the next day. Oh yeah she is carrying the masala.
We stayed at a hostel called Kilca that another friend Julietta had suggested. Not the greatest hostel in terms of amenities but the people more than made up. We felt we were at home and made some great friends.

Took in a football game , a classico between arch rivals Racing and Independiente. The atmosphere is unexplainable. It starts 4 hours before the game as the fans drive to the stadium, singing screaming but mainly cursing a very specific anatomical
Part of thier opponents mother. This curse is joined in by all ages and sexes. Yannick had a permanent smile and after a while joined in the tirade. I was hard pressed to find a reason to stop him. The stadium shook, smoke bombs were set alight To the point where visibility was about 4 feet. Fans danced on the moat wall and the drums joined in.
The game itself was ordinary but Racing , our team won, beating Independiante after 5 years! The visiting fans left and we were only allowed out half an hour later, smart given the general mind set around.

Ate our first chori pan or chorizo in a bun . Fell in love with it.

We walked around BA a lot, did all the touristy stuff like the Casa Rosada where Eva Peron addressed he people, went to Palermo etc and then went. 2 hours out of town to find Lugan zoo.

I have ethical issues with all Zoos but this was one where most of the animals were born on the zoo which somehow made it a bit easier to deal with. The zoo authorities claim that their caring methods , feeding them since birth and growing up around dogs and other domesticated animals make them less aggeesive than they could otherwise be. Not sure I like the idea of big cats behaving like domesticated animals but we got to play with lion cubs, Yannick even carried a 1 month old from it's enclosure to it's mother. While I still believe animals should only be in the wild, I must admit that carrying a lion cub was quite something ! At least the animals were definitely not sedated.

Patagonia

2011-05-03T07:21:00.001-07:00

5 days in BA and we were ready to continue our journey. I could feel the difference in the way we approached travel. We were cooking a lot more, making and hanging plans after chatting with fellow travellers, and taking decisions a lot easier. I began to feel the need for a netbook. Every place we were in had wi fi and using Yannick's I touch and Nu's I phone was ok for email but tough when you need to research the next destination. Watching films on long bus rides would be nice too. Anyway did not fond a decent prized one in BA.
We were headed to Puerto Madryn on the east coast of Argentina. It is the stop for a fascinating peninsula in the Atlantic called Peninsula Valdes, home to Penguins, Elephant seals , Sea lions, huge number of birds like the condor with a wing span of 3 m, and whales. We arrived whenthe whales had not yet come in, and the penguins were leaving.
Patagonia, the aouthern most province in Argentina iis one of the most blessed places in the world when it comes to nature and marine wild life. Beatiful coves, bays, glaciers, desidous forests and unbelievble wild life. Peninsula Valdes is special not only because of the marine wildlife but also because it is the only place in the world where the Orca or killer whales as they are unfortunately called in English, beach themselves to catch baby sea lions. They have learnt to, and teach their young this belly leap technique. This means we have the chance to see Orca on or really close to the beach. We need to be real lucky! From June to december this is where the whales breed so huge numbers of them can be seen from real close quaters. Of course all this makes Patagonia near unaffordable even during the off season.
Patagonia also has the most unpredictable weather, they say you can get all 4 seasons in one day. We had to finally open our vacumm bags and take out the warm clothes. The wind in Patagonia regularly blow at over 60 k , add to that temperatures below 10 C and we realised how under prepared we were.
We lucked out and found La Tosca, by far the nicest hostel we've stayed in. The trip to the peninsula turned out to be fantastic. We saw the last 5 pengunins, 2 elephant seal colonies, sea lions and finally something leapt out of the ocean 10 metres from the beach. Another followed almost immediately. I thought they wee dolphin but they had the black and white bodies and were larger . THE ORCA , 4 of them majestically leaping in and out of the water! To be in the presence of such a being is to be blessed! We watched mesmerised hoping they would beach. We did not have ti deal with The ethical conundrum of wanting to see a beaching and seeing the life of a baby sea lion taken. The orca sliced through the waters and finally disappered!
In silence we continued our trip.

For photos

2011-05-02T19:02:00.001-07:00

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

Some More Pix on Flickr

2011-04-23T13:57:00.001-07:00

Bus rides anybody?

2011-04-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

We thought hard about out route through Argentina and decided to go for the jugular, which means many 20 hour plus bus rides with the aim of getting to the farthest town in the southern hemisphere, Ushuaia and then traveling North to Mendonsa before heading into Santiago, Chile. This meant Iguacu to Buenos Aires first, which is a 20 hour bus ride.

We walked around and found a deal with the bus company Rio Uruguay. Here I need to explain the bus system in Argentina. The buses are divided broadly into 4 categories Cama Suite (180 bed) , Cama ( big seats and 135 recliner) , Semi cama ( less wide seats and reclines a tad less than the Cama) and then the commun or really local bus. Most long routes only offer the 1st three. Rio Uruguay offered us a Cama bus for $3 more than the Semi Cama so we jumped on it. Remember the tickets cost aboit US$90 each for a 20 hour ride. Steep???? Its a bloody cliff !!The only saving grace is that they give you dinner and breakfast!

We got on the bus at 2pm. At 3, they surpised us with a plate of ALFAGOR or a sweet biscuit like tart and coffee or soft drinks.. The seats were way more comfortable than any flight I´ve taken. At 7 they gave us a packet of salted biscuits and offered us a drink. Yes... a real alcoholic drink... on a bus! The options were whisky or liquor, which I realised meant snapps with real ice cubes. Great start I thought! At 8 we were offered more alcohol with Vino thrown in for good measure. At 9 we were served a dinner that would make any airline business class proud. A pie, salad with a vinaigrette, bread, butter , cheese, dulce e leche ( something super sweet like sweetened condensed milk that Argentines can´t live without and something I would rather not have known existed) , Chicken Milanese, rice and a desert! I was sure there must be a catch when they came around half an hour later with another plate of alfagor and champagne!! And yes it was a pretty great champagne!

Anu is pretty sure there was a chepaer ticket that we missed out on!!

What a way to enter Buenos Aires !

Border Crossings

2011-04-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

The bus to the border was a local bus. It dropped us off at the Brazilian border and we had to get stamped out. Another bus would arrive in 20 mins or so and we had crossed our first international border via land! All very new and interesting. We bumped into a Japanese couple Osamu and Aki, as we were stranded waiting for the 2nd bus. They were traveling through SA without any spanish and a smattering of English. Gutsy!

Puerto Iguacu is a town meant only for the Cataratas. Touts tried to sell us hostels but we had learnt the benefits of walking around and looking. Someone walking alongside us asks us if we were Indian. Vivek works with the Interpol and so travels to PI quite often. Of course he travels on work and so has no idea about hostels. He takes the trouble to walk us to the one he had encountered the day before. One of touts see this and decide to threaten him. A little disconcerting but made our decision not to stay at the touts suggested place.

A quick shower and we headed to the cataratas! The entry fee pretty much dampned any further shock that we could feel, or so we thought but the cataratas from this side is even more awe inspiring! You get to see the size of the canyon and the force of the water much more clearly here. We bit the bullet, and decided the boat ride under the falls was worth it. It was!! I have no words that can explain the feeling of awe that nature can inspire.Faced with the falls at that proximity, you feel only respect!

We bumped into some more wild life in a coaxi. A racoon like animal with a jester like personality, except that he gets vicious when close to food. As in every place, we made a bunch of friends. Finally got back to the hostel and thought of looking up Vivek. He did really go out of his way to walk us to the hostel. He was with his family, and it panned out to be a really great evenig! Great company. Priscialla his wife and his little kid Arya were fun to hang out with..Yannick and Vivek had some great conversation and then he did something that surprised all of us. He invited a hungry street singer to eat at the next table! I think it was his belief in karma or just in doing the right thing. Vivek is a very interesting guy who has lived a very interesting life, another guy I look forward to keeping in touch with.

New Photos

2011-04-21T18:19:00.001-07:00

Added some pictures. Same sign in and password : nubirdy@yahoo.com and shetty.

THE CATARATAS

2011-04-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

Leaving SP , new bag in tow, for a 12 hour bus ride to Foz de Iguacu was an emotional one. Luisa's grandmom and Neozonha were in tears. One by one the entire family came by and we said our goodbyes. The metro was packed but not unpliable.

We reached Foz early next morning, and found a friendly looking hostel, katarina. They had a little cocker spaniel. Seeing her took us back home.

The waterfalls are located at a point where Brazil Argentina and Paraguay meet. The controversial Itiapu hydro project apparently supplies all of Paraguays power needs , 20% of Brazils power and a significant amount of Power to Argentina so we did expect something pretty gigantic.

A 45 min bust ride took us there. We trekked along the paths and finally got a first look at the falls. It was impressive !

Butterflies of all hues abound. One even decided to take a ride on my hand for quite a while. A 1.2 KM path runs alongside the canyon and every few metres you get another more breath taking view of the falls. The path is so well laid out that every new view Is a better one. The path ends right under the largest drop. A walk way divides the falls into the gushing water on one side and another drop on the other. Words have to be created to describe the power of these cataratas.

The falls themselves look like all of a sudden the Rio (river)iguacu's bottom fell out. A long canyon drops into the landscape causing an otherwise huge but relatively placid river to scream and toss frantically over. The quantum of water is awe inspiring. The size of the falls is to be seen to be believed.

Soaked and stunned we slowly took the bus back to Foz.

Dinner was at the hostel chatting with fellow travellers. We decided it was time to see the falls from the Argentine side and so move on from Foz the next morning

Big Cities

2011-04-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

Ilha Grande gave us the tranquil spirit needed to tackle another big city. We met with Nana and Andreas at the wharf early next morning,exchanged a copy of the film for some wonderful nutella crepes they brought for Yannick. It was strange to wave goodbye to someone as we moved away into the ocean.

Missed the first bus from Angre del Ries to Sao Paulo but caught the next one. A 6 hour drive turned out to be 9 hours long which meant we reached SP at 11 pm. Bad news got worse with Yannick's backpack ripping open. The buses deserve a post by itself so I won't write about them now!

Anyway, found our way using a super metro system to Vila Mariana and the nicest family ever. Louiza was super enthusiastic, even picked us up from the subway station, which meant she dragged her mother out of her sons birthday party at 11.30 pm to find us.We stayed at her grandmothers place. Her grandmother Amelia, 91 years old , sprightly as a 60year old, still sits in her office for a few hours everyday , is everything you could want in a grandmother. It was wonderful chatting away with her, she in Portuguese, us using our phrasebook, a portuguese englsh dictionary and the kindle phrase book. She loved Yannick like he were her own grandchild.Tears in her eyes when we said goodbye! Yannick reciprocated equally. The family was wonderful, they took us in, fed us, had long discussions about |Brasil and just about everything else. We definitely leant a lot.

Sao Paulo is a big city, has a bunch of intersting things to see, the most impressive of which is the Merrcadom Municipal. A market with the most amazing fruits vegetable and meats. Fruits I hadn't dare imagine existed. Fruit Ninja can definitely add a few ultra rare fruits to its repertoire! It is also a huge food court with amazing restaurants. The pastel baccaloa is a SP speciality, so is the Mortadella Sandwich. Definitely gives the NY stle delis a run for their money, the juices are outstanding, the beer sadly still sucks!

Sunday was an early easter cleberation at Lauiza's house. Anu and Louisa's father Ricardo cooked, well what else but ...Baccaloa. Louisa, Yannick and I took the bicycle ride of our lives 25or so kms through SP. The city shuts down a lane from 7 am to 2 pm every sunday for cyclist to ride aroud and hundreds land up. The best way to see the city! The easter lunch doubled up as Anu's birthday celebration. It was also Henriques birthday so was a nice double celebration.

We also bumped into an Indian at the Market, who was so surprised to see Indians here that he invited us over for dinner. It was a real surprise that he had actually watched and loved Barah Aana. I think dinner was payment for downloading a pirated version of the film!! I´m beginning to have a chage of heart about piracy! How wlse would someone in SP see my film? The party was a bunch of Indian expats who have been living in SP for varying lengths of time. Interesting!

Sao Paulo for us for mostly Luiza, Ricardo, Sulekha (laura's mom), Maria (sis), Henrique ( bro) and Amelia, not to forget Neozinho (Amelia's housekeeper). Nouzinha was amazing, she even gave Anu a gift , a box of biscuits. A fantastic gesture! Made Nu's day! Walking aroudn the city , cycling around etc was a different kind of few days and we loved it!

Off to the cataratas - foz de Iguazu , apparently the most impressive waterfalls in the world!

New Pix on flickr

2011-04-10T17:12:00.001-07:00

Same login / password . Enjoy

The mugging, the snake and a Sail boat

2011-04-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

Rio without being close to a mugging can't be Rio. We felt so safe throughout the trip that when faced with a potential mugging we were completely unprepared. It wasn't all that dramatic. Walking back from the supermarket at around 8pm along a quiet street we see 3 young men looking at us suspiciously. We react by keeping our eyes on them and unconsciously sticking closer together. Nothing happen and 2 mins later they mug a brazilian girl behind us. It was all very clinical. She was stopped , her bag searched everything taken and let go.

We left Rio to Ilha Grande or Big Island. Its an island with no cars or banks. No idea why they discriminate against banks but that is the way it is. The Island has some 100 beaches, we walked from one to another and saw about 7or 8. Trees on the beach, caves and all kinds of formations that seems like were put there to make each one special. Kayaking out into the cove was great but then it started to rain and the rest of the day was washed out.

The next day we trekked to a waterfall. It was a 2 hour trek through thick forest on the mountain. Yannick was walking behind me and suddenly he screamed. A snake about 3 or 4 feet long, yellow and black slid past him into the grass. We all turned and watched it as it climbed away into the thicket. Our first wildlife viewing, a bit too up close but worth it. The trek ended in the most beautiful little waterfall. Nu and I jumped right in and the water was like a massage on our backs. Yannick took a while before he too could not resist. 20 mins later a couple joined us. I think seeing us in the water inspired them to get in. We really hit it off almost immediately, something that seems to happen a lot while we travel, got talking and realised that they were sailing around the world and had just crossed the Atlantic, two people in a 38 foot sailboat!! They offered to take us around the island probably not realising how thick skinned we could be. Naturally we jumped at the chance. We got back to base, picked up pasta tomatoes beers and sailed away on their 38 footer and anchored in a beautiful bay. It was the experience of a life time Jumped into the ocean and snorkeled around. Anu was great esp given it was her first snorkeling experience. Yannick just swam around like a fish. I'm envious of how comfortable he is in the ocean.Tons of beautiful fish swam around us and we also saw a huge starfish. The guy was probably 18 to 20 inches from one tip to the other.

I realised that being on the open seas on your boat is probably as free as a man can ever be.

Great pasta, great conversation, and we sailed back. Its funny how easily you make great friends when you are travelling. I know we will keep in touch and be inspired by Nana and Andreas.

Brazilian by the Quilo

2011-04-04T13:53:00.000-07:00

The Brazilian like everyone else is unique in many ways. Who is a Brazilian? Is he/she black, white, a mix of the two...honestly no one can tell. Everyone is Brazilian... its in the attitude. While there are no signs of racism, talking to people gives me the feeling that some subtextural racism does exist. The black guy is more likely to be a theif than a white guy for instance. Having said that, white friends tell me their parents would not think twice if she were to marry a black man!

The Brazilian is friendly, had a beat , and will go out of their way to help. On more than one occasion, people left their stalls or shops and walked us to our destination, other would pick up phones to find out locations that we asked them to guide us to. Very very humbling! for all that , they are a shy people. Most won't attempt English even if they can speak the language enough to communicate in fear apprently of losing face..

Our luck with people continues. Thiago took a day off to show us parts of the city he felt we should experience. Eating local food, climbing up to the top of a favella where he spent a few years when he was in University, and then walking past the spot where Micheal Jackson shot ''They don't really care about us' to another fantastic aerial view of Rio.

Today we finally picked up our Chilean visas and then called on our french friends from Tiredentes. Axel works as a guide in Rio. Amandine and he met us for lunch and he is the expert on how to live cheap in one of the world most expensive cities. They walked us through the crazy markets of Centro. Much like India but a little different. Yannick found an I Touch case for Rs 400/-. And I my Kindle chaarger cable!!!

Buffet lunches are rife in Brazil, except that instead of being all you can eat, its a pay for what you eat concept. The food is charged by the Kilo ( quilo in portuguese). You pick your plate, fill it up, weigh it and pay for what the weight you have on your plate. A quilo can be anywhere from R$ 11 ( Rs 300) to R$ 35. The real is pronounced Heyal. In portuguese the R is almost an H. No alcohol sadly. Oh yeah Brazilian beer is the wolrds worst!

Over the weekend we went to Renata's family holiday home about 180 kms from Rio. A beach town called Cabo Frio or Cold Cape. The water was beautiful and Yannick spent every waking hour in the ocean. Next door to Cabo Frio is Buzios, an upmarket, french Reviera style town. Beautiful but unaffordable. We had a token ice cream but stopped at that. Apparently Brigette Bardot discovered this little town.

Back home and packing to leave Rio, a city we have all fallen in love with. Its edgy, tough, beautiful, naturally blessed, silicone enhanced and everything you can dream of. A city of two side like many. The south zone, pretty, organised, beatiful bodies who seem to spend most of their time working out and the North zone, much more real, darker, crowded, still beautiful.

Tomorrow we take the 4 am bus to Mangaratiba, then the ferry to Ilha Grande or Big Island. Excited except for the fear of the Brazilian love for air conditioning! The buses are frozen to 14 while the outside temp is 30. No idea why but this is how they do it in Brazil.

Rodoviaria Sao Joao Del Rei

2011-03-31T18:02:00.000-07:00

is the bus station and thats where we are as I write this next post waiting for our midnight bus back to Rio.

Loafed around Rio and everything we see or do reinforces our belief that it is the best city we´ve been to. Santa Theresa was quaint, escarda celeron was inspiring, hanging off the little bonde or bondinho ( little tram) from lapa to Santa Theresa was ethereal, and most of all the cariocas whose attitude we hear so much about are the friendliest!
We finally decide to move on from Rio and take things as they come with the Chilean visa. Bahia is our plan except that getting there will cost us about $900 /- even if we took the 24 hour bus! So thats immediately struck off the plan. Renata and Anu sit around, Helena and Ronaldo have ideas and finally we come up with a plan. We bus down to Sao Joao Del Rei, one of the most historic towns in the Minas Gerias state, check out Tiradentes the culinary capital of Brazil and then move south to Ilha Grande, the island that has no motor vehicles nor banks.
The bus ride was panoramic for lack of a better word. The thickness of the vegetation is something I have never before experienced. Rolling hills, huge valleys , shades of green... awesome!

SJDR itself was a downer. I was particularly not feeling it that day and the general mood did little to allievate the brooding edifices around. My first bad day. I could see the effect on Anu and Yannick. The pausada ( family owned guest houses) was expensive, the churches were oppresive, and the restaurant was nice but the food we wasn´t what we expected! Dinner at the little street side Hambuguesa restaurant was nice. I started to feel better and then it began to rain the last rain of summer. I think that rain washed away most of my ill feeling. SLept well and woke up to one hell of a breakfast. It comes as part of the pousada deal. Here we also haad a fantastic conversation with a proffessor of English. Leant a lot about the brazilian mindset, the days of the dictatorship, their hopes now etc and there is no question that Brazil is our twin brother, afew years ahead and with far greater infrastructure.

Later that day we took off by local bus to Toradentes, a 20 min ride. Just entering this little town was enough to lift my spirits. Quaint is not expressive enough for the 3 streets that make this town/ village. Here I must add that the Brazilian people are definitely amonst the friendliest I have met even though most of them speak nothing other than Portuguese.

We found a great pousada, walked along the unpaved roads. I don´t say cobble stone because these were boulders compared to cobble stones that paved the road. Horse carriages run around merrily but these streets are a tyre makers dream. Tiradentes is engulfed by rather large hills. We walked around found the fountain called Chafariz that was fed by a spring but most of all the we just enjoyed walking around.

The night cooled down by a light rain as we walked around trying to decide on what to eat. It is a difficult decision is a town with the most michellin star restaurants in Brazil. Finally we decided on a restaurant and decided to eat what was a local speciality Oro Pro nobis - a chicken ( i too was surprised) dish with a ton of green veges , rice and a corn puree that kind of looked like hummus.It was a fantastic meal. Can´t compare it since it was the first oro pro nobis I had eaten!

This mornig w met a french couple at breakfast. Theyhave invited us over to their house in Rio for drinks when we get there. If we can we will definitely meet them. I have realised that these conversations have begun to mean a lot more to me than seeing the sites, not that the places and everything else is any less impressive.

Lots of confusion regarding our Chilean visa so we had to come back to SJDR, make some very specific payments and since the confusions still haven´t been cleared up we are taking the bus back to Rio tonight. Tomorrow hopefully we will clear the issues involved and continue to Ilha Grande the day after.

Oh yeah, the US Airways did credit the refund back to me with a small small fee! The prayers at the redeemer have paid off.

Too long a post to read and correct so forgive the errors. I´m posting anyway.

2011-03-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

Can't seem to be able to open up the pictures to everyone so pl go to the link and sign in as nubirdy password shetty

Rio Photographs

2011-03-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

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

Some pictures from Rio.Ok, hope this link works, if not please copy paste it onto your browser window and it should! Enjoy.

Braziiillll la la la la la la la la......

2011-03-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

I Love love love love love this city!! at least all I've seen of it so far.... though... even if the rest is really really crappy what I've seen will still make up and I love it!

Its a perfect degustation of cities.... if i can say that... it IS like they took pieces from different places and plated it OHh soo so so so very beautifully.

It is a great mix of contrasts...lovely old buildings sitting comfortably along side the new young brash modern ones....almost like doting grandparents with their brood of grand children.... it does have serious looking work places and yet it feels like a perpetual party place.. concrete jungles to the real ones, it is lush lush lushious green.. it has lovely open spaces, it has beaches.. oh my god does it have beaches...we have nana-nani parks they have beaches!!!( they also have parks though..) The Hills that lovingly hold the city together, like great big strong arms all protective like a cocoon... the neighbourhoods that spill out from between these hills like rivers meandering alongside these hills or rock and green....the favela's and the classy uber rich neighbourhoods.... Christ standing tall overlooking all and yet the crime ..(apparently, not the we've felt in the least bit scared or nervous at any point)

There are lovely tree lined roads, flyovers, under passes, pretty mosaic sidewalks, cycles,cycling tracks, great bus system, many yellow taxi's.. cable cars, trains, trams, boats, floats (yes, we just missed the carnival.. though what i don't get is.. IT FEELS LIKE FIESTA EVEN NOW!!!!) it has such a fun loving happy shiny (lycra'd) colourful people... and it has ATTITUDE! chilled, cool, fab sossegado attitude!

Every and any face is Brazilian.given all the races that are a part of this country.. the combinations permutations these races make... gorgeous gorgeous Brazilians.

I have to say though that I am relieved the women aren't ALL Gisele Bundchen, ..... I mean seriously how brave am I(or down right stupid!!) to insist on coming to RIO with Unni!! (and given the mallu''s 'vaayanokhi'" problem..).. Oh and Yannick.. poor chap will be spoilt for life...sigh!!

the women are of ALL shapes and sizes..perfect bod's a plenty but theres more than plenty LARGER sizes walking around.. AND.. they all live in Spandex, or very very very VERY little of any other fabric (is it any wonder we got stared at the day we arrived..I did feel flattered until i realised maybe it was because of the ''way too much in the clothes department''... but hey it was snowing in NJ when we left.. and no, i did not change on the flight like most of the Brazilian women did, into skimpy nothingness.Would've have, had i known better.... anyway...

like i was saying... there are gorgeous disgustingly perfect bods..(YES guys, everything you've imagined and more, and its pretty much all on display) and theres more than plenty of rather large women... but all wear bare minimum and carry it off... well.. they look extremely comfortable, and walk like they ARE Gisele Bundchen, so hey looks perfectly fine..though hallelujah ..I have no idea who's Secret it is.. but its doing a blahdy good job in uplifting all the enormity this country has!!!...

Rio apart I have to say something here- couchsurfing!! I dont even know te name of the GENIUS who started this concept, but is the best thing ever..... why hasnt this gotten more accolades? Facebook got a movie... CouchSurfing deserves more I say!!!!

Im guessing you'll know of this concept so wont go into it... but we're staying here in Rio with our first couch surfing hosts Renata and Ronaldo. (Ant's Bino... this part is especially for you'll for all the teasing...bed tea and spoiling has paid off already!)

This couple are the loveliest ever.... first they have been really warm and welcoming while we emailed each other, then they send me an email before we get here with address, directions (thanks to google maps), and since they are at work leave the house keys for us with the dorrman!! AND give me their telephone number and the number to dial to call collect!!!!!!!

The past few days have been the best mainly because of them.. most helpful with advice on what to do, where to go, how to go, etc etc etc..have given us a full and complete access to any and everything in their home, insist on us treating it like our own.

We've met their friends, had beers brewed by Ronalado who is beer aficionado connoisseur....great fun interesting conversations.

I dont feel like we only met a few days back. Last night they took us (yes, they took us out to dinner and party!!!!!!!) to this absolutely FAB FAB FAB place LAPA... what an awesome eveing. A regular looking neighbourhood by day, becomes this bohemian explosion of samba, beers, caipirinha's,Cachaça,laughter,fun, more lycra, popcorn(yes there was man with cart making and selling fresh popcorn) kids selling mint gum etc, hookers trying to entice, old couples, youngsters, great great food, queues to get into the best samba place in rio, live music, happy people dancing where ever and when ever the beat hit their feet, streets cordoned off to hold the explosion in....

This morning we walked up to and trekked up Pao de Asucar - Sugarloaf... wonderful... have never stood someplace and have a cloud float around and past me........beautiful...(that trek up deserved something wonderful like that... apart from the stunning view) and then went wit Ronaldo to listen to some chorinho played by a varied bunch of music students... it really was lovely... and then we walked thru Urca and had the most delish meal ......(thank heavens for all that walking or else we''d be balls rolling home)
Much of the touristy to do has been ticked off.. but what We've truly truly enjoyed is just being.. walking around the various neighbourhoods, eating in local places that i dont even know the names off.. shopping in the supermarkets, jumping on and off buses like we live here...thats it.. living with Renata and Ronaldo we feel like locals and THAT has made Rio so much more for us.

Tomorrow a whole bunch of their friends who we've met, some of who are writers, film makers, etc will be coming over, they plan to watch Barah Aana and have an iIndian meal (cooked by yours truly) im looking forward to it :-)

Theres much more that has been done that I havent mentioned... but shall by and by.. and yes yes shall figure how to get pictures up here as well...

much love

Rio ??

2011-03-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

We reached Newark and Alex met us there. She wanted to shoot an ending scene to her film with the 3 of us leaving the US, backpack et al. For those of you who dont know Alex, she was shooting a behind the scenes on Barah Aana that has now gotten a life of its own as a feature documentary.

Newark to JFK was a breeze once again. Apparently we've been very lucky with the timing of flights. The roads around NY have been torn down in many places due the excessive snowing this winter and even then we did the trudge in under an hour.

Jfk to Charlotte is a 2 hour flight. Not bad, except that I was reminded of my early flights in India. Old planes, no entertainment system ( even on the 10 hour Charlotte - Rio leg), a big tv in the front that played a film we could all follow without the audio , $5 for the earphones, 7 for a beer ( blasphemous), generally unhappy crew and the story take a familiar twist.

Charlotte airport surprised us! It is a beautiful modern well appointed airport. Yannick's I- touch has been a godsend every time we need the internet, since I left my laptop in NJ.and switched Nu's ph off!!!!;-)
Our flight was to board at 9.45 pm so we trudge along to the gate after confirming there would be food on the flight ; yes sir, you will be served one hot meal, afterall it is a 10 hour flight!'' Thank you, thats very generous, I thought to myself!

At the gate I show the officers my passport and visa and they ask me for a ticket out of Brazil. we don't have one, I explain. We're going to bus it to Buenos Aires and will buy the ticket in Rio later but we do have a visa to enter Argentina, and a return ticket to India.They confer and discuss and shake heads and come back to me saying we will not be allowed to board unless we have a ticket out of Brazil as they believe the Brazilian passport control will not entertain us. I'm not sure what the legality on this is, but time being short the only solution was to buy a fully refundable ticket and cancel it after entering Brazil. The ticket costs me $ 6,000/-. I have no choice so I take it. The credit card foreign exchange fee alone will be $ 180 so I'm really pissed. We land in Rio after a bus ride of a flight except for luckily having a full row for Nu and me to share, and 2 seats for Yannick to sleep on. Passport control take 5 mins, no questions asked. Luckily we manage to cancel the ticket and they confirmed that it was fully refundable but I've not yet seen the credit! Made it easy to decide on what my prayer to Christ the Redeemer would be.

Exit the airport, take the onibus ( or Bus in English) to Rio Sul, then realise our 35 pound haversacks are really heavy especially after the wonderfully helpful lady walked along with us and took us a couple of kms around the building we were going to stay in. Even so, we all fell in love with the city right away. It is now my # 1 city in the world without a doubt! A one line describing Rio would be a rather long line but it would read; an Ultra modern Bombay mixed with the the portuguese traditional houses of Panjim, with huge open spaces , magnificient gardens, beautiful beaches and I would not do justice to Rio if I did not mention the spandex! Now I'll leave somehting to your imagination...

OFF TO RIO DE JENEIRO

2011-03-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

New York / New Jersey has been fantastic. We got to experience our first real snow! It was ethereal.

Its been as gastronomical fiesta, super delicate Sushi, Korean, decent Pizza at Lombardis, great Vietnamese and Chinese at home! Yannick , Elena and Kiara have been having a blast! Finally Yannick has the appetite expected of a 11 year old...he's eating the house down and we're worried he's going to eat out our entire travel budget in a month!

We've spend a few days walking around NYC and it is truly fantastic city!

Anyway , now we're off to Rio to start off our Brazil stint. We got our backpacks packed, decided not to carry the tent ( too much weight for potentially too few camping nights) and we're on our way.we have an address of our couch surfing friends and a ticket to Rio. Should be fun given we've been warned no one speaks any English or Spanish!

First thing tomorrow, we find the Chilean Embassy and try and apply for our Chile visa. Fingers crossed! Don't want to have to cut Chile out of our itinerary.

Next post from Rio....

Returns

2011-03-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

Like I had mentioned, we've been shopping for warm clothes , shoes , and some camping gear. Stella has been stellar. (:-) sorry could not hold that one back). She is the most industrious person we have ever met. She gets onto a project and works out the logistics with military like precision.

We had a list ; camera peripherals, boots, walking open sandals, fleece, and wind breaking jackets. We were at the end of the winter season here so we're looking for sales! Online v/s stores??

We hit the shoe stores, find Merell 'slip on' warm walking boots for both Yannick and me. Nothing in Anu's size. Get to the camera store pick up an extra battery, some 12 GB of memery, and a case. Works out to $170. I'm surprised, but don't react as we're in the midst of my favourite hobby... shopping. Yannick and Elena are running around having a blast in suburban America. Anu is trying hard to find other people on the street. Seems like no one walks!

We get to the REI store and find Keens for Anu and Yannick, some pouches, water purifier carbom candle ( Stella has a purifier for us from her trek in Nepal) and we head back.

Back home we get on the internet and find twice the memory and all the rest of the stuff for $70. I'm pissed and that when I realise the concept of 'returns'. In America you can 'return' anything you buy without wither feeling guilty or giving anyone a reason! Fantastic, I think but we're not psychologically geared to do this. I get Stella to volunteer to return the camera stuff and she willing does ( or so I'd like to think). This camera shop is not a chain store so the guy at the counter is peeved, and genreally pissed out that the internet revolution ever took place. Anyway, he has no choice.

By now Anu has checked out every winter boot left. Some don't fit, some have a zipper problem, the arch is an issue and for me the price is the biggest. Finally, out of frustration she picks a KHOMBU, knee length, black warm boot. I feel wearing them is asking to be mugged. Every woman looks at me disapprovingly. Its $150 but we buy it! And then the ' return' re arrives! Stella is online, buys 4 boots from one website ( shipping and returns free), then scans the entire internet world and finds one store that has the perfect boot! Its a Merell Yarra but they only have one pair in the size we think we need.

Drive half an hour to Livingstone, try on the last pair of Yarra boots in the NJ district and hallelujah we've done it once again! The best part its on sale for $60!!! This Yarra has Stella's name imprinted on it! Now back to Bloomingdales to returns the Khombu! Anu does it with aplomb, largely because the sales staff were different and because in a store that big , no one really cares! But what the hell, we're getting used to the ides of returns!

Btw we experienced our first snow ever today!

The Flight

2011-03-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

Ready to leave for the airport. Bob and Rahul drop us off 2 hours before the Swiss Air flight is due to take off. Last minute pressure at home along with the realisation that we will be away for 6 months takes it toll on us. Emotions run a little high. Yannick is hugging the dogs. Chica is sad. Doofy loves the extra attention. Ajji has tears in her eyes she can't hide. Finally we're on our way.

We get to the immigration counter and the officer waives Anu and Yannick through. He then looks at my card and asks me what kind of films I direct… South Indian films? … he asks. I say No, small independent Hindi films, almost apologetically. Which was your last film, he asks. Barah Aana I mutter, and he says 'I love that film' Vijay Raaz is fantastic and Nasseeruddin Shah brilliant. He shakes my hand and we're off to the best start we could've dreamt possible.

The flight was comfortable, the seats ok, drank a little, slept a little, watched a few films... Wasn't impressed with True Grit, thought Stone was superb as was The Kings Speech. Yeah I did see more than a few films.

Zurich arrived, then JFK, still very un eventful. We take the shuttle to Newark (get kids fare for Yannick - very exciting) and reache Newark in 45 mins. Apparently that is unheard of. Anyway, Sharad picks us up and we're home. A little tired but determined to stay awake till at least 8 pm.

unni

INTRO

2011-03-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

Never blogged before but a few days into the trip and we're beginning to believe this might be exciting.

Anyway for those who don't know us, we're a family of 3, Anu, Unni and Yannick our 11 year old son. We live in Bombay, India. We're filmmakers and bitten hard by the travel bug. A few months ago while reading an email about a family that set sail after selling everything they owned, we began thinking of our own little journey. Anu jumped into it right away, I had my reservations and fears, as did Yannick.

We have 2 dogs at home, and more importantly its never easy to stop running the rat race and turn away even if only for 6 months. Luckily for us, we have great support at home in Ajji, and Pramod so the dogs are taken care of. About 2 months ago, I finally made the decision. It wasn't as tough I had expected it to be. In fact it was actually liberating. I had made up my mind and said no to most of the work that came my way. I started thinking of ways to sort out the financial repercussions of such a trip and it began to sink in. It was about this time that a friend of mine and I were working on a script that kept threatening to get green lighted. Anyway things worked out in the way they always do and I was finally free to leave. Of course just when I felt that way the Income Tax authorities decide to show up with a situation that has been dormant for over a few years...

The other big question that we had to deal with was Yannick's school. The school was super supportive of the trip, and we plan to do some amount of home schooling through the trip, so we're guessing the experience of traveling, new cultures, foods, people, and places should make up for the difficulty he might face when we are back in learning how to divide fractions!

Rule #1 - there will always be a million reasons why you mustn't go, and only one why you must.

So make sure the one reason you must go is overwhelming enough to overcome the other million.

Once the decision was made, the world conspired to make it work out. Antima and Bino friends who had traveled thorough SA for a few months a couple of years ago convinced us to do South America rather than any other place. The few bottles of wine during this chat made the trip even more exciting. Later they would share intimate details like detailed accounts etc that allowed us to budget the trip and get a feel for what we could expect.

We then met Aparna Shekhar Roy, this wonderful traveler who shared routes, tips, friends, and everything she could with us. Like wise others started putting us in touch with friends of friends across South and Central America. We were beginning to feel more and more comfortable. Friends of Aparna's invited us to stay with them in Rio, others were willing to share their experiences so it was all coming together nicely.

We needed backpacks and other equipment, we needed visas to some of the countries at least, we needed to figure out some sort of a travel route and decide to use the weather as the overriding factor in making this decision. We also need warm clothing, something most of us who live in Bombay don't have any of and decided on a kindle rather than carrying bulky lonely planets. Finally we found couch surfing! It is by far the best way to see the world. We shared our home with a few travelers in the month or so prior to our trip and we hope and plan to share the homes of other couch surfers during this trip to get an real local view of the places we visit! Highly recommend joining up !!

We started work on the visas, and our travel agent helped creating fake tickets and hotel bookings because the embassies in India don't seem to be able to understand the concept of backpacking. We managed to get visas for Brazil / Argentina and Peru. We know have to figure out where we need to apply for the Chilean visa since that is a country we don't want to miss.

Alongside this we figured the best airfares would be to start and end in NYC so that ticket was bought. Sharad and Stella , old friends of ours offered us there house as a base along with all their hiking equipment. An offer we couldn't refuse!