Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve

My parents did me a world of good by taking me to the forests that are close to Bangalore from an early age. Some of my best memories are of sitting in the Bandipur forest guest house veranda at night, shining a torch outwards and seeing glowing eyes of the spotted deer grazing outside. Then there was the time when a monkey got into our room, peeled and ate a banana and left, when we walked off into the forest unaware of what we were doing until a forest guard came running after us and asked us to turn around. The time when dad tried to get too close to a wild elephant and the elephant did a mock charge at him, when we were driving through the forest at dusk in our old ambi that would not start easily once turned off, saw a wild elephant and dad wanted to turn off the engine and look at it. The time we stayed in forest huts with woollen rope beds and a zero watt bulb at Nagarhole and I saw fireflies for the very first time – hundreds of them.

And then later, my own trips and treks, encounters with leeches and everything else 🙂 And through all these years, I had gone on multiple forest safaris – always wanting to see a big cat in the wild, but always knowing deep down that we weren’t going to. I even went to Gir with big hopes of seeing Lions – believing that they were easier to spot.

I read lots of books – Jim Corbett, a book on the life of Billy Arjan Singh, and was always spellbound and fascinated by the descriptions. One of the biggest things I wanted was to experience was what it felt like to share the same space with a wild cat. What does it feel like? Is it scary? Does your heart pound with excitement?

But as you can guess by now, all these times went by without seeing any big cats in the forests. My parents went to Serengeti and had their share of amazing sightings. Then I decided that it was time to give it another go! After some amount of research (including a FB post with very helpful tips from friends 🙂 ) we zeroed in on the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. Mainly because we heard that most tourists spot tigers there and because getting there was fairly easy.

We booked a room at the Svasara Resort which is right outside the Kolara Gate. We were very excited, had high hopes and yet were trying to convince each other that there is a high chance that we may not see any tigers. We tried to downplay our excitement, lest we jinx it.

The first thing we noticed when we entered the resort was a big white board with dates and details of sightings. It seemed that with the exception of one safari, tigers had been spotted on every safari there for the last one week. Ab cautioned me against getting my hopes too high even then 🙂

And then we went on our first safari. It was hot: 44-46 Degrees Celsius, but we didn’t mind and the breeze made it quite bearable. Half expecting to spot a tiger at every turn, I kept scanning the trees for a glimpse of orange. Tadoba Andhari is spread over 625 Sq Km and is dry deciduous forest with lots of bamboo and mahua. Our guide took us to every ‘spot’ that the tigers frequent and every passing jeep was stopped and information shared on whether there had been any sightings. The safari came to an end and we hadn’t seen any tigers. I wasn’t unhappy though. The larger objective was being in and experiencing the forest. Just being in that stillness, spotting deer at regular intervals, seeing the bluejays and the robins was enough.

Back at the resort, stories were exchanged over evening tea and it turned out that most other guests had seen tigers. One group was so lucky that they spotted them on every single safari.

We pinned our hopes on the second safari. We got into the jeep and asked our guide when he spotted a tiger last. He then launched on a small speech about how there were untimely rains that were ‘spoiling’ things how it was difficult etc etc. That ride was not the best one – our guide kept dashing from one spot to the other and all we did for 5 hours was race through the forest.

An article that I had read long back came back to mind – on the harmful side effects of tiger tourism in India. And through that ride, I felt truly guilty – I felt like I was doing the forest and the other animals a disservice by not observing, not appreciating enough and just rushing through.

Back to the resort and to pictures and vdos of other guests’s sightings. “Arre, aap telia lake se nikal gaye aur 10 minute mein Sonam (a tigress who has recently given birth) wahan se gujri” – with a vdo of Sonam crossing the road close to the jeep.

Since we had not seen a tiger, the resort manager decided to send the young naturalist with us on our third safari. And then it happened. Towards the end of our safari, there was word that P1 (tigress) was sitting near Jamni lake – another dash followed and we reached the lake to see 8 other jeeps lined up.

And there she was! An orange spot in the distance. It seemed like she was looking at a wild boar, contemplating on whether she wanted to attack him. Then she got up and gracefully walked across to the water, waded through it, climbed back up and went out of sight. She seemed so unconcerned about the humans looking at her, about the boars, about absolutely anything else. She walked like she owned the place. And she does.

That evening tea and conversations were wonderful, now that we had a tiger story too 🙂 The resort manager had wonderful stories to share and I envied him his job 🙂

On our fourth safari, we went to Telia lake and waited for an hour for Sonam to come out of the woods, where it is presumed that she has kept her cubs, and cross the road to the lake. After an hour our guide decided to leave, though I would have liked to wait longer. Then we again got word that two cubs were sitting by Jamni lake (Jamni turned out to be our Mecca 🙂 ) so we drove there and had the most amazing sighting of a female cub who came close to the jeeps.

Right then, looking at her through my binocs, my heart pounding, I finally had the answer to the big question – how does it feel? And the answer is, that it feels incredible, humbling and blessed. To be able to witness these majestic creatures in their own habitat is a privilege, an honour and should never be thought of otherwise. 

Aegean Pearl

Scattered across two seas and wedged between two countries, lie thousands of Greek islands which are destinations that every traveller’s fantasy is made of. These islands offer so much variety and so much to do that one visit would only leave you wanting more. Finding words to capture the beauty and essence of these islands is tough. I’ve tried, failed and concluded that those words are yet to be invented. In the meanwhile, I use superlatives and clichéd phrases that barely do justice to what is irrefutably one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

Greek sovereign land includes 6,000 islands and islets scattered in the Aegean and Ionian Seas, of which only 227 are inhabited. The majority of these islands are located in the Aegean Sea and are divided into seven groups: Northeastern Aegean Islands, Sporades, Evia, Islands of Argosaronic, Cyclades, Dodecanese and Crete. The Ionian Sea has only one island complex called the Ionian Islands.

Santorini / Thira

With so many islands to choose from, different islands are popular with tourists from different nationalities and the Greeks have their own favourites. However, by most accounts, Santorini tops the list of the most popular Greek island to visit. It’s a regular stop on most of the cruise lines serving Greece, and can also be easily reached by plane, ferry, and hydrofoil from mainland Greece and many other Greek islands.

The view from our house!

Picture of Blue and White

Although many Greeks find Santorini to be too expensive and overrun with foreign tourists, the popularity of the island lies in the fact that it is easily accessible from the mainland and offers an ideal mix of ingredients for the perfect Greek vacation: Azure waters, breathtaking vistas, gorgeous sunsets, sun-kissed beaches, great food and a shopper’s paradise.

Santorini, or Thira as it is officially known, is part of the Cyclades group of Islands.  It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago of the same name. At the heart of the archipelago, both geographically and metaphorically, is a caldera or volcanic crater that was created by an enormous eruption thousands of years ago. Santorini curves gently around the eastern edge of the caldera and its form helps create panoramic views because you can look upon one part of the island from another. The caldera has created walls of ochre volcanic rock that drop down dramatically to the sea and are topped by a crop of whitewashed buildings. The ochre and white create stunning visual contrasts along with the crystal clear water that takes on a myriad hues of blue through the day.

On the hike from Oia to Fira

A view of the caldera on the hike from Oia to Fira

Fira is the capital of Santorini but it is the gorgeous hilltop village of Oia (pronounced Ee-ah) that draws the biggest crowds. Oia is also the prettiest place on the island to stay as you can catch the most beautiful sights right from your hotel. Both Fira and Oia have a profusion of boutiques, art deco galleries, gold shops, cafes, restaurants, taverns & bars and you can spend hours simply walking on the tiny cobbled stone streets, soaking in the sights and window shopping. Look out for the mules that perform a range of roles from garbage collectors to people-and-goods-transporters.

 

A day trip to Nea Kamini to see the volcano is a must -do

Market in Fira

The list of things to do in Santorini is endless. However, sitting by the edge of the caldera and looking out to the sea that changes colour every hour tops this list. Beach hopping and swimming in the crystal clear, safe waters comes a close second followed by watching the glorious sunsets, shopping for jewellery, art, clothes, olives, wines and hiking from Fira to Oia along the caldera. I would also recommend renting an ATV and riding around the island. A day trip to the small island of Nea Kamini to see the volcanic craters and a take dip in the hot springs on the way back and exploring the Akrotiri excavation site of a Minoan Bronze Age settlement are also must-dos.

The beaches in Santorini are distinctive thanks to their special geographical features: red and black volcanic pebbles line the shores of the beaches and the steep cliffs provide a stunning backdrop while giving them a private and intimate feel. The most famous beach is the Red beach, which is located in a cove and can be accessed only on foot.  Kamari, Perissa, Perivolos, Monolithos and Amoudi Bay are the other popular beaches.

To visit and experience all that Santorini has to offer, plan at least a 5 day trip to this gorgeous Agean Pearl.

Getting to Santorini: Take a ferry from Piraeus which is just outside of Athens. The high speed ferries get to Santorini in 5 hours and the regular ones take 8 hours. Flying from Athens is the quicker option that takes 45 minutes but you miss out on the beautiful journey through the Indigo waters.

Getting around in Santorini: Rent cars, bikes or ATVs to get around from one part of the island to another. Local buses are another option. Within Fira and Oia you can mostly get around only on foot.

 

Salar de Uyuni – the world’s biggest salt desert

While in Cuzco,on an impulse, I decided to look up to see whether there was a Bolivian consulate in the city where I might be able to get a Bolivian visa and then visit the country. To my surprise, I found that not only does Bolivia have a consulate in the city (a one man office) but it seemed like the visa was ridiculously easy to get and free of cost – get the following documents and I will give you the visa in 5 minutes and it is free of cost, the consul general told me!! To an Indian passport holder, who is viewed as being in the high- risk-potential-migrant demographic, this was amazing news.

Sure enough, I got my visa as promised and started making plans of going to Bolivia. Initially, I had only planned to visit Copacabana on the banks of the lake Titicaca and La Paz, the highest capital city in the world but then my fellow volunteer told me – you cannot miss Uyuni! Uyu-what?! And then she proceeded to tell me about the salt flats of Uyuni and how it had to be the most beautiful place that she had seen in her life – a fact that many more tourists told me later on and I have to second.

The big problem was going to be however that it was not the right time of the year to visit Uyini. January is the rainy season and the tours close down due to the high rainfall. Uyuni can only be visited with tour operators – 3 day trips in a 4WD with 5 other people on board (one traveller I met told me – by the end of the 3 days, you will hate all of them). Being very optimistic though, I set out to La Paz. The challenge was to find a good reliable tour operator as I had heard that cheaper options may mean terrible operators and this can be even life threatening in the desert that we were going to visit. I had heard good things about one particular agency in La Paz but upon enquiring there I was told that they were not taking any bookings due to the rains. Extremely dejected, I walked to the next big, respectable looking agency and they said they would sell me a tour! Although I was sceptical, I was not going to miss the opportunity. I bought a ticket and was on a night bus from La Paz to Uyuni – that was 3 hours late – and arrived in Uyuni to find no one waiting there for me as promised by the operator. My misgivings intensified and I called the tour operator in La Paz. A little later though, I was picked up and met the 5 other fellow travellers – I only hated one of them by the end of the trip, not all 🙂 – It was a fun bunch and we started off on a good note.

The first stop of course were the salt flats and we only had to drive a little outside of the town and we caught our first glimpse of white ground. I find it hard to put into words what the first sight of it was – it literally takes your breath away. It is impossible to look around without sunglasses on. As advised by our guide cum cook cum driver, we took off our shoes and walked on the salt – and boy was it incredible! The Salar or salt desert was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It now has salt a few meters deep and we were told that this supply is never ending! Rainwater had covered some parts of the salt, turning it into a giant mirror and it is one of the most unusual and beautiful sights I have ever seen.There were however scores of other vehicles around which took away from the serenity which would have otherwise been experienced. After taking countless pictures (most of which looked the same later!), we had to be off because our guide hurried us saying we wouldn’t be able to find accomodation. Accomodation on the tour is very basic in home stay kind of places where no advance bookings are apparently possible so each car rushes to find places for 6 people to sleep.

The great white expanse is all you can see 360 degrees

We started off after breakfast the next day to out next destination – Laguna colorada or the coloured lake. After travelling for about 5 hours, we reached this incredible lake which looks pink (due to some algae in the water) and is home to hundreds of flamingoes. It is bordered by majestic, barren mountains and was definitely yet another thing I had never seen before. I forgot to mention that by this time we were roughly about 4500 meters above sea level and it was freezing and rainy and overcast and so we did not stay at the lake as long as I would have liked. Hurried again by the “we may not get accomodation” routine, we drove off and landed at our guest house at 2PM with nothing to do for the rest of the day! To kill time, we went for a walk and it seemed like we were literally in the middle of nowhere. It was however very cold with horrible winds blowing and so we were back to the safety of the guest house in no time.

Laguna Colorada

The third morning was an early morning – we set off at 4.45 AM. After driving for about 45 minutes to an hour through the desert again, we reached the Sol de Manana – literally sun of the morning. These are actually hot geysers that shoot steam out of the earth! The morning light made the landscape appear very lunar-esque (if that’s a word) and I certainly felt as if I were still dreaming. At this point, we were 5000 meters above sea level. We drove on through the barren landscapes and caught the sight of beautiful lakes reflecting the rising sun. We reached our next destination – an incredibly beautiful setting for hot springs. I was not too adventurous here but other brave souls stripped in the intense cold and dove straight into the hot springs pool. We had breakfast here and then drove to the last spot – Laguna verde of green lake – which was unfortunately not green when we went there. After spending some time there, we dropped off one of our fellow traveller – who continued on to Chile – as this place is very close to the Chile border and backpackers often use these tours as a transit from one country to the next. The rest of us turned around and headed back thorugh incredible landscapes – kind of similar to the ones you see in Ladakh – stark, barren beauty – to Uyuni. It took us about 7 hours to get back and after having a nice coffee with E, a sweet Argentinian girl, I got back onto my overnight bus for La Paz.

Sol de Manana geysers

Sunrise over a lake

The hot springs with a gorgeous backdrop

The desert landscapes we drove through

Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands are an archipelago of nineteen islands in the Pacific Ocean, west of Ecuador, and they belong to Ecuador.  Of these nineteen, five islands are inhabited while the rest are protected and are part of the national park.

Galapagos was not really on my travel wish list and it was only when I found myself in Ecuador that I looked it up on the internet because I had no idea of what the islands were like and what one could expect to see there – the only thing I had heard about Galapagos, like most other people, was that that was where Darwin’s theory of evolution took shape.

I also knew that the islands were expensive to visit. What I did not know was that the islands are one of the last remaining pristine environs in the world where one can observe beautiful wildlife in their natural habitat and human impact is limited to a minimum.

 

A gorgeous Sea Lion on Floreana

I landed in Galapagos after some amount of research and the name of one hostel in hand. I spent the first night on the island of Santa Cruz, which is the island closest to the Baltra airport. The magic of Galapagos is that you might have been dreaming about it for months and waiting to see the sea lions, the blue-footed boobies, the penguins and the Galapagos tortoises and thinking that it will take you all of the eight days that you are going to spend there to see all of that, but then you land there and in twenty four hours, you have seen almost all of them! By the third day, you find the sea lions and iguanas on the beach (and even on the roads) a routine sight and you are no longer squealing in delight upon spotting them. The rest of your days there are then spent snorkelling, visiting the other beautiful islands and simply soaking in the extra ordinary life and sights of Galapagos.

Red plants on Floreana

 

 

Flamingoes on Isabella

I visited three of the five inhabited islands – Santa Cruz, the most populated and touristy island, Isabella – a gorgeous but expensive island where I spent four days snorkelling, observing sea lions and flamingos, walking along the beautiful beaches and watching glorious sunsets and Floreana – a pristine island with only eighty inhabitants where I got to swim with a sea lion and a turtle! Due to the volcanic origins of the islands, they have an incredible landscape of white sands, black lava rocks, red and green plants, beautiful cacti and stunning clear waters in a myriad shades of blue.

 

An Iguana on Isabella. When I saw him, I was all alone on the beach and suddenly I thought I saw him nod at me. Although it sounds silly, it freaked me out and I thought I had imagined it until a fellow traveller mentioned that Darwin mentions nodding Iguanas in his book!

 

Although the Islands are distributed along the equator, the weather is not hot and humid and the water is cold. I spent eight days on the Islands and the sights that will remain with me for a long time are that of the most beautiful white sand beach with sapphire blue waters, of stumbling upon a sea lion sleeping in the shade of a mangrove, of blue footed boobies putting up a spectacular display of diving, the stunning landscapes of  and that of a protective male sea lion noisily protesting when tourists went too close to his females or babies.

A pelican on the beach in Isabella. It is definitely the most beautiful beach I have ever seen, and I have seen quite a few awesome beaches around the world

It is always depressing to leave after a beautiful holiday but leaving Galapagos was all the more troubling. Galapagos is not just any holiday destination and in fact should not be visited as one. Go to Galapagos to marvel at nature, to gawk at beautiful wild life and to soak in all that the islands have to offer while leaving as minimal an impact as possible.  As I despondently headed to the airport to take my return flight, I picked up one last souvenir – a beautiful Galapagos stamp on my passport for posterity and caught a last gorgeous view of the islands in deep blue water from the air.

The Galapagos Tortoises. These are probably 70 - 80 years old

The Galapagos Islands can be visited by creating an itinerary of your own or buy taking a cruise. Cruises are expensive but are a great way to see the uninhabited and less touristy islands. They also come with planned itineraries so you don’t have to organise anything. On the other hand, you don’t actually get to stay overnight on any of the islands and you might be slightly rushed which isn’t the best way to experience these islands. It is easy to get around on your own and there are plenty of accommodations available to suit all budget options starting from ten USD a night. You can take a ferry from one island to the other but the only problem is that the ferries ply only once a day and hence you have to plan your time well in advance. Some airlines allow you to fly in to one airport and fly out of the other (the two being located on two different islands – santa cruz and san cristobal) but this option cannot be booked online and so you waste a lot of time going to the far away islands and back to the airport. To sum it up, the ideal way to see the best of Galapagos (if time and money are not a constraint) is to take a four or five day cruise and stay on one of the islands for another three or four days.

Of hot and cold showers

The first thing that I had noticed on the website of the first organisation, Intag, that I was going to volunteer with was that if you wanted to live high up in the mountains you had to be ready to take cold showers. And so I chose to live in the biggest town in the Intag valley which has electricity and hence ´hot water´. I soon found out that hot water meant ´luke warm´water from small instant heating electric shower heads that they have every where in Ecuador – and even in Peru. If you turn on these showers fully, they give you cold water.The trick is to turn them on just a little bit and then you get warm water – if you are lucky that is. On one memorable day in Ecuador, I went in to shower (I took to showering in the afternoons as any other time was too cold) started to shower, rubbed on soap and turned the shower back on to find that the power had failed by then and I was not going to get any warm water. Since I had no choice, I showered with cold water – literally ice cold water and came out shivering much to the amusement of my host family (They joked about it for days later).

I then got used to the warm and sometimes even cold showers – apparently cold showers are good for health and they are environment friendly as you cannot use too water anyways! In the following days in the various hostels I stayed in, I got used to varying degrees of warm water or even the lack of it. In some hostels, you got warm water if you paid extra for a better room.

I reached Peru and stayed at the volunteer apartment for the first week (and moved out later because it was not clean – 3 boys living there, need I say  more)The first day when I reached there, I was tired from a long terrible bus ride and the altitude added to the exhaustion. All I wanted was a hot shower. I went into the shower only to discover that the electric shower head was not working!

I have now moved to a very nice (and clean) hostel in the centre with a regular hot water shower! As I got back from the Machu Pichu trek a few days back, I was super exhausted but happy that I will have a nice hot shower. I turned on the shower and there was no hot water. I called the reception and they said they will look into it. I got some hot water a little later and started to shower. Halfway through the water got scalding hot and as I moved the lever toward the cold water side,the water got cold -very cold and then the hot water was gone again.  I ended up showering in ice cold water again. The reception called 20 minutes later saying the problem had been fixed.

I walked to Machu Pichu

I think it is now safe to say that I thought that Machu Pichu is overhyped and when I got to know that the Inca city was only about 600 years old,  it served to confirm my hypothesis (Could´nt say this out loud earlier as someone said to me ´if you go with this attitude, it will be raining, foggy and you will not be able to see anything´)

Despite this however, I added it to my travel list as I could not go to Peru and not go to Machu Pichu! (what would people say? :-O) So I landed in Cusco. It helped that I am also volunteering here and I could decide when I wanted to go to Machu Pichu within the month. However, it is rainy season here now and so after 10 days of acclimatisation I decided to go. There are two ways of reaching Machu Pichu from Cusco – one is to take a train or train+bus combination and the other is to do a trek that ends in Machu Pichu. The Inca Trail is the most famous trek from Cusco to Machu Pichu, is super expensive, crowded and sold out months in advance. I visited an agency and was told that there is another trek called Salkantay which ends in Machu Pichu as well. One look at the pictures of the snow covered Salkantay mountain and I was convinced that I wanted to do it over the Inca trail ( I am super sceptical of over marketed tourist attractions anyways).

However, I was scared and anixous as on day two of the trek one goes up to 4600 meters above sea level! That is 4.5 Kms above sea level!

Well, I packed, said a prayer and left. We reached the starting point, Mollepata by bus and after a quick breakfast got ready to leave when the horseman came in and said – okay, everyone bring 5 kilos for the horse. I thought – my bag must be way over that and when I saw that he actually had a weighing scale, I was worried – and rightly so. My bag was wayy over the limit (my agency had not told me that I am allowed only 5 kgs) and so I was told to take out stuff. I had a smalll bakpack as well and tried to take out as much stuff as I could and we got going. The seemingly bearable weight of the backpack started increasing with every hour that passed by and it did not help that we were climbing from 3300 mts to 3900 mts above sea level and I had a 6 kg backpack to lug which was not designed for heavy luggage and hence had no waist belt to transfer the weight from my back etc.

I soon found that I was the last one in the group but that meant I had a guide all to myself 😉 – we had two guides and one led the pack while the other walked with the last person in the group.  Berating myself for being so unfit and carrying so much weight I trudged on. The route was scenic and a snow capped peak which was a small speck at first kept coming nearer and we ended the day at a campsite at the foothills of this very mountain at 3900 mts.

View from the first lunch stop

The next day started early and I very wisely gave up all my luggage to the horseman. This was the tough day. We started walking up from the campsite at 6.30 am and very soon fog enveloped us. We were to walk for 5 hours to get upto 4600 mts. After 4000 mts, every step was a torture. The trail was an uphill steep and looking up was discouraging to say the least. I had to stop every ten or fifteen minutes to noisily catch my breath. After 4400, I stopped every 3 minutes or so. The great thing was however that stopping or not doing it was never an option that occured to me. I kept myself going by thinking of wonderful things and imagining that they were waiting for me on the top. What also helped was Dory from finding Nemo! (Just keep going…)

The snow capped mountain towards which we walked on the first day

Before I left on the trek, R, the lady who is the co-founder of the organistaion I am volunteering for had told me – ´all the volunteers who have gone on this trek have cried! Dont you cry!´and I had thought to myself ´how silly, why would I cry?´ When I was about 50 meters from the top, I almost felt a tear rolling down and I said it out loud – ´no puedo´ – cant do it!  And I dont know where I got the strength to do it, but without shedding that tear, I was at the top!!!  The flip side however, was the gorgeous sight of the snowcapped salkantay which I had seen in photographs was not for us to see. Where the mountain was supposed to stand tall majestically towering above us, was only white fog. I wasnt too disappointed though as I had won my victory by being up there. Our guide then performed a small ceremony where we all thanked the ´Pacha Mama´or mother earth for getting us safely up there.

Day 2 – 4100 Metres above sea level!

 

And….Made it!

The rest of the day was a knee crunching 2000 mts descent downhill for another 4 hours and although I would not have climbed up an inch more that day,  walking downhill was also a torture. Day three was a short 5 hour walk on comparitively easy terrain and the best part of the day was the hot water springs at Santa Teresa. We reached there in the afternoon and the setting was unbelievable beautiful – natural hot water pools, made of natural materials at the base of mountains and next to a river! Whoever included that in the trek itinerary was genius! We spent 2 hours soaking in the perfectly warm hot water and returned to the campsite which was actually in a small town and featured  a bar(a small store with incredibly high prices)!

The santa teresa hot springs

I was lucky to have an awesome group of people with me and one of the topics of discussion that kept coming up was pisco with inca cola (actually a cough – syruppy tasting cola) and lemon. And that night, we finally drank pisco! And the bar featured music and so we danced till 11 PM. I kept thinking how crazy it was to party while on a trek!

The next day, we had to carry our own backpack but it was a short 3 hour hike along a rail track to augas calientes (the town which exists only for Machu Pichu tourists) The hike was beautiful as the trail passes through the jungle with a river to one side and the jungle to the other. I spotted a noisy bunch of parrots in there. However, walking was still tough and every uphill had my calves protesting and every downhill was torture for the knees and toes.

On day 5, at 4.30 AM we started the one hour climb to Machu Pichu. My first sight of Machu Pichu was what is on every picture of Machu Pichu and if you ask me now whether it is overhyped or not, I would not be able to say because after walking for 4 days, all I can say is that it was worth it. While the ruins themselves might not be extraordinary (and Im sure that there are more faboulous building built around that time period in the world), the location is certainly breathtaking. Later in the day we had rain and fog and climbed up another mountain behind machu pichu with vertigo inducing steps to get a bird´s eye view of the city. Luckily, the clouds cleared enough for us to see the city.

AND there it was! 🙂

As I was walking on day 1 with the heavy backpack and trudging along a steep uphill, I was thinking of why I was putting myself through this torture. Why couldnt I have comfortably taken the bus and train to get there? And indeed, why was I on the other side of the world, far far away from home and family, having given up a very well paying job to travel through this  country? I have thought long and hard about how I can best explain this to people but I cannot think beyond the cliches of new experiences, seeing the world, discovering yourself etc. But the fact is that they are all so true and until I find my own words to describe this amazing experience and dream that I am living, I will have to make do with this:

All of us have dreams. Some dream of big cars, a house, lots of money, fame etc.

I have had only one real dream: To travel the World.

First experiences as volunteer

I have now been a volunteer for one week. It seems like it has been longer though! And through this one week, I have dealt with some amount of restlessness before settling down and getting used to life in this village in Ecuador and moving on to having fun!

So I am in a village in Ecuador called Cuellaje. It has indeed been a
long journey from India to here via NYC, houston to Quito by flight. From Quito (which is the capital city) by bus to Otavalo and then to Cuellaje with another bus. Didn´t end there though! I got to Cuellaje and stayed overnight at a small hotel they have here. The next morning I was supposed to go up to the mountains (which surround this village) to meet the co-ordinator at Intag, Ned. He has a farm up in the mountains. To go up there one has to take a ride in a milk truck at 6 in the morning. So I put all my luggage in it and was sitting on the edge, gripping it tightly along with 6 other people and milk cans in the back. The lecheria (leche is milk) as they call it is their taxi. and it stops on the way to collect milk from farmers. After an hour of swaying in it on beautiful mountain roads, I reached up and Ned met me there on his horse.

Ned has set up this organisation and is the reason that lots of young people are getting an opportunity to come here and experience this wonderful place, people and contribute to the school(s) here. Intag is a zone which lies in the eco-reserve of Cotacachi Cayapas. It is a parish with 6-7 communities and almost each comunity has its own school. Cuellage is the village in the centre of this parish and is the most populated (with 200 – 300 people). All the other communities are up in the mountains with a few houses each.
So I got on the horse and we went off as he wanted to introduce me to a few families living around.  We reached one house and climbed down and came across a rope bridge. the house was across the river!! The ropes were metallic and seemed strong but they only had two wooden logs to walk on and I was very scared of slipping and falling down! The owner of the house came along, Ned asked him what we could do and he said he would carry me across on his back!! That was a scarier proposition but I agreed –
climbed onto his back and shut my eyes tight and he carried me across the rope bridge on his back!! We reached the house and they made us some breakfast. We walked around their garden and they have rabbits and hens and turkeys and dogs and guniea pigs. It was such a wonderful experience. Then we walked to another house 2 kms away and this time we crossed the river back on a cement bridge! I rode the horse again and went to Ned´s house – which is really a steep climb for 15-20 mins – I am not scared of riding horses anymore.
The next morning we came back down to the village in the milk truck and  I got to know the house where I am going to stay for the next 3-4 weeks. Its a couple called mirian and marcello and they run a small hardware store and internet cafe here. Mirian and Marcello are wonderful people and I have been having a very comfortable stay with them.

Ned introduced me to the administrator of the school Richard and when he heard that I have studied marketing he said they would be
interested in me teaching marketing as they are trying to set up a
tourism school here and the children need to know marketing. I did take a few classes but was not happy with it – the kids were quite disrespectful and were not reallyinterested in learning. So I had a word with Richard and this week I am teaching the smaller kids english. I am teaching 3 classes and it is fun! The kids want to learn and its so satisfying to teach them.

I’m managing okay with my Spanish. I understand the people very well but can only speak in the present tense! No past no future! 🙂 But the advantage of knowing multiple languages is that while learning a new word, you always find some other language in which there is an exact word for it – as not all words have definite meanings and sometimes a word and its meaning is abstract.
All the people here are wonderful and I love how everyone greets everyone as you walk past  you just keep saying Hola! Hola! to everyone – I have already made a few friends here and I dont feel like I am travelling alone anymore! Over the last few days I have also been having lots of new thoughts, ideas and new perspectives in my head! Its so wonderful and this is what I thought it would be like when I decided to come here and volunteer – or even better than what I thought!

So at the end of one week as a volunteer I would urge everyone who wants to explore the world and gain new perspectives to consider volunteering!

The Road Less Travelled.

So I finally got my visas! 🙂 And now I’m all set to leave for Ecuador in a month’s time to volunteer with Intag. I am very excited and a little little scared somewhere sometimes. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think that even to look at South America on the globe, I need to turn it around 180 degrees! But this fear of the unknown, uncertain is what makes this journey interesting, challenging and highly satisfying.

It was time to resign from my job and tell everyone why I am going, where I am going and what I will do. In the Indian context, its not very commonplace for someone to quit a very well paying job, stall a career mid-way and head off to the other side of the globe to volunteer for a few months. I got various reactions from people- my boss called it a “holiday” and told me that it was not the smartest thing to do (restraining himself not to call it a dumb thing to do 🙂 Many others said the same thing with varying degrees of subtlety. Most people can’t understand why I am doing this. Let me attempt to explain it.

Imagine that you are at the end of your life and you look back at it. What do you see? Do you see a life lived to the fullest, a person who followed her heart or do you see someone who stuck to the routine, dreamed dreams, wanted to break free but stayed safe, didn’t take risks?

I don’t want to look back at life and think – “I went from home to office and office to home” for most of my life. Sure, I’ll make money, might go on vacations, have a good home, etc etc. But did I stay safe? Did I kill my dreams because they seemed mad to others?

It might seem like I’m making a big deal out of this but apparently it is! Going by people’s reactions, I am making the worst mistake of my life and being really dumb.

I, on the other hand, feel like an explorer – like I’m going to set out on this amazing journey to an unknown land. I will meet new people and make new friends, the journey will broaden my horizons, I will become a more tolerant person. I feel the thrill and exhilaration of standing at crossroads – and I, I took the road less travelled. 🙂

From one end of the world to the other! Visa sagas and other blues

So I have recieved a volunteer grant from Omprakash and am delighted about it! I plan to volunteer with Intag in Ecuador and possibly Seeds of Hope in Peru in September/ October.

Once the excitement and celebration of having recieved a grant died down, I got down to the more practical business of logging onto multiple travel websites to book tickets etc.

I have travelled a lot and one hurdle that I constantly face is that of applying for and getting visas to various countries. Since I am an Indian citizen, I require visas to almost all countries in the world before I leave home. Which means buying round tickets, getting employment proof, bank statements and in some cases even insurance before applying for the visa. And many countries insist on personal interviews so I have to travel to another city overnight by bus or train to appear for a personal interview. Being unmarried poses another problem to getting visas as the countries in question are thinking that I have no strong reason to come back to India. And so it happened that last year one country rejected my visa application and I had to appear for the personal interview twice (not to mention pay the visa fees twice)! This has now scared me and I’m always thinking of the what-if-I-dont-get- the-visa scenarios.

So imagine my delight when I heard that Ecuador offers visa on arrival even for Indian citizens! So I thought, that’s simple, book my ticket, grab my passport and fly – what a dream situation to be in.

I started looking at best routes to reach South Am. and figured that they are via the USA. Then someone told me – you can’t transit the US without a visa! wow! Okay then, let me look for an alternative. Europe was my next best bet. I was busy searching for fares and found some good deals and was patting myself on the back for a good job done, when something prompted me to check whether I will need a transit visa for europe. I checked the consulate websites and guess what, unless I have a US visa, I need a transit visa to fly to South Am via Europe.

But the transit visa procedure isn’t so easy either! Will someone give me a visa and will I be able to make it to Ecuador? My guess is as good as yours.

Hola Espanol!

If I want to travel to South America, the first thing that I must know is Spanish. I began learning spanish 6 years back. Or wait, I must say I went to spanish classes 6 years back. I went through 3 levels of Spanish classes and gave an international exam that certified that I was at a beginners level of Spanish language competency.

However 5 years have passed since and I am not in touch with the language. Having learned and taught German, I can safely say that Spanish is a much easier language to learn, use and speak. For beginners, the sentence construction is similar to English and hence if you know a few basic nouns and verbs with basic conjugations, you can speak some amount of Spanish to get yourself through everyday situations.

That’s not what I want though. I want to move to being an intermediate and advanced learner of the language. So I have started refreshing my Spanish again. Since it is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, there are numerous online resources to learn and refresh your language. The one resource I really like is Coffee Break Espanol. Hosts Mark and Cara are fun and have easy tips for learning the language. They also talk about different situations where you would use your Spanish in and teach you vocabulary related to it. As for the grammar though, I don’t know whether their program is good enough for someone who has not taken any classes earlier.

Apart from this, I read bbcmundo – BBC’s Spanish website and try and pick out words, verbs and phrases I know and try to decipher the rest. I am also going back to my books from class. But, without regular classes and the motivation they provide, its proving difficult to make too much progress.

If I do go to South America though, I know I won’t be lost and will quickly pick up and learn to speak well.

Can’t wait now!