At-least I am. Lulu is blissfully in no-work-land.
Funny how Intel can get you back in work-mode instantly. Monday the 15th was my first day back at work and I got to work at 9.30ish. I'm still working my way through the 1000+ emails but I get an IM asking if I'm back and whether I'd be able to make it to a 11am meeting. That same day, someone had scheduled a 5pm meeting as well. So much for a lazy first day back from a sabbatical.
It feels strange to be sitting in front of a keyboard tapping your life away while you've spent the past 2 months living out of a 40lb backpack, getting up every morning not knowing where you're gonna have lunch or dinner. It's not just a physical shift; it feels odd having a routine - the commute, the weekly team meetings, lunch at a fixed hour - all the trappings of life on cube-island. Speaking of The Cube, my cube seems ever more sterilized, as compared to, say, the crazy rainy roads of Guayaquil, Ecuador on a certain night...
I have to wait 6 more years for another paid 2 months of vacation. Sigh. Back to the keyboard it is.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
California dreaming
We just got back after a 6 day road trip to Bay Area, CA. My aunt and her family live in Saratoga and we had a wonderful weekend at their place. We also visited a couple of Lisa's friends in Berkeley and spent Friday night munching deep-fried Chinese vegetable dumplings and sticky brown rice with mangoes and coconut milk, egg puffs, some black mushroom fungi dessert and a sesame treat. Yum. Even these gargoyles in Villa Montalvo, Saratoga liked it. They're still reminiscing about it.
Villa Montalvo near Saratoga, CA.
On our way back, we spent one night camping at the Harbin hot springs resort in Middletown, CA. It was a great place but a bit too commercial for me. Photography was prohibited, so we only have a couple of stealth photos of the hubba-hubba (our backpacking tent) roughing it out on a deck by the creek.
We were hit by a spring snowstorm on the drive up into Oregon and had to motel-it in Grants Pass.
Marcel taking a pit stop on the shoulder of I-5
He was awed by the fresh March-snow
A continental breakfast of a bagel and butter later, we were on our way to Umpqua hot springs, 65 miles east of Roseberg, OR. These are wonderful rustic springs by the N. Umpqua river. Because it was a weekday and it was snowing, there weren't a lot of people and it was great to have the springs pretty much to ourselves.
On the way to Umpqua HS
The 3 lower pools
View from the main pool
Toketee Lake near Umpqua HS
Villa Montalvo near Saratoga, CA.On our way back, we spent one night camping at the Harbin hot springs resort in Middletown, CA. It was a great place but a bit too commercial for me. Photography was prohibited, so we only have a couple of stealth photos of the hubba-hubba (our backpacking tent) roughing it out on a deck by the creek.
We were hit by a spring snowstorm on the drive up into Oregon and had to motel-it in Grants Pass.
Marcel taking a pit stop on the shoulder of I-5
He was awed by the fresh March-snowA continental breakfast of a bagel and butter later, we were on our way to Umpqua hot springs, 65 miles east of Roseberg, OR. These are wonderful rustic springs by the N. Umpqua river. Because it was a weekday and it was snowing, there weren't a lot of people and it was great to have the springs pretty much to ourselves.
On the way to Umpqua HS
The 3 lower pools
View from the main pool
Toketee Lake near Umpqua HS
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Hawaii !
I started writing this when we got back from Hawaii but between de-compressing from the hawaii trip and getting ready for the California road trip, we never quite managed to post.
We spent a great 12 days in Hawaii - all on Maui. We had plans to take the ferry to Lanai and camp there for 2 days but that was the day of the tsunami warning and we found ourselves instead at 4000 ft on the Haleakala mountain waiting out the 2-ft tsunami waves.
We were camping at olowalu campground, about 30ft from the beach on the morning of the tsunami. At about 6am, the sirens started blaring and when we peeked out of the tent, everyone was making a beeline for the parking lot. One of the women had a weather radio and she told us there was a massive earthquake in Chile and that they're predicting the waves to hit Maui at 11.30am. Whew! We had 5 hrs to get to higher ground. It was surreal knowing that there had been a massive earthquake in Chile - we were in Chile 7 days ago. Our thoughts go out to the friendly people of Chile who are still experiencing aftershocks even as of today.
Of course, the whole island was up and gas stations were perhaps the best place to observe the state of panic. The lines from gas stations were extending all the way into the highways, causing huge backups. Walmart was chaotic too, but a bake sale went on despite the warnings with children selling brownies and spam musubi on a table in a makeshift stall outside the walmart. I'm sure they did brisk business; one lady was buying 10 musubis and taking them to go.
Finally, after about an hour of stocking up of 4 days' worth of supplies, we perched ourselves in a meadow outside a lavender farm beside the road at about 4000ft on Haleakala and waited it out for about 5 hrs until they gave an all-clear indication on the radio. Turns out the biggest waves were about 3ft high at Malakea harbor - not quite the mayhem that was predicted but better safe than sorry...
The other fascinating part of the trip was the hike into Haleakala. We backpacked for 3 nights through some of the most bizarrely spectacular scenery I have ever seen: miles of barren lunar landscapes interspersed with giant cinder cones, endless stretches of red sand, volcanic rocks, lava bombs, hawaiian silver swords (they wait up to 50 years to bloom), lush green Paliku valley and the other-worldly hike up to the Holua campsite. I probably had the best birthday view on the 24th when we got up at about 6am to view the sunrise from Holua: clouds had drifted inland from the coast and though we couldn't see the sun rise, it was wonderful to be looking at clouds while being immersed in them with faint pink sun rays making their way through to us. Amen!
While at Olowalu, we rented kayaks for a day ( this was on the day before the tsunami) and went paddling for a few hours. It was windy but we were rewarded by greetings from several green turtles popping out of the water to say hello.
Here are some photos taken by a brown and a white turtle.
Halaekala en route to Paliku campsite
Looking down at the clouds while climbing out of the valley
Kayaking near Olowalu
Makena - big beach
Sunset from Makena
We spent a great 12 days in Hawaii - all on Maui. We had plans to take the ferry to Lanai and camp there for 2 days but that was the day of the tsunami warning and we found ourselves instead at 4000 ft on the Haleakala mountain waiting out the 2-ft tsunami waves.
We were camping at olowalu campground, about 30ft from the beach on the morning of the tsunami. At about 6am, the sirens started blaring and when we peeked out of the tent, everyone was making a beeline for the parking lot. One of the women had a weather radio and she told us there was a massive earthquake in Chile and that they're predicting the waves to hit Maui at 11.30am. Whew! We had 5 hrs to get to higher ground. It was surreal knowing that there had been a massive earthquake in Chile - we were in Chile 7 days ago. Our thoughts go out to the friendly people of Chile who are still experiencing aftershocks even as of today.
Of course, the whole island was up and gas stations were perhaps the best place to observe the state of panic. The lines from gas stations were extending all the way into the highways, causing huge backups. Walmart was chaotic too, but a bake sale went on despite the warnings with children selling brownies and spam musubi on a table in a makeshift stall outside the walmart. I'm sure they did brisk business; one lady was buying 10 musubis and taking them to go.
Finally, after about an hour of stocking up of 4 days' worth of supplies, we perched ourselves in a meadow outside a lavender farm beside the road at about 4000ft on Haleakala and waited it out for about 5 hrs until they gave an all-clear indication on the radio. Turns out the biggest waves were about 3ft high at Malakea harbor - not quite the mayhem that was predicted but better safe than sorry...
The other fascinating part of the trip was the hike into Haleakala. We backpacked for 3 nights through some of the most bizarrely spectacular scenery I have ever seen: miles of barren lunar landscapes interspersed with giant cinder cones, endless stretches of red sand, volcanic rocks, lava bombs, hawaiian silver swords (they wait up to 50 years to bloom), lush green Paliku valley and the other-worldly hike up to the Holua campsite. I probably had the best birthday view on the 24th when we got up at about 6am to view the sunrise from Holua: clouds had drifted inland from the coast and though we couldn't see the sun rise, it was wonderful to be looking at clouds while being immersed in them with faint pink sun rays making their way through to us. Amen!
While at Olowalu, we rented kayaks for a day ( this was on the day before the tsunami) and went paddling for a few hours. It was windy but we were rewarded by greetings from several green turtles popping out of the water to say hello.
Here are some photos taken by a brown and a white turtle.
Halaekala en route to Paliku campsite
Looking down at the clouds while climbing out of the valley
Kayaking near Olowalu
Makena - big beach
Sunset from Makena
Tsunami survivor?
Really? This guy was spotted at the Maui airport. I took a few stealth photos from behind his back. The front of his t-shirt had the tsunami hit times for each of the 5 islands, band-style:
Big island: 2/26/10 11.05am
Maui: 2/26/10 11.30am
Lanai: ...
I was told that these tees sold pretty fast in Lahaina (the leeward and hence the sunny, resort-y part of the island). I don't know what to make of it. I definitely commend the entrepreneurial spirit of the person who had the brilliant idea of pressing tees within hours of the tsunami. I don't know if I quite agree with the term 'tsunami survivor' . If you were lashed by 50 ft waves (think Indonesia/Thailand circa 2004) and you made it out, that's commendable (and lucky). But watching 2 ft waves from the comfort and safety of the 40th floor in your warm sunny Four Seasons resort hotel room, I'm not quite sure that deserves the term survivor. tourist-laden-with-wads-of-money-and-not-quite-sure-what-to-do-with-it : yes, but not survivor.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Airport blur and lentils at KFC
I think we´re back in Quito, Ecuador. I´ll have to ask someone what city this is.
It really feels like a long confused blur. We were in La Serena 3 days ago (I think) and then Pisco Elqui and then La Serena again and then Santiago and now Quito. After a while it all starts to blend together and you can´t really put your finger on a particular day. Was it in La Serena that you had pizza for lunch or Santiago? Which town did you sleep in last night? What day is it today?
Flying (as opposed to taking a bus/train) further blurs the line between places. You don´t see any change in geography when you fly - you might be in a desert at 8am and in the middle of a city of 6 million people at noon. Proust would have articulated this intermingling of space and time way better and much more poetically, so I´d just leave it at that.
Speaking of blurs, it isn´t just in your mind. We had to take an 8am flight from Santiago, Chile to Guayaqui, Ecuador. We were up at 5.15am and by the time we were in line for immigration (for leaving Chile) it was almost 7.15am. I had a light dinner the night before and didn´t have any breakfast, so I was feeling really light-headed because of the hunger. We were in line for at-least 30 minutes and I was getting increasingly light headed. By the time we got to the immigration counter, I couldn´t see anything and could barely stand up. All I remember is getting my passport and tourist card out of my pocket and lifting my hand towards something. I swear I didn´t even see the immigration lady as she handed the passport back. And we still had to go through security! Lulu managed taking care of my carry-on baggage through security while I scrambled to a place where I could sit down. Granola and yogurt came to the rescue finally. Phew.
While at the airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador (waiting for a connecting flight to Quito), I came upon a KFC. I went in to get a bottle of water and saw several people eating what looked like lentils with rice and fried chicken. Whoa! KFC actually sells lentils that are cooked with Indian spices...who would´ve thought. They should start doing that in the KFCs in the US. Needless to say, I had a nice warm bowl for $1.10. The joys of traveling.
It really feels like a long confused blur. We were in La Serena 3 days ago (I think) and then Pisco Elqui and then La Serena again and then Santiago and now Quito. After a while it all starts to blend together and you can´t really put your finger on a particular day. Was it in La Serena that you had pizza for lunch or Santiago? Which town did you sleep in last night? What day is it today?
Flying (as opposed to taking a bus/train) further blurs the line between places. You don´t see any change in geography when you fly - you might be in a desert at 8am and in the middle of a city of 6 million people at noon. Proust would have articulated this intermingling of space and time way better and much more poetically, so I´d just leave it at that.
Speaking of blurs, it isn´t just in your mind. We had to take an 8am flight from Santiago, Chile to Guayaqui, Ecuador. We were up at 5.15am and by the time we were in line for immigration (for leaving Chile) it was almost 7.15am. I had a light dinner the night before and didn´t have any breakfast, so I was feeling really light-headed because of the hunger. We were in line for at-least 30 minutes and I was getting increasingly light headed. By the time we got to the immigration counter, I couldn´t see anything and could barely stand up. All I remember is getting my passport and tourist card out of my pocket and lifting my hand towards something. I swear I didn´t even see the immigration lady as she handed the passport back. And we still had to go through security! Lulu managed taking care of my carry-on baggage through security while I scrambled to a place where I could sit down. Granola and yogurt came to the rescue finally. Phew.
While at the airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador (waiting for a connecting flight to Quito), I came upon a KFC. I went in to get a bottle of water and saw several people eating what looked like lentils with rice and fried chicken. Whoa! KFC actually sells lentils that are cooked with Indian spices...who would´ve thought. They should start doing that in the KFCs in the US. Needless to say, I had a nice warm bowl for $1.10. The joys of traveling.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Back in Santiago
We just got back in Santiago today afternoon from La Serena. A wonderful almuerzo at El Naturista and a brief nap and we´re ready for onces now.
Elqui valley was a great trip. We camped at a campground called Los Papillos, which was nestled in the foothills of the grape-growing region with grape vineyards spreading out all the way across the valley. It was interesting (and surprising) to know that none of the grapes that are grown here are sold in Chile - they are all either exported or used to make pisco and wines - because apparently you can get a really good price on them if you´re exporting.
The valley was pleasant but sleeping in it wasn´t quite so. There was a huge campground right next to ours - Refugio del Angel - that was packed to the seams with party people. They started playing music - blasted through amplifiers - some time around 11pm on Friday night and it continued unabated and unmuffled until about 5.30am. I talked with the owner of our campground the day after and he said he only got about 5 hrs of sleep and that this happens every single day of the summer. He said he moved his campground up river from the party campers but it still is really loud. Same thing on Sat. night - except that this time the partying/music started at about 10pm and continued non-stop till 7.30am. We felt sorry for our campground owner..he seemed like a really nice guy. He gave us a tour of his little farm where he was growing corn, grapes, tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini, onions...
Later on Sunday we took the bus to Montegrande (10 min ride from Pisco) and stopped at a very cool Zen art gallery. It was owned by a Santiago-an who had built it from scratch over 30 years ago. It was a neat little adobe-style hacienda with beautiful fig trees nestled in a very thoughtfully landscaped Zen garden. He made a living selling his paintings and natural essences made right in his home (which was just one little room with a fireplace, mattress and a small kitchen). One interesting trivia that he shared: (almost) all the wood that´s in use in buildings in the nearby town of La Serena is actually Oregon pine trees. Apparently, there used to be a flourishing trade between this region and Oregon - back in the 1500s, they would load ships with gourmet local sea salt and ship it all the way to Oregon and load the boats with pine tree logs on the way back. Who knew!
After the Zen gallery, we walked about 20 minutes on a dirt road that led to the Elqui river bank. This place is supposedly the belly button of the earth (according to hippie folklore) and there´s a lot of healing magnetic energy going around, depending on whom you ask. Healing energy or not, it was fun to take a nice cool dip in the river and enjoy guacamole-peanut-tomato sandwiches (put together on fresh locally baked buns with local avocados and tomatoes) for lunch. We bought the ingredients at a local almacen and it was probably the best meal I´ve had in Pisco!
We took the bus back to La Serena, dumped the mochilas at hostal El Punto (a very pleasant German-owned hostal) and headed out for dinner. That turned out to be one long quest. Surprisingly enough, there was a Chinese restaurant with a huge banquet hall (why do so many Chinese restaurants have large sprawling banquet halls?) and we enjoyed a nice meal with chapsui verduras - basically pasta noodles sauteed with elephant ear mushrooms, baby corn, cabbage, tomatoes and some mild Chinese spices - and deep-fried egg rolls. Yummy! Who would´ve thought there would be a Chinese restaurant in a little beach town in Chile?
Lulu was craving a fish sandwich (reminiscent of the one she had had at the beach in Punta Choros), so we decided to walk further down the avenida lining the beach. We didn´t find a fish sandwich stall but we did run into a sort-of sunday market with stalls selling handicrafts from all around the nation and rides for kids and plenty of roadside food. I never cease to be amazed at how late South Americans stay up. It was 11.30pm and the market was packed - nay, teeming - with families (including kids as young as 6-7 years old), joyously enjoying rides and munching on deep-fried chorizos. I can never imagine this scene in the US...
It´s 6pm and it´s onces time! That wonderful post-lunch/pre-dinner snack (which, in El Naturista, is a slice of cake, a pastry, ice cream, half a sandwich and a glass of juice) is beckoning, so I´ll leave you with these photos. Adios!
Elqui valley was a great trip. We camped at a campground called Los Papillos, which was nestled in the foothills of the grape-growing region with grape vineyards spreading out all the way across the valley. It was interesting (and surprising) to know that none of the grapes that are grown here are sold in Chile - they are all either exported or used to make pisco and wines - because apparently you can get a really good price on them if you´re exporting.
The valley was pleasant but sleeping in it wasn´t quite so. There was a huge campground right next to ours - Refugio del Angel - that was packed to the seams with party people. They started playing music - blasted through amplifiers - some time around 11pm on Friday night and it continued unabated and unmuffled until about 5.30am. I talked with the owner of our campground the day after and he said he only got about 5 hrs of sleep and that this happens every single day of the summer. He said he moved his campground up river from the party campers but it still is really loud. Same thing on Sat. night - except that this time the partying/music started at about 10pm and continued non-stop till 7.30am. We felt sorry for our campground owner..he seemed like a really nice guy. He gave us a tour of his little farm where he was growing corn, grapes, tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini, onions...
Later on Sunday we took the bus to Montegrande (10 min ride from Pisco) and stopped at a very cool Zen art gallery. It was owned by a Santiago-an who had built it from scratch over 30 years ago. It was a neat little adobe-style hacienda with beautiful fig trees nestled in a very thoughtfully landscaped Zen garden. He made a living selling his paintings and natural essences made right in his home (which was just one little room with a fireplace, mattress and a small kitchen). One interesting trivia that he shared: (almost) all the wood that´s in use in buildings in the nearby town of La Serena is actually Oregon pine trees. Apparently, there used to be a flourishing trade between this region and Oregon - back in the 1500s, they would load ships with gourmet local sea salt and ship it all the way to Oregon and load the boats with pine tree logs on the way back. Who knew!
After the Zen gallery, we walked about 20 minutes on a dirt road that led to the Elqui river bank. This place is supposedly the belly button of the earth (according to hippie folklore) and there´s a lot of healing magnetic energy going around, depending on whom you ask. Healing energy or not, it was fun to take a nice cool dip in the river and enjoy guacamole-peanut-tomato sandwiches (put together on fresh locally baked buns with local avocados and tomatoes) for lunch. We bought the ingredients at a local almacen and it was probably the best meal I´ve had in Pisco!
We took the bus back to La Serena, dumped the mochilas at hostal El Punto (a very pleasant German-owned hostal) and headed out for dinner. That turned out to be one long quest. Surprisingly enough, there was a Chinese restaurant with a huge banquet hall (why do so many Chinese restaurants have large sprawling banquet halls?) and we enjoyed a nice meal with chapsui verduras - basically pasta noodles sauteed with elephant ear mushrooms, baby corn, cabbage, tomatoes and some mild Chinese spices - and deep-fried egg rolls. Yummy! Who would´ve thought there would be a Chinese restaurant in a little beach town in Chile?
Lulu was craving a fish sandwich (reminiscent of the one she had had at the beach in Punta Choros), so we decided to walk further down the avenida lining the beach. We didn´t find a fish sandwich stall but we did run into a sort-of sunday market with stalls selling handicrafts from all around the nation and rides for kids and plenty of roadside food. I never cease to be amazed at how late South Americans stay up. It was 11.30pm and the market was packed - nay, teeming - with families (including kids as young as 6-7 years old), joyously enjoying rides and munching on deep-fried chorizos. I can never imagine this scene in the US...
It´s 6pm and it´s onces time! That wonderful post-lunch/pre-dinner snack (which, in El Naturista, is a slice of cake, a pastry, ice cream, half a sandwich and a glass of juice) is beckoning, so I´ll leave you with these photos. Adios!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Trials and tribulations of a vegetarian in S. America
Funny how when you change geographic locations, you change your food as well. In Quito, Ecuador, we had some spicy Indian and Pakistani food, great guacamole sandwiches at a local chocolate co-op, yummy breakfasts with fresh croissants and freshly squeezed juice - in other words, there was no shortage of good plentiful healthy food. Later, when we went to Pampallacta, Ecuador (about 2 hrs from Quito), all I had for 2 days was white rice, fries and some frozen peas, carrots and corn.
Back to Santiago, Chile, we were in vegetarian heaven at El Naturista, which has some of the best non-Indian vegetarian food I´ve had. 3 days of bliss and then back in Patagonia with camping food: protein bars, protein shakes (which was actually just water and protein powder), pasta with tomato sauce and oatmeal. Back again to Puerto Natales and some great vegetarian food - quinoa with baked beans, walnut burgers, beet salad and kidney beans, gourmet pizza. Flash forward to Los Choros and I´m back to eating white bread, potatoes and butter for 2 days. Back again in La Serena and I´m rewarded with melon juice, whole wheat bread with yummy salsa, tacos with mushrooms, guacamole and lettuce and vanilla ice cream with caramel swirls and a waffle.
Lisa has a much more consistent time with meat being the universal currency out here but I´m at the mercy of some hippie souls in far-flung villages who choose to open wonderful little vegetarian restaurants when you least expect them. C´est La Vie.
Chileans love car camping
I mean they really really love it. They love to drive up in their cars all the way up to the camp site (even if the site is past a creek, for example). Before they leave their homes, they take out the mattresses from their beds, wrap them in plastic packaging, load them in their pickups and sleep on them in their tents. Along with their TVs, boomboxes, cooking grills, dolphin-shaped body massagers, towels and pòssibly a kitchen sink thrown in there as well, for a good even mix.
And the unofficial quiet hours in all campsites are from 3am - 10am. We discovered this the hard way when we saw people start cooking their dinners at around 10pm. No bueno.
We´re in Pisco, Elqui, which is a couple of hours north of La Serena. We spent the past 2 days camping at a nice little place called El Oasis - which, as the name suggests was an oasis in the middle of the desert. We went on a day long boat trip to Isla Choros and Isla Damas and saw several Humboldt penguins, dolphins, sea lions (when they fight, they are really really loud and aggressive), sea otters, pelicans, cormorants, lizards and then some more critters.
Here are some random photos from La Serena and Pisco.
And the unofficial quiet hours in all campsites are from 3am - 10am. We discovered this the hard way when we saw people start cooking their dinners at around 10pm. No bueno.
We´re in Pisco, Elqui, which is a couple of hours north of La Serena. We spent the past 2 days camping at a nice little place called El Oasis - which, as the name suggests was an oasis in the middle of the desert. We went on a day long boat trip to Isla Choros and Isla Damas and saw several Humboldt penguins, dolphins, sea lions (when they fight, they are really really loud and aggressive), sea otters, pelicans, cormorants, lizards and then some more critters.
Here are some random photos from La Serena and Pisco.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Dust to dust
We visited the cemetery at Punta Arenas today evening. Apparently, it´s a rather well-known cemetery, being mentioned in the guidebooks and all.
I´ve visited a few cemeteries but this is the first one where I actually saw what looked like coffin-spaces stacked on top of one another. Here´s what it looked like.
I guess the design of such structures was driven more by economic constraints of the deceased´s family, rather than aesthetics, since once you moved past these multistoried coffins, there was a whole another section with palatial coffin spaces - some families even had entire temples dedicated to their lineage.
This being Punta Arenas, it was windy and cold as ever; but it was bright and sunny, even at 6pm (there´s almost 18 hours of sunlight in the summer).
It felt strange to walk through the cemetery. One felt a rather comfortable distance between those under the ground and those above. It was a comfortable distance but it was still rather uncomfortable to be feeling that comfortable, if you know what I mean. Several spaces had photos, memorabilia (one had a wireless microphone and toy models of 4 muscle cars right next to a nativity scene and a photo of the deceased, all encased behind a glass door) and flowers - both natural and artificial.
Wildflowers grew in delicate abandon over the graves and fluttered in the cold breeze. Somewhere in the distance a Church bell rang to announce the time - 6pm. You could hear the waves of the beach also lapping nearby. It was surreal. One couldn´t help but wonder at how time passes and how it takes us in its sway. Wildflowers and weeds take birth and nourishment from our ashes and we complete the cycle by taking birth and cultivating flowers.
If one views death as the cessation of life and of all we know and experience -- rather than the continuation of our existence (albeit in a different form) -- visiting cemeteries can have a rather unsettling effect. (I guess it can have an unsettling effect regardless of how one views death...).
It makes you more attuned to life, more in touch with what matters and what doesn´t. Case in point: we did groceries right after the cemetery visit and the cashier forgot to give me $10 change back. She closed our sale and we had barely walked back from the register when we realized that we were short $10. We communicated to her in broken Spanish that she didn´t give me the $10 back and it took her and her supervisor about 20 minutes to ring up the entire register and tally up the totals with the money in her cash box before finally concluding that she had indeed forgotten to give me the $10 change. During the process, I couldn´t help but wonder at the futility of it all. $10! I started to wonder why I had asked for it in the first place. Over the long run...$10...really? And all those bills and calculators and registers ringing...what for?
I´ve visited a few cemeteries but this is the first one where I actually saw what looked like coffin-spaces stacked on top of one another. Here´s what it looked like.
I guess the design of such structures was driven more by economic constraints of the deceased´s family, rather than aesthetics, since once you moved past these multistoried coffins, there was a whole another section with palatial coffin spaces - some families even had entire temples dedicated to their lineage.
This being Punta Arenas, it was windy and cold as ever; but it was bright and sunny, even at 6pm (there´s almost 18 hours of sunlight in the summer).
It felt strange to walk through the cemetery. One felt a rather comfortable distance between those under the ground and those above. It was a comfortable distance but it was still rather uncomfortable to be feeling that comfortable, if you know what I mean. Several spaces had photos, memorabilia (one had a wireless microphone and toy models of 4 muscle cars right next to a nativity scene and a photo of the deceased, all encased behind a glass door) and flowers - both natural and artificial.
Wildflowers grew in delicate abandon over the graves and fluttered in the cold breeze. Somewhere in the distance a Church bell rang to announce the time - 6pm. You could hear the waves of the beach also lapping nearby. It was surreal. One couldn´t help but wonder at how time passes and how it takes us in its sway. Wildflowers and weeds take birth and nourishment from our ashes and we complete the cycle by taking birth and cultivating flowers.
If one views death as the cessation of life and of all we know and experience -- rather than the continuation of our existence (albeit in a different form) -- visiting cemeteries can have a rather unsettling effect. (I guess it can have an unsettling effect regardless of how one views death...).
It makes you more attuned to life, more in touch with what matters and what doesn´t. Case in point: we did groceries right after the cemetery visit and the cashier forgot to give me $10 change back. She closed our sale and we had barely walked back from the register when we realized that we were short $10. We communicated to her in broken Spanish that she didn´t give me the $10 back and it took her and her supervisor about 20 minutes to ring up the entire register and tally up the totals with the money in her cash box before finally concluding that she had indeed forgotten to give me the $10 change. During the process, I couldn´t help but wonder at the futility of it all. $10! I started to wonder why I had asked for it in the first place. Over the long run...$10...really? And all those bills and calculators and registers ringing...what for?
Friday, February 5, 2010
a few notes from lisa
south america, who knew??? :)
so here we are. struggling with español and in ecuador, the elevation. finding enough to eat has been challenging everywhere. there are fantastic vegetarian restaurants but then where is the yummy meat?! we have to choose at each meal time. we have eaten many many protein bars and hemp-whey protein shakes.
patagonia has been awesome, incredible blue lakes and glaciers all over. the penguins were certainly one of the highlights as well.
i did, in fact, refuse to go out on the glacier on cotopaxi. ¨glacier¨ should really read ¨verticle wall of ice¨ with pushy, totally comfortable mountain guides who can´t believe that you are afraid of heights, etc. and just gave up on me almost immediately. anyhow...i knew i wouldn´t get to the top but i did think that i would at least learn to use the crampons. maybe next time. i have been impressed with the trail maintenance and signage in both national parks. hurray for maintained trails!
we´ve met some cool other traveling folks. one couple who arrived in argentina and bought a used car and have been car camping all over. brilliant idea!!
so here we are. struggling with español and in ecuador, the elevation. finding enough to eat has been challenging everywhere. there are fantastic vegetarian restaurants but then where is the yummy meat?! we have to choose at each meal time. we have eaten many many protein bars and hemp-whey protein shakes.
patagonia has been awesome, incredible blue lakes and glaciers all over. the penguins were certainly one of the highlights as well.
i did, in fact, refuse to go out on the glacier on cotopaxi. ¨glacier¨ should really read ¨verticle wall of ice¨ with pushy, totally comfortable mountain guides who can´t believe that you are afraid of heights, etc. and just gave up on me almost immediately. anyhow...i knew i wouldn´t get to the top but i did think that i would at least learn to use the crampons. maybe next time. i have been impressed with the trail maintenance and signage in both national parks. hurray for maintained trails!
we´ve met some cool other traveling folks. one couple who arrived in argentina and bought a used car and have been car camping all over. brilliant idea!!
Hanging out in the twilight zone
This isn´t directly related to the trip but after 5 days of eating camping food, I started to hallucinate a bit - longing for good warm cooked food.
I was lying in the tent today morning when I thought about how my longing for food varies depending on the time of the day. In the morning - some time between 6 and 9am - I view with sheer disgust all unhealthy food. That would include pizza, (most) north Indian food, beer, decadent desserts etc. I can´t stand the thought of consuming any of those foods in that 6-9ish zone. I get stark visual images in my mind at the mere thought of eating any of that: globs of cheese hanging off pizza slices and getting deposited in the stomach in pretty much the same form and getting converted to oodles of love handles. You get the idea.
This is also the zone where fruits and vegetables reign. They revel in their freshness, in their wholesomeness and their promise of good health.
Then it gets to about 10am and the boundaries of the twilight zone start receding. This is when the aforementioned foods start making their way into my mind and the fruits and veggies are relegated to a cold unworthy crevice at the back of the mind. We all know how things go after that.
And, on that note, I´m about to go gorge myself on some not-so-healthy food. ´Cos it´s 7pm.
I was lying in the tent today morning when I thought about how my longing for food varies depending on the time of the day. In the morning - some time between 6 and 9am - I view with sheer disgust all unhealthy food. That would include pizza, (most) north Indian food, beer, decadent desserts etc. I can´t stand the thought of consuming any of those foods in that 6-9ish zone. I get stark visual images in my mind at the mere thought of eating any of that: globs of cheese hanging off pizza slices and getting deposited in the stomach in pretty much the same form and getting converted to oodles of love handles. You get the idea.
This is also the zone where fruits and vegetables reign. They revel in their freshness, in their wholesomeness and their promise of good health.
Then it gets to about 10am and the boundaries of the twilight zone start receding. This is when the aforementioned foods start making their way into my mind and the fruits and veggies are relegated to a cold unworthy crevice at the back of the mind. We all know how things go after that.
And, on that note, I´m about to go gorge myself on some not-so-healthy food. ´Cos it´s 7pm.
Back from Patagonia
It feels strange to be back to civilization after 5 days of being in beautiful (but crowded) wilderness. We just got back from a backpacking trip to the Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile. We did the ´W´ circuit - about 45 miles of hiking through some of the most amazing landscapes I´ve seen: Andean desert, Patagonian steppe, Magellan deciduous forests and glacial lakes.
The place was crowded. Teeming. Overflowing. But there were still times when you were given some solitude to marvel at the beauty of it all.
I´ll let a few random pictures speak for the place.
Off for a shower and some warm sit-down food now!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
15 cents
That´s how much I put in the tip basket that was being passed around at the 4pm sermon at
the El Carmen de la Ascencion Church in Cuenca. I wasn´t skimping but I just wasn´t sure if I should be putting any money towards it, in the first place. So when the basket came to me, I hastily took out my wallet and dug out the first coins I could find.
the El Carmen de la Ascencion Church in Cuenca. I wasn´t skimping but I just wasn´t sure if I should be putting any money towards it, in the first place. So when the basket came to me, I hastily took out my wallet and dug out the first coins I could find.
It was a beautiful sermon in a wonderful Church. Of course, since it was in Spanish, I probably got about 40 words of the 45 minute sermon, but it was spiritually uplifting to be there as part of a 200-300 strong crowd chanting softly. I was reminded of my childhood days when I used to go to the chapel in my school (Holy Cross high school) with a couple of friends. I used to stay over at a friend´s place sometimes on Christmas Eve and have ginger ale and cake with their family and go out singing carols in the night. It was an innocent, curious, simple and instinctive thing to do, at that time.
Chilin´ in Cuenca
Me encanta Cuenca (though the photo above is of Mt. Ruminahui)
Got here yesterday after a 40 minute flight from Quito. The flight attendant left an (unoccupied and untethered) infant car seat right next to us for the entire duration of the flight....not something you see on a US flight.
Cuenca has been good so far: warm and sunny...a far change from chilly and windy Cotopaxi where we spent 3 nights camping/bundled up in the refugio.
We got breakfast at the local market: pork (scraped straight from a whole pig laid flat on the table), hominy, mashed potatoes and orange juice for lulu; granola, pecans, yogurt and mangoes for me. All local and all yummy - a far cry from the Washington apples we bought in a supermercado in Quito a couple of days ago....so much for coming all the way to south america.
Cotopaxi (4 days ago) was rough. We hired a tour guide to take us to climb Cotopaxi (the 4th highest active volcano in the mundo) for $250 per person - it included an "acclimatization" hike to Mt. Ruminahui as well to help us get used to the high elevation of Cotopaxi (which starts at about 17000 ft and goes all the way to 19,600ft. Ruminahui started at about 10,000 ft and the summit was at 15,300, so we thought it would be a good enough warm-up climb.
While the Ruminahui hike was beautiful (miles of Andean paramo with not a person in sight), it was challenging as well - the last 30 minutes were perhaps the toughest I had ever done: it was rock climbing at 19,000 feet. Lulu refused to go to the summit and Pablo (the guide) had to make her a little shelter to sit in and wait while he and I attempted to climb the summit. I was roped to Pablo with a carabiner to hold onto for grip. 30 some cold, slippery, rocky and scary minutes later, we reached the top. The summit was about 2 ft x 3ft wide - barely enough space for one person to comfortably stand. I huddled up in a corner while Pablo was jumping around (literally) in his 1 foot of space so he could get a better cell phone signal to call the taxi to come pick us up at the lagoon at the base.
Quito, which is about 100kms north of the summit was clearly visible in the distance. When you´re this high, the air is unbelievably pure, thin and fresh. And cold.
(Since I don´t have my camera cable with me right now, check out a photo of Ruminahui snagged off the innernet, at the top of this post)
We finally made it to the laguna at about 6.30pm...6 hrs after we started. Cotopaxi was scheduled for the next day, so it was a quick trip to the car, a yummy and warm lentils+quinoa dinner made by lulu and a warm and early awakening on the day of the climb. I didn´t quite feel up for it given that I had never so much as been on a glacier (discounting the 2 hrs of monkeying around Alaska in 2006), let alone climb to the summit of an icy mountain, but we figured it was worth a try. They took us out for a practice climb at the foot of the glacier just to get used to crampons and the ice axe. It was fun - I was loving it. Lulu flat out refused to get on the glacier, though :) I was feeling a bit nauseous though, given that we were at 18,000ft.
After about 2 hours of practice, we came back to the refuge, ate a warm dinner of potato soup and bundled up in the bunk beds at about 7pm (the climb was scheduled to start at midnight). Because it was a weekend, the refuge was really hopping with about 40-50 pumped-up mountaineers all getting antsy and worked-up before the big hike. We, of course, were nauseous and scared. At about midnight when they started waking everyone one, we decided not to go for it...the nausea was only going to get worse with elevation and I wasn´t especially thrilled about the idea of crossing crevasses in the middle of the night.
So much for that. Oh well.
It being Sunday today, pretty much the whole town of Cuenca is shuttered up. Except places like this internet cafe.
Cuenca used to be the 2nd largest Inca town, after Cusco. Until the Spanish came, that is. It´s sad and frustrating how the Spaniards´ dream of the Catholicization of an entire continent came true with the passing of the centuries. Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, reportedly threw the Bible that a Spanish friar offered to him when he found that the Bible didn´t make any sounds. That was apparently, the official justification for the conquest, slavery and decimation of an entire contintent and its peoples.
I can´t stop kicking myself for not getting Eduardo Galeano´s Memory of Fire with me from pdx. That would have been the perfect companion to a S. America trip. I did see a sign for a (closed) libreria selling English books today, so maybe they might have a copy that I can comprar tomorrow.
The plan is to stay in Cuenca for 2 more nights before flying out to Santiago (via Guayaquil) on the 26th. Off to cook some pasta for now. Adios.
ps - Lulu came down with a severe case of quemadura (sunburn). Remedy? go to the local farmers market, get a free stick of aloe from a concerned and helpful farmer lady, cut it open and rub the juice on the face.
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