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Yosemite National Park Panorama Picture
Went to Yosemite National Park for some camping this weekend. Spent a great time enjoying the maginificent scenery of Yosemite, Waterfalls, Giant Trees and the great outdoors ! Enjoy some pictures from the trip..
The Inca trail to go to Machu Picchu is among the most saught after tours in Peru. The booking for that trail is often booked months in advance. I was lucky I was able to get a seat only a few weeks in advance. I think it was due to the fact that Machu Picchu was closed for a while due to the severe flooding, many tourists had cancelled and I was able to get a spot. On any particular day, only 500 people are allowed to start the trail and that includes tourists as well as local porters and guides.
I arrived in Cusco  1 1/2 days before to be able to aclimate myself with the high altitude and get used to it. The day before the actual start of the trail, someone from the agency I booked the tour with came to do a briefing about the hike and also brought me a -5 degrees celsius sleeping bag (yes, sometimes, it does get that cold up there at night). Went for a bit of shopping after the briefing and bought the essentials - rain poncho, headlight, toilet paper and some snacks.
Early next day, they came to pick me up at the hostel to go to the Kilometre 82, the start of the trek. Our hiking group was 21 people - we had people from the US, England, Argentina, Spain, Belgium, France and New Caledonia. A good group of people of varying age-group. Half of us spoke English and half Spanish. Apart from us, we also had 3 guides and 21 porters.. yes 21 ! They had to carry the tents, food, cooking stuff (some had to carry gas cylinders on their backs) and misc. Each of them was regulated by law to carry only a maximum of 20 kgs. They had checkpoints every day where the porters had to weigh their bags. We had to carry our own bags, sleeping bags and mats. But on the 2nd and 3rd day, as we passed through some villages, those that wished to, could hire porters from these villages to carry their bags. The porters costed 80 soles per day and would carry a maximum of 10Kgs. A few of the girls in our group hired some additional porters to carry their bags. One of the girls in our group had a 14 Kgs Bag. I was impressed she carried it the whole way through. Mine was a mere 7 kg and I could still feel the weight on ascents.
The hike was 4 days and 3 nights. First day was very easy, we hiked only about half a day and set up our camp. The porters set up the tents and the whole thing for us before we reach the campsite. So once, we reach everything is ready for us. We also have a kitchen tent, dining tent, which is the common area where we eat/play etc.
Second day on the hike was the hardest day as it was mostly ascent and we ascended to some 3900 metres. The lack of air as we went up and just the sheer effort to climb up made it pretty challenging and we did not get lunch that day till we reach our campsite and we were supposed to reach around 2-3p.m... Good motivation to get us going through the difficult second day. Even the porters and guides were chewing on coca leaves on that day to be able to cope with the altitude. I chewed some, but I hate the taste of it, but it sure did help a bit with the ascent - like a good boost of energy each time I squeezed the juice out of it.
Third day was relatively easy as compared to 2nd day. A lot of descent and I was so glad I had bought a walking stick for that. That walking stick was the best 3 soles I ever spent. After the 3rd's day hike, we reach our last campsite for our last night. That campsite is a bit more developed and has facilities - such as shower, which we could buy for 5 soles and even had a bar selling alcohol and other drinks. The next morning, we were to wake up at 3:15a.m to start the final hike to Machu Pichu. I was glad I had brought some ear plugs, as some people decided to party the night up rather than rest. Many people were not too happy about the partiers, but it's a group with different people and we need to deal with the differences.
Fourth day, woke up at 3:15a.m and we got an early breakfast and had to get out of our tents quickly in the rain - as the porters had to pack everything and catch their train back to cusco - the train system here is weird - tourists cannot take local trains and locals cannot take tourist trains. Seems like segregation to me, but I guess it's a way to exploit tourists. We ate our breakfast quickly and waited for the checkpost to open at 5:30a.m. All the different groups were in line, in their rain ponchos, waiting for checkpoint. Once we crossed the checkpoint, we hiked to the sun gate, where we had our first encounter with Machu Picchu.
I was very lucky to get there early and all we could see was just clouds and fogs and no machu pichu and we witnessed the clouds/fog slowly moving away and machu pichu appearing out of it. It was a magic moment ! All the 4 days hike and pains were gone with that magical beautiful view !! Will post pics of Machu Picchu in the next blog entry.
I was very impressed with the planning and organization of the trip. Every day, the cook prepared 3 meals for us - breakfast, lunch and dinner and for lunch and dinner, it was usually 3 courses. Pretty impressive given that we were in the middle of the jungle. Also everyday, they had a happy hour for us - no alcoholic drinks - but popcorn (yes popcorn), cookies, coca tea, coffee etc.. On the last night, the cook had an open buffet of food for us rather than the regular 3 courses. It was so much food and such good food. Also, one great part was that every morning, the porters would shake our tents to wake us up and serve us Coca Tea in our tents. Great way to wake up :)
While I paid $340 for the trip, I think it's worth it includes the tickets to Machu Pichu ($100), the train ticket back ($50) and all the food and accommodation and porters and guides for 4 days and 3 nights. The pricing is weird though. Each of the people in our group booked with different agencies and we compared prices and it was a range of $295 to $400.
This is my fourth and last series of pictures from Burning Man 2009.
In the last 3 pictures, you can see the extremely packed van that Kimo had packed with a lot of patience and effort (Van was packed the the max with all our gear and bicycles and Kimo had come to the city from Dublin to pick our stuff the day before and packed it all on his own so that we could leave promptly on Tuesday afternoon). In the next picture, you can see where I stayed. I stayed in the little yellow tent and next to it, we had the shade structure that Tony and Therese had graciously welcomed me to. The shade structure was a parachute that was set on top of PVC pipes. Tony and Therese had it set up like a home away from home. Under the shade structure, we had carpets, couches, coffee tables, decorations, plants. It was a really nice setup. We spent most of the hottest times of the day in there. Then the last picture is a picture of Phoenix, Kimo, Me, David and Melanie - with whom i came.Check out part 1 of my burning man 2009 pictures
Check out part 2 of my burning man 2009 pictures
Check out part 3 of my burning man 2009 pictures
The first picture and last picture portrayed in this set is from the Temple at Burning Man. Each year they build a different temple. As read from another blog -- "The temple, which is a giant, elaborate, wooden structure designed to inspire/nudge you towards a solemn/prayerful/meditative/ transformative/grateful/introspective mindset. People leave burnable offerings at the temple, and in a quiet and mindful gathering on Sunday night of the event, the temple (and its offerings) are burned.
Offerings can represent things for which you'd like to give thanks, things you'd like to have burned away, hopes, wishes, ideas, bad habits, good habits, get-well wishes, shout-outs to those who have passed on, inspirational things, questions, requests, whatever."Upon entering the temple, it's one of these places, that you immediately feel the spirituality and intense atmosphere.Many people are there meditating, reflecting on the people they have loved and lost. They burn the temple on the night after the burning of the man .i.e Sunday. Unlike the burn of the man, where everybody is partying, celebrating the burn, the Temple burn is very silent and spiritual. With the few ten thousands people gathered for the temple burn, it's just amazing to feel that silence and unity in the air as we watch the temple burn and spirits flying away from it.Check out part 1 of my burning man 2009 pictures
Check out part 2 of my burning man 2009 pictures
This year, I used/enjoyed a lot of the services that Black Rock City had to offer.
As in any city, Black Rock City has all the services a city should have - Post Office, Hardware Store, Flea Market, Ice Cream Man, Bike Repair Store, Tea House, Diner, Movie Theatre, barber Shop, Massage Place, Waffle Place, Snow Cone Man, Discotheque, Fashion Boutique, Breakfast place, Bars, Pubs, Real Estate etc.. All these services are available within the city and I used quite a few of them this year. On the second day, I had a flat in my bicycle tire. It was a bummer as without a bicycle, it's pretty hard to do much (there are community bicycles, supposedly 1000 of them, which we should use only one way and then leave it for others to use, but it's very hard to come by). I looked around the city for a bike repair shop and found one at 3:00 and I. They were very nice and they fixed my tire - They replaced the tube with a brand new tube and asked me to spread the good and go and do something good for somebody else, rather than wanting to take anything from me. Every night, on my way back to my tent from the Esplanade (where all the party were), I'd pass the Black Rock City Diner.. yes a Diner. We'd get in line and they'd seat us in at assigned tables and all and then they'd serve us hot grilled cheese !! Nothing better at 3 o'olock in the morning ! These grill cheese sandwiches are the best ever. Not too far from them, there is the Skinny Kitty TeaHouse. They have a great lounge with live piano performances that you can listen to, while sipping your tea. Usually after the diner, I'd stop by there, have a tea or a home brew and listen to piano laying on their couches before heading home to sleep. For breakfast, there are quite a few places. There was the shady waffle camp very close to where I stayed that'd serve pancakes everyday, the Cereal Killers, that'd serve cereals all day and then there was a KFC -- they had decorated their booth in KFC colors and all and they served Fried Bologna on a sandwich bread with a shot of Bourbon (From Kentucky :)) For Snacks during the day, I got invited to many camps for food - I had PBJ sandwiches, Vegan Chocolate Coconut Icecream (yeah.. ice cream in the desert.. someone had brought a freezer with a generator), Snow Cones, Fresh Water Melons, Hot Dogs, Laddoos (I somehow found a hippie couple that was serving Indian Laddoos), and of course, all kinds of drinks. This one evening, while I was walking back , someone invited me to their noodle house. They were serving Japanese Soba Noodles and Sake in a japanese themed camp, with chefs dressed in japanese attire and we were even served in nice bowls with chopsticks and all. They also have a post office which I did not get to use. The post office would deliver mail to anyone living at an address in Black Rock City. I heard they also had a shower camp.. where they'd let you take a shower, but I could not find that one and they have a barber shop that specializes in Mohawks. Another service I used was the Fashion Boutique. Their motto was to dress you in something more questionable :) I did have time to prepare for costumes and all. So I went to the boutique and got all geared up in some costumes. Everything was free, but the catch is after you're dressed, you have to come out of the boutique on their catwalk :) Check out the part 1 of my burning man 2009 pictures.
This year was my second year to Burning Man. Unlike last year where I decided overnight to just go and went unprepared, this year, I knew from before that I wanted to go I got my ticket for a pretty decent price after I posted on my facebook status that I wanted a ticket. For the ride, I had posted an ad on Craigslist looking for a ride, and I was very lucky to have found a veteran burner - Kimo.
Kimo had been quite a few times and was going again this year with his daughter Kaley and graciously offered to share his ride with me and two other persons (David and Melanie) he found on CL as well. He had a huge truck in which he was able to fit 5 bicycles and all our camping gear and food for the week. We left on Tuesday evening and reached Black Rock City at night. We met up with Therese and Tony (Kimo's friends from the last Burn) there who had come earlier and had already set up shade structure (an actual parachute supported by PVC pipes) at 4;30 and H. Under the parachute, they had couches, coffee table, plants, carpet, great set up for the playa.They graciously offered to camp with them. We unloaded the truck and all set up our tents in the dark around the parachute. 4:30 and H was a perfect street location. We were only 1 block from the toilets and we had the PapaLegbar camp set up on the other side of the street which had set up a cellphone tower to offer cell service and internet on the Playa (but which I only found out on the last day), the Shady Waffle camp one block away which was serving pancakes (hence shady) every morning, the free phone camp which allowed us to make calls to the outside world not far away as well. Then there was Camp New Jersey next door, which had allowed us to use their shower tub (if we brought our own water) and use their evaporation system as well.
I've added some pictures in Random Order to this entry. I'll be adding more pictures later in other entries.
