Whatever I like in this space, it's my profile.
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..
One the main attractions close to Antigua was trekking on, yes on a live active volcano - Pacaya volcano. The volcano has had an erruption a couple of weeks before I was there and while we did not see any lava as such, we did see lots of smoke coming out of the rocks and the sulfuric smell all over. When I went for the hike, it was pouring cats and dogs, but did not stop the expedition. They fit a whole bunch of us tourists at the back of a pickup truck and went in the jungle trails to the volcano. Was nice passing through lots of pineapple fields along the way and checking out the scenery - Also spotted a few wild horses in the pastures surrounding the volcano. It was nice to see fairly new rock formations from solidified lava and the smoke coming out of the earth's core. Too bad we did not get to see any lava as such, but was a nice trek and interesting scenery.
Note : I did trip trip last year and just procastinated and very late in posting.
A few weeks ago, I got a free trip to Vegas - ticket and hotel for one week - courtesy of a bug on the expedia website. I happened to be online when the bug was posted and was pretty surprised that it actually worked and I was among the lucky ones to have gotten the free deal. I decided to go there to work for that week rather than work from SF. While I stayed in my hotel room and worked most of the days I was there, I did go to a few shows at night. I watched a hypnotist show which was awesome, watched the Blue Man Group show in which I fell asleep and the best show was 'Le Reve' at the Wynn. That show was spectacular. Lots of water acrobatics, divings, great special effects and costumes.. Really loved that show ! I had gotten the ticket at one of the many Vegas Half price ticket booths and was seated in the splash zone in the front seat and of course as the name says, I did get splashed every now and then :) Anyways, enjoy some pics that I took while there.
Jai and Aruna had a timeshare in Tahoe that they could only use for the weekend. Being the friend that does not work at an office, they graciously offered me to work from there if I wanted for the week. It was nice for a change from San Francisco to work walking distance from the Heavenly ski lift. Everyday I'd ski a couple of hours and work for the rest of the day accessing the internet tethering through my iphone to do my work. Was a perfect winter getaway and we even had a big storm one of the days - about 6 inches of snow and blizzards up in the mountain. I did go up and there was like no visibility few feet in front of you and unseen obstacles all over the course. Different skiing experience skiing in a blizzard :)
I reached Antigua on a Sunday and the fair was in town !! I love fairs.. the rides, the junk food, the people, the energy.. of course I could not miss it while I was there. I was glad I came on the right day for it. I had an awesome time at the fair and the rides were awesome !! though.. sub-security standards as compared to the US... but that's what made the rides extremely thrilling and exciting !! The food too was awesome.. though as fair food anywhere else in the world.. very greasy and unhealthy and all.. but once in a while, it's all good :)
After a tiring journey by chicken bus and changing some 6 buses or so, I finally reached Antigua Guatemala. While I was travelling in the chicken buses, I met a couple of travels - the guy from Australia and the girl Brazil. We did the last part of the trip together and when we reached Antigua, we went to look for hostels together. Stayed at the Black Cat hostel and it was 'the' party hostel of Antigua. Very loud, packed with foreigners and hardly any local. I stayed there for only one night before moving to one of the numerous other hostels in Antigua.
Antigua is a very nice town. It was the colonial Spanish capital of Central America. It is a World Heritage site, and among the most visited places in Guatemala. Lots and lots of tourists, language schools, salsa schools, hotels, hostels, foreign food mixed with a good variety of traditional culture, people and way of life. It seems to be a very big destination for north Americans to come and learn Spanish or Salsa. The city is nice and small with lots of colonial architecture, ruins, historic buildings, cobblestone streets etc..
I travelled by 6 buses and 1 tuk tuk and reached Antigua after 8 hours.. for only about $7.. compared to if I took a direct tourist bus, it'd have costed me about $35 and maybe 6 hours.. But money was not the issue.. it was a great adventure travelling by the chicken buses and mingling with locals and eating the local food the numerous vendors come to sell you while on the bus.. The buses are kind of crammed and not much space for legs etc.. but still worth the trip.. as they say.. "When in Rome, do like the Romans.. and when in Guatemala, do like the Guatemalans.. " :)
I don't have too many pictures from Panama because my SD card got damaged (wet) and I lost a big part of the pictures, but fortunately had another card which I had a few more.
While in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, I talked to many travelers and many were heading to Panama to this island called Bocas Del Toros after leaving Costa Rica. It was only about some 5 hours or so away. I decided, as I was so close by, I might as well do the hop across the border and get to see another country. We took a shuttle to the Costa Rica border, did immigration, crossed a scary looking bridge onto the border to Panama.. did immigration there and then took another shuttle which took us to a High speed water taxi to bring us to the Bocas Del Toro island. It's a very small island, probably inhabited by some 200 or so local people and the rest are mostly backpackers.
As you can imagine, with an island that remote and low population, the pace of life was very slow. There was not much to do apart from doing nothing. So, I did nothing.. chilled out there for a few days - rented a bicycle and went around the island to see the beachesof the island and I came across the set for 'SURVIVORS'.. They had one survivor series shot on that island.
Bocas del Toro has excellent surf and a great surfing destination. While I don't surf, I did go in the ocean and these waves were the strongest waves I ever encountered.. almost twisted my arm... just by the sheer pulling and pushing power of these powerful waves.
Another day, I took a tour to go snorkelling and dolphin watching. It was pretty neat.. lots of dolphins followed our boat as we headed to a particular part where they reside. Then we did some snorkelling, before going to Red Frog Beach.. where as the name suggests, we have many red frogs !! Unfortunately, the camera I used on that particular boat tour, the card got damaged. It's supposed to be an underwater camera.. Olympus tough and I thought I'd used it for snorkeling, but sand or water somehow got in and damaged the card with all the pictures I took for that day.. but surprisingly the camera still works.
San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica was main transit point to go between the different places in Costa Rica. I would be back to San Jose every few days and chill out a day before heading to my other destinations in Costa Rica. The city is pretty chaotic and big and not the most easy to access by public transportation. One of the worst parts of the city though - most streets don't have name signs.. So you never know where you are. Even to Taxi Drivers, you can't give an exact address.. it has to be something like 400 metres east of a certain known spot. Pretty challenging for non-local to navigate the city. I enjoyed myself though and managed to explore the not so touristy places of the city as well. Fortunately I am brown and look local.. in so many places, you could smell danger in the air.
Usually, I finish a country's travelogue by the food of that country. I was conflicted whether I should have named this entry 'Food of Central America' rather than Food of Costa Rica, because give or take a few exceptions, most of the basic food in Central America was the same - beans and rice and plantains being the major thing at most meals. Food was hearthy, cheap and good in most of central america. I would probably not be posting pictures from the other countries as it'd be basically a replica of this one.
