A Matter of Life and Death

Viva Mexico - Parte IV : Aguas azules

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:43:14 PST

During this trip, we got few opportunities to visit few picturesque places and all had one thing in common - aguas azules, blue waters!

We went to Cascadas de Agua Azul which is slightly more than an hour away from Palenque, a series of white water cascades falling into cool blue pools. We had to take a tour from Palenque which had a 45 minute stop over at Mizol Ha, a small water fall with access to some small caves. Cascada de Agua Azul, located in the municiplality of Tumbala, translates literally to blue water cascades. It's formed by tributaries Otulún, Shumuljá y Tulijá and as the name suggests is turquoise blue due to traces of limestone in the water. Cascadas de Agua Azul is an extremely crowded place since it offers aquatic pleasures to beat the tropical heat. There's a trail next to the river with shops selling souvenirs, artistic sundries. food and fruits all along. To avoid crowd one has to hike for a while, as you go up the river becomes more tranquil with not too many high falls. We played in the river for a while before having yummy pollo rostizado and tender coconut in one of the make shift restaurants on the trail. We had 3 hours time to spend in at Cascadas de Agua Azul, after which we were dropped off at the highway where we took bus to San Cristobal de Las Casas.

From San Cristobal, we took another tour to Cadena de Cascadas El Chiflón (El Chiflón chain of cascades) and Lagos de Montebello. I don't recommend this tour to visitors at all for many reasons. First of all the tour starts very late at about 9AM and by the time we pick all the tourists and head of out of city, it'll almost be 10 and we had to travel about 3.5 hours to reach the Chiflón falls. Secondly Lagos de Montebello is known for its shimmering blue shades, but by the time we reach the lakes, it's almost 5 in the evening when there is no trace of sunshine on the lakes, biggest disappointment for all photographers. Thirdly the driver stopped for an hour for lunch break which was absurd when we already running late to the lakes. Finally because of such late start and fixed tour there are so many other interesting archaeological zones like Toniná, Chinkultik on the way which we had to skip. It cost 4 of us about 1400 pesos in total for the trip, had we rented a taxi, we might have paid maybe 1500 pesos but we would have the flexibility to plan the trip we wanted.

Cascadas El Chiflón is definitely beautiful with the 120m "Velo de Novia" fall dropping into the green-blue pool. The river San Vicente forms the Chiflón chain of cascades with a series of 8 waterfalls. Chiflón is about an 32km away from Comitán, the cleanest city of Chiapas. The man made trail next to the river has many view points and offers a bit of a cardio hike if you go all the way upto the top. There are many restaurants, shops, huts and cabins with barbecue pits along the trial. As usual, higher you go lesser the crowd and I definitely recommend to go to the highest point to get a breath-taking view of Velo de Novia. Also there is a misty view point where the water spray wafts and wets the onlookers which feel great in the heat. We were given two hours to spend at this waterfall and we made use of it to the last minute.

From Chiflón our next destination was Parque Nacional Lagos de Montebello and like I said earlier, it was extremely disappointing. The sun was gradually reaching his home in the west and he didn't bother to shine on the lake which looked dull and spiritless while they were supposed to be glimmering blue. I cursed our driver and the travel agency for ruining such a great photography opporunity, nevertheless I relished the most delicious choriqueso, a fondue kinda dish made of chorizo and cheese at the bank of the lake. Lagos de Montebello is a national park with about 60 mesmerizing lakes and all we saw was about 5 of them. I would highly recommend making a dedicated trip to Lagos de Montebello.

Cascadas de Agua Azul

Colocasia (Elephan ear) leaf lit by morning sun

Artistic delicious mangoes for sale

Mizol Ha

Dolls for sale at Cascadas de Agua Azul

Cascadas de Agua Azul

Oars at Lake Pojoj (Pojoj is a Tojolabal word which means palm around the stone)

Cascadas El Chiflón

Mist on camera lens at Cascadas El Chiflón

Kids wanting to be guides at Lagos de Montebello

Balsas at Lake Pojoj

T-Shirt print at Cascadas de Agua Azul

Cascadas El Chiflón

Misty view point at Cascadas El Chiflón

Lagos de Montebello

Cascadas de Agua Azul

Colourful oars at Lake Pojoj

Cascadas El Chiflón

Balsas at Lake Pojoj

Cascadas El Chiflón

An island at Lake Pojoj

Lagos de Montebello

Artistic sundries at Cascadas de Agua Azul

Kids at Lagos de Montebello

Cascadas de Agua Azul

Balsa rafts at Lake Pojoj

Lagos de Montebello

Cascadas El Chiflón

Cascadas de Agua Azul

Cascadas El Chiflón

Lagos de Montebello

Smiles at Lagos de Montebello

Rainbow at Cascadas El Chiflón

Viva Mexico - Part III : Palenque

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:50:49 PST

This was my second visit to Palenque and I was extremely glad that I happen to be there in that magical place again. There are two things that attract me in Palenque - first, obviously, the ruins and second, Mayabell.

It took us about 13 hours to reach Palenque from Tapo bus station in DF by ADO bus. We were mobbed by taxi drivers when we alighted at Palenque and it took about 20 minutes and 100 pesos to reach Mayabell. It was surprising how the driver could squeeze in four of us and all our bags in a tiny Hyundai Santro. Mayabell is such a magical place, a heaven for minimalistic travellers like me and so many other hippies. While rest of the members checked into an air-conditioned room, I rented a hammock, had a shower and caught up with others for breakfast and I had my all time favourite huevos rancheros. My hut-mate was a French hippie with an Indian name, Ram. I got his permission to strum his guitar and I felt heavenly to lie on my hammock, strumming few chords in the midst of a lush tropical forest, a moment I would cherish forever.

Our plan for the day was to visit Cascadas de Agua Azul, but we were told that the rebels had blocked the roads, we had to change our plans to visit the ruins. After few hours while rest of them were ready, we went to the ruins. It takes about 30 minutes by walk to the entrance of the ruins and the entrance costs 57 pesos. I hated the fact that the day was overcast and gloomy. As before we started off with Templo de la Calavera that has stucco relief of a rabbit's skull. It was followed by Templo de las Inscripciones, the famous pyramid in the site which has the sarcophagus of King Pakal. Next to it is the biggest of all edifices in the site, "El Palacio".

El Palacio, the palace, has El Observatario, the observatory and El Patio de los Guerreros, the patio of the warriors. The patio of the warriors has many bas reliefs on the walls. The palace also contain the oval tablet which depicts the ascension of King Pakal with his mother performing the crowning. The walls of the palace has some very intricate carvings most of which are faded. After palace, we did the North Group, a series of pyramids behind the palace. We then head to Grupo de las Cruces which has three tall pyramids - Temple of the Sun, Temple of the Cross and Temple of the Foliated Cross. Since I had an injured leg, I didn't attempt to climb the pyramids, I just clicked few people's pictures sitting at the center of the group. We then walked down the Arroyo Otulum, a rivulet which falls as a small cascade into Baño de la Reina, the queen's bath, a nice little pond set in the midst of tropical foliage.

By then we were pretty much done and instead of taking the exit towards the museum, we took stairs leading up to the Grupo Norte by mistake, so we exit from the same gate that we entered the archeological zone. We so wanted to goto the site museum, but we missed it by jiffy. It was closed, we walked back to Mayabell. I made haste to the swimming pool and it felt great to dip in the water to cool off the tropical humidity. After few laps of swimming and shower, I was ready for the typical evening in Mayabell - good food, good drink, good music. A local band of two acoustic guitarists played brilliant setlist followed by Tavo, a Veracruzan Jarana player, cover versions of these songs and many more:
La cumbia del Mole
Una mañana
Yo no se mañana
Colas y Nicolas
La Guanabana
La Gallina

The music was just too awesome, steak tasted delicious and tequila based cocktails which kept coming till midnight just made the evening so pleasant and cherished. Oh I so love Mayabell...Palenque's calling me again.

Templo de las Inscripciones

A bit of a relaxation on the pyramid

A stucco relief at Templo de la Calavera

Relief at El Palacio

Two little peddlers selling Maya seals relax for a moment

A man clicks a pic of his family atop the pyramid in Grupo de las Cruces

Lichens on the walls of El Palacio

El Observatorio inside El Palacio

A tourist sits on one of the pyramids in Grupo de las Cruces

A relief of a warrior in Patio de los Guerreros inside El Palacio

Flowery fans for sale

Lady on the Pyramid

Carvings on Templo del Sol

Carvings on the wall of El Palacio

Carvings on the walls of El Palacio

A family relaxes on the pyramid at Grupo de las Cruces

View of Templo de las inscripciones from El Palacio

A family descends down the pyramid

A boy climbs the walls of Ball Court

Viva Mexico - Parte II : Distrito Federal

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 15:43:29 PST

This second in series of our Viva Mexico blogs is definitely the longest one containing all information and pictures of various places I visited in the capital of United Mexican States, one of the biggest, most populated and most beautiful capitals in the world, Distrito Federal known to many as Mexico city. Unfortunately

If I start writing about Mexico city, I would end up writing not a blog, but a book. The fire was kindled sometime in 2008 when I had a one day sojourn at this lovely city on my way back from Chiapas to Monterrey. Despite such a short visit, I fell in love with this city, I told myself that I would surely come back to this city someday and I just did that. It's a city full of vim and vigour with agreeable weather all year round, mouthwatering food to relish everywhere, bustling with affable warm people, rich historic and cultural places, pregnant with art, music and beautiful colonial architecture, affordable convenient public transportation (including eco friendly bicycles).

I would like to quote few lines from Jim Johnson's book, Mexico City: An opinionated guide for the curious traveller:
Mexico City is not for the faint hearted traveller. The air is polluted, the traffic is beyond belief, it's an earthquake zone, and within the range of a smoking volcano. You don't come to relax or "get away from it all." You come to be seduced by a 700 year old culture, by people whose hearts are easily opened, and by the sheer audacity of it all. Keep your senses alert to the stimuli and you will be richly rewarded.

Traveller tips for Mexico city:
+ All museums remain closed on Mondays, plan your visits accordingly.
+ The cost of metro tickets is 3 pesos irrespective of number of stations.
+ Mexico city metro map could be found here.
+ Dress modest, avoid extravagance, be alert.
+ Keep your wallets and phones in front pockets.
+ Keep your bank cards in the hostel and walk around with enough cash.
+ Take taxi containing license plates starting with A or B.
+ If you can, avoid metro during peak commute hours.
+ Eat in small street side restaurants, Mexico city is known for its food.
+ Tamales with champurrado is the best choice for breakfast, it's everywhere.
+ Enjoy the city leaving all your fear behind. It's not that dangeours as you think it is.

During this visit I got time to visit Zocalo, the historic center of the city and the surrounding streets like 5 de Mayo, Franciso L Madero, Calle de Tocuba etc., La Alameda, Castillo de Chapultec, archaeological zone of Tlatelolco, Xochimilco, Teotihuacan, Basilica de Guadalupe, Paseo de la Reforma, Palacio de Bellas Artes and many other interesting places in the city which am gonna discourse about below.

Zocalo is the historic central square in Mexico city (zocalo, in general, is referred to central squares and is not specific to Mexico city). It's a wide open square with a gigantic fluttering Mexican flag at the center. On one side is the magnificent Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María, oldest and largest in the western hemisphere built by the Spaniards after conquering Tenochitlan, the old Mexico city of the Aztecs. To the right of the cathedral is Palacio Nacional, a beautiful colonial building which is supposed to contain the famous mural of Diego Rivera which we never got a chance to see for it was closed. Around Zocalo there are very interesting places to walk around. Behind the cathedral is Templo Mayor, an Aztec temple during the days of Tenochitlan which is now in debris. INAH has maintained this area as an archaeological zone with a museum and there are entry tickets, of course this was closed too.

We ambled on calle 5 de Mayo home for many restaurants and colonial Banco de Mexico building, calle Francisco I Madero, the pedestrian street with beautiful sculpting on Palacio Cultural, Templo Expiatorio Nacional de San Felipe de Jesús and probably the most beautiful Zara store ever. Palacio de Bellas Artes at the junction of Lazaro Cardenas and Juares is one of the most magnificent and romantic structures in the city made of white Italian marble. Next to it is the great municipal park, Alameda Central known for its gorgeous fountains. We stopped by at the grand palatial post office, Palacio de Correos . We walked all the way to Tlatelolco archaeological ruins passing through Garibaldi square. Tlatelolco has a pyramid right in front of Ex Colegio de Santa Cruz cathedral. They've paved way among the lawns to traverse through various structures of Aztec ruins, the entrance is free.

While rest of the gang visited the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, which I had seen during my previous visit, I entered Bosque de Chapultepec, the largest park in the whole of Americas! Chapultepec is a Nahuatl word which means grass hopper! I walked around the lake, the garden and the magnificent mountain La Fuente de La Templanza after which I went straight to Castillo de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Castle) on the top of the Chapultepec hill. Castillo de Chapultepec, which once used to be viceregal residence and then turned to military college, is now Mueso Nacional de Historia. The castle stands in all its grandeur overlooking the whole of Chapultepec park offering a 360 degree panoramic view of Mexico city. While Museo Nacional de Antropologia talks about the origins and ancient history of the Mayas, the Aztecs etc., Museo Nacional de Historia is all about the modern history - independence revolution, Niños heroes, viceregal treasures, murals of revolution, numismatics and ancient documents etc. The entry to the museum is 57 pesos and would easily require 3 hours to complete.

Xochimilco (read sho-chi-milk-o), supposedly the Venice of Mexico, was a bit too touristic for my taste. The cheapest and fastest way to reach Xochimilco is take line 2 and get off at Tasqeña and take tren ligera (light rail) to Xochimilco. Once you're out of the station, follow the directions to "Embarcadero". You'll also notice a guy stalking you all the way on a bike till you reach embarcadero, he's the one who'll fix you up with one of the boatman and gets a cut from them. Trajineras (read tra-hee-nay-ras) are the richly embellished boats that ride on the canals of Xochimilco, an equivalent of Shikaras of Dal Lake or Gondolas of Venice but much colourful. A half hour ride cost us about 150 pesos each and the ride wasn't that exciting. Just like the Shikara ride on Dal Lake, you'll be pestered by peddlers of every kind and also Mariachis/Marimba players asking us to hear their music for an exorbitant price.

On the way back from the pyramids we visited Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, a.k.a La Villa de Guadalupe, one of the holiest of the places for Mexicans and the national shrine of Mexico. It's located at the foot of Cerro de Tepeyac, place where supposedly the apparition of Virgin Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin after which he was canonized to be the first indigenous American priest. The place now has the modern basilica built by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, the same architect who built Museo Nacional de Antropologia. It's a circular building with a modern outlook which has the shrine of Guadalupe and the holy apron of Juan Diego. Next to it is the old basilica, a colonial styled basilica which I liked much better than the modern basilica. There's La Parroquia Santa María de Guadalupe, Capuchinas, next to old basilica. It's a beautiful red coloured neo-classical building. There's also Templo del Pocito with very intricate designs and carvings. A flight of stairs leads you through the rose garden to Capillo del Cerrito, the chapel on the the top of Tepeyac hill. The view from the the hill top is beautiful, a very divine one indeed.

Like I said before, Mexico city is very close to my heart. I can keep rambling about every tiny bit of the city. I love it! I just love everything about the city! I love the weather, I love the food, I love the the metro, I love the people, I love the street artists, I love the music, I love the art that you see almost everywhere, I just love it. Having seen cities like London, Shanghai, New Delhi, San Francisco and Mexico city, if one asks me where do I prefer to stay. Undoubtedly it's gonna be Distrito Federal!

The fluttering national flag at Zocalo

Portrait of Guadalupe at a store near Basilica de Guadalupe

A mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros at Museo Nacional de Historia at Chapultepec

A modern art piece on Paseo de la Reforma

Pegasus made by Catalan Agustí Querol Subirats at Palacio de Bellas Artes

Artistic balustrade base at Palacio de Correos de Mexico

The birds are angry everywhere

Bombay in Mexico!

Fountain at La Alameda

Banco de Mexico

The man and the mannequins

Feathered war bonnet of an Indian man at Zocalo

Trajinera in Xochimilco

El Ángel de la Independencia on Paseo de la Reforma

A mural at Castillo de Chapultepec

A family portrait near Capillo del Cerrito

A Mexican Grackle at Bosque de Chapultepec

Cowboy accessories at Castillo de Chapultepec

Christmas Tree at Palacio de Correos de Mexico

Muses and Apollo supporting the Mexican emblem Eagle with the Serpent

Tourists munch on snacks just bought during their sail on Trajineras at Xochimilco

The good old Beatles still run well on Mexican streets

This is how "Tenochitlan", the current Mexico city, got it's name!

Catedral Metropolitana

Devotees at Basilica de Guadalupe, the old Basilica is seen at the background

Benito Juarez Monument at La Alameda

Ex Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco

Santa Veracruz

Mural and peddlers at Zocal, right behind Catedral Metropolitana

Muñecas (dolls) on sale for tourists at Xochimilco canals

The cupola of Catedral Metropolitana

Harmony surrounded by Pain, Rage, Happiness, Peace and Love, the central sculpture of Palacio de Bellas Artes by Leonardo Bistolfi

The modern Basilica de Guadalupe designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez has the original apron of Juan Diego with icon of Guadalupe in it

A chalk art of the famous volcanic legends Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl in front of Museo Nacional de Arte on Calle de Tacuba

Artistic colonial balustrade at Palacio de Correos de Mexico

A monument at Castillo de Chapultepec

Modern art at Paseo de la Reforma, Chapultepec

Sacrificio de los Niños Héroes, a mural on the cupola of Castillo de Chapultepec by Gabriel Flores

Palacio de Correos de Mexico

A saxophonist performs in front of Museo Nacional de Arte on Calle de Tacuba

Intricate sculpting on Palacio Cultural on calle Francisco I. Madero

Old Basilica and Ex-Convento de Las Capuchinas

A sail boat shaped structure in front of Capilla del Cerrito on Tepeyac Hill

El Quijote en los Nubes, Bosque de Chapultepec

A mural at Castillo de Chapultepec

A man cleans his Trajinera in Xochimilco

Palacio Nacional, Zocalo

Eco Friendly Taxis at Zocalo

Torre Latinoamericano

Bar Tin-Tan

Painted glass at Castillo de Chapultepec

A peddler wraps up after his day's sale

Zona Arqueologica de Tlatelolco

A youth cleans the courtyard in front of Old Basilica

Divinity around Basilica de Guadalupe

Ángel de la Independencia on Paseo de la Reforma

A statue made by Enrique Guerra at Fuente de la Templanza inside Bosque de Chapultepec

The Soldiers of Zapata, a mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros

Old men bask in the mild afternoon sunshine at La Alameda

Tranjineras parked in Xochimilco

Zara store on Calle Francisco I Madero

Devotees inside the Modern Basilica de Guadalupe

The beautiful front facade of Palacio de Bellas Artes

La llegada de los Generales Zapata y Villa al Palacio Nacional el 6 de diciembre de 1914, a mural in Castillo de Chapultepec

An angel in front of Capillo del Cerrito

Viva Mexico - Parte I : Pirámides de Teotihuacan

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:50:47 PST

Last Christmas vacation was definitely one of the most memorable vacations I have had of late. Reason: I was in Mexico, the country closest to my heart after my own, the country which makes me feel I'm one among them, the country which gave me many friends and a new tongue. It was nine fun filled days of warm weather, delicious food, amiable people, rich heritage, lovely landscapes, colonial cities, mystic rituals, tropical forests, art, music, dance and what not! It was a joyful reminisce of my stint in Mexico, a pleasant and a passionate feeling of déjà vu. We code named our vacation "Viva Mexico" and it consisted of four members - Linda Hung, Ying Wang, Xu Han and myself. I've shot nearly 11gigs of RAW photos (thanks Xu for lending his CF card) which am gonna edit and keep publishing when the pictures and words are ready. Here's the first in series - Pirámides de Teotihuacan.

How to get here?

Unless you're one of those American tourists who don't mind splurging on a taxi, you would want to take the public transportation to reach the pyramids. Teotihuacan pyramids are located about 50km away from DF (Distrito Federal a.k.a Mexico city, the capital of the country) on the north east side and there's no metro connectivity. The easiest way to reach is to take a bus from Terminal Central del Norte (North bus terminal). From anywhere in the city, take a metro and get off at station "Autobuses del Norte" to reach the north bus terminal (Metro map). Once you enter the terminal, turn left and walk towards the end where you'll find a ticket counter with a logo of a pyramid and that's where you buy the tickets to Teotihucan. The ticket costs about 20 pesos, frequency of the bus is every 15 minutes and duration of the journey is about an hour to hour and a half depending on the traffic. By the way the tamales and chocolate caliente just outside the terminal, which was our breakfast, was yummy!

Useful tips:
The pyramids open up at 9AM, so start early to avoid crowd and heat. They close at 5PM.
Carry water and snacks for they're a bit expensive at the site.
Ask for a map at the entrance of the site, they won't give you without you asking for it.
The entrance ticket costs 57 pesos per person, extra 45 pesos for video cameras.
Wear a comfortable sneaker and light dress, there are way too many steps to be climbed.
Don't use flash while photographing murals.
Haggle before you buy the souvenirs.
Budget more than half a day for the entire Teotihuacan trip.
Click here for the official INAH website for Teotihuacan site (in Spanish).

Teotihuacan (pronounced tio-tea-wa-kan) means the place where the Gods were born. It's one of the most important prehispanic sites of the country receiving over 3 million visitors every year, the biggest advantage of which is the proximity to the capital. The shuttle bus drops right in front of the entrance of Teotihuacan and we just have to walk across the parking to reach the entrance. There are souvenir shops and restrooms at the entrance. The first structure that we encounter once we enter the archeological zone is Templo de Quetzalcóatl within the La Ciudadela (The Citadel). Every structure in Teotihuacan needs a climb and so does La Ciudadela. Once you climb few steps, you see a huge courtyard that houses few residential complex and Temple de Quetzalcóatl behind it. We need to climb another flight of steps to get a view of the temple which is built with using talud-tablero architecture with beautiful reliefs of the sacred plumed serpent, Quetzalcóatl. Grave pits containing about 200 individuals were found here at Templo de Quetzalcóatl.

We descended and started walking on Calzada de los Muertos (The Avenue of the Dead), the 2 mile axial road of the city which leads to Pirámide de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon). Along the sides of the street one could see many architectural complexes and courtyards after passing which you would see the biggest of all pyramids in Teotihuacan, Pirámide del Sol (Pyramid of the Sun). It's an awe inspiring structure rising 71m from the ground with an 894m base perimeter! The steps range from an easy start to high rise tough ones and it leaves you gasping for breath by the time you reach the summit. It offers terrific views of the entire Aztec city and beyond. Keep in mind that the traffic on the steps get pretty high if you don't get early to the pyramid, there are climbers of all age. The pyramid of the sun has a huge courtyard where you find peddlers selling jaguares (a small little air instrument that mimics the sound of a jaguar), pumas, pyramids and turtles made of obsidian stone, Aztec styled tequila bottles, models of volcanic legends Popocatepetl carrying Iztaccihuatl, various masks, Mayan calenders, carpets and table cloths, harpas (harps) and host of other artistic sundries which could be haggled over.

We stopped at Mural del Puma (Mural of Puma), a faded mural just a bit ahead of pyramid of the sun. The colours are still vibrant, however the face of the animal is faded. The claws are very prominent and sharp. Do remember not to use flash when you photograph the mural. We then head to El palacio de Quetzalpapálotl (The palace of Quetzalpapálotl), a bit of a tongue twister. Read it ket-sal-papa-lotl with a strong l in the end, the divine bird. The palace houses Patio de los Pilares (Patio of the pillars) which has profuse carvings of quetzales with features like feathers, eyes, wings, beak very clearly visible. Supposedly this palace served as the residence of elite Teotihuacanas. We took a break for some snacks at one of the stores near the palace before heading to the pyramid of the moon.

Pirámide de la Luna, is the second highest pyramid in Teotihuacan and here is where Calzada de los Muertos end. The steps are high and only a part of pyramid could be climbed, its not allowed to go beyond the first stage. Apparently this pyramid bears a resemblance to the contour of the mountain El Cerro Gordo, just behind the pyramid on the northern side. The view that this pyramid offers is one of the best - a wide plaza in the front which will narrow down to form Calzada de los Muertos, pyramid of the sun to the left, countless small plazas and pyramids along the avenue and the vista extends all the way to Templo de Quetzalcóatl along the avenue. We walked back along Calzada de los Muertos towards the entrance gate, it was lot more crowded and there were peddlers all along the avenue.

We took a short-cut to the site museum, the entry to which is included in the site ticket. They have preserved quite a lot of interesting findings of the site arranged epoch-wise. We spent about 40 minutes in museum before walking back to the entrance where, fortunately, a bus was waiting for us.

Stay tuned for more pictures from Mexico City, Palenque, Chiflon, San Cristobal de Las Casas and more!

Pirámide del Sol shot from Pirámide de la Luna

Pirámide del Sol

La Ciudadela

Peddlers at the courtyard of Pirámide del Sol

Pirámide del Sol and Calzada de los Muertos

A pillar at El Palacio de Quetzalpapálotl

A relief of Quetzalcóatl at Templo de Quetzalcóatl

A human skull preserved at the site museum

A view of Pirámide del Sol

Mural de Puma on Calzada de los Muertos

Mayan calender on a carpet

Visitors walking towards Pirámide de la Luna on Calzada de los Muertos

Necklace made of human teeth preserved in the museum


A dog poses before Pirámide del Sol

Souvenirs at the site

Plumed Serpents (Quetzalcóatl) reliefs at Templo de Quetzalcóatl

An Aztec couple figurine at the site museum

Pirámide de la Luna

Aztec style Tequila bottle souvenirs


Pirámide de la Luna from Pirámide del Sol

A T-shirt peddler on Calzada de los Muertos

Templo de Quetzalcóatl

View of the city debris from the top of Pirámide del Sol

Pirámide del Sol from a vantage point

Reliefs on tablero at Templo de Quetzalcoatl


Top of Piramide de la Luna

Pirámide de la Luna from Calzada de los Muertos

Around SF

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 23:03:46 PST

I know you guys must be fed up of seeing pictures of San Francisco and surrounding places on my blogs, I promise I won't post them again for quite sometime after this one. I'm just clearing my backlog of photos and am publishing pictures from various visits to SF and around. Here I go...

Death Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 22:41:43 PST

It takes about two and half hours to drive from Las Vegas to Furnace Creek Visitor Center at Death Valley, where we stopped to check out the museum and buy souvenirs. Our day was supposed to be easy one with no hikes, just sightseeing. We head to Devi's Golf Course, a vast expanse of jagged formations with salt deposits formed by drying up of lakes. We next stopped at Bad Water Basin, which is known for the one of the toughest ultra marathons. It's one of those lower than the sea level places like Dead Sea, Sabkhat Ghuzayyil, Turpan Pendi etc. A wide white trail is formed in Bad Water Basin due to people walking on it. Apparently the water there is so salty that even the ass, I mean donkey, of some bloke refused to drink the water and that bloke called it Bad Water and hence the name. We then head to Artist's palate after which we wanted to be Zabriskie Point for sunset, but the sun ended up setting right while we were somewhere on Artist's drive. Artist's drive's got mountains made of vivid coloured earth which brought back to me the memories of Lamayuru in Ladakh. It was twilight when we went to Zabriskie Point, where I put my tripod to use for the first time in the trip. Zabriskie point has got a breathtaking panoramic vista of erosional landscape formed by dried up Furnace Creek Lake millions of years ago. We then drove to a small little town called Beatty and checked into a motel.

The next day we stopped at the sand dunes before heading to Telescope peak trail head at Mahogany flat. The drive to Mahogany Flat is a meandering one both horizontally and vertically which I so loved, the last stretch is not asphalted and has boulders on it, an SUV is definitely recommended. We stopped at Charcoal Kilns for few clicks which is a couple of miles before the trail head and it has a restroom. Mahogany Flat has a campground as well and the trail to Telescope peak which is about 7.1 miles long starts there. The trail is quite rocky, picturesque, lot less crowded, not too tough and has no toilets or any other touristic amenities. Despite the pain in my left knee, I loved this hike for its desolation and views. The last stretch of Telescope peak had traces of snow and it was very cold, it took us about 3 hours to reach the summit. Summit is windy and cold and it offers a 360 degree panoramic view of Death Valley, for telescope peak is the highest peak with an elevation of 11000 feet. After finishing the sandwich, signing the guest book, clicking few pictures we started our descent back which was harder on my knees. One last pint of beer was waiting for me in the car which helped me to recover quicker from my pain.

Death Valley, geographically and geologically, is a very special place. Colourful mountains, eroded landscape, dried up salt lakes, weird formations, smooth silky sand dunes and many more geographical features are in store here. It's definitely not known for landscapes that Grand Canyon or Yosemite or Lassen offers, it may cause disappointment in some with such expectations. However, I liked it for what it is.

From State Park to National Park

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 22:19:09 PST

After spending pretty much the brighter part of the day at Valley of Fire State Park, we passed through Lake Mead and Hoover dam to reach Grand Canyon National Park. We didn't really stop at Lake Mead except for a couple of stopovers to find a restaurant for we were terribly hungry. To our misfortune, it was Thanksgiving day and every damn restaurant was closed. We then made a stopover at Hoover dam, one of those incredibly hyped up places which I felt was absolutely boring. I don't know why there was so much crowd there and were going gaga over the place. Thankfully we went just before dusk, the golden hour for photography and I managed to get a couple of good shots of the bridge and its shadow. Hoover dam could be safely skipped while driving from Vegas to Grand Canyon to save time.

We drove straight for an hour and half before we stopped at Kingman for dinner, which was the first big meal of the day. We devoured our food, grabbed some gatorade for the next day's hike and drove straight to Holiday Inn Express near Grand Canyon village and checked-in. The next morning we were up by 7 and binged on the free breakfast provided by the hotel before reaching the parking near Bright Angel trail head. Our plan was to hike down South Kaibab trail and climb up Bright Angel trial, a total of about 15 miles. We then took a shuttle to Yaki point where the South Kaibab trail head is located and started the hike at 9 in the morning, a bit too late to start the hike. It was chilly and trail was dusty, pretty much descending all the way till Colorado river. The canyon walls were very colourful, but it was not the right time for photography for the sun was too bright. I had a light ligament tear on my left knee which had a history of two severe ligament ruptures. It took a while for me come out giddiness and I hiked really slowly.

It takes a while before Colorado river comes into vista, one has to pass through a short tunnel to reach the suspension bridge to cross the river. Phantom ranch was just a few minutes of hike from there and the team was waiting for us there. We relaxed for about half hour at Phantom ranch, which has got a small canteen serving basic stuff and few rooms to stay. Our return path was through Bright Angel trail which needs another suspension bridge to be crossed. Bright Angel trail is nicer than South Kaibab for we saw many rivulets along the trail and has varieties of vistas. The last strech of the hike is a ruthless ascent which get really tiring and with my messy knee condition it was worse. The canyon looked splendidly red at the golden hour and few more minutes it was all dark, we had to use our flash lights at the last stretch. It took us nearly 8h40m to finish the hike. Thanks Ying for all her patience and hiking at snail pace with me and Hao for lending his hiking poles. We started driving back and stopped at Williams for dinner.

Grand Canyon definitely lives up to the hype and undoubtedly a must visit, however, with all due respect to Grand Canyon I still feel Copper Canyon of Chihuahua was a lot nicer with a beautiful train journey leading up to the edge of the canyon, the colourful Tarahumaras bringing life to the canyon, delicious and rich Chihuahua cheese and beef.

Valley of Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 20:56:25 PST

On the very first day of our Thanksgiving vacation, we woke up early and drove from Las Vegas to Valley of Fire state park in Nevada. The park is located about an hour away from Vegas and is very close to Lake Mead national recreation area. Once you're off I-15, you realize you're driving among boring desertic mountains which hides among them vast stretches of vivid coloured rocks with red being the prominent shade reminding you of Arches National Park (not that I've been there). The entry fee for the park is $10 per vehicle and right from the entrance you'll start seeing gigantic boulders of red stone in various forms and shapes. We stopped at almost every point of interest like Bee hives, Atlatl Rock (which has a ladder to climb the rock and see the petroglyphs), Arch Rock, Petrified Logs (trees that have turned rocks millions of years ago), Mouse's tank (a half mile round trip hike with numerous petroglyphs and a dirtied pool at the end), Rainbow Vista (a vast expanse of colourful rocks), White Domes (sandstone formations of contrasting colours), Seven Sisters (seven humongous red rocks) and Cabins (stone cabins built during thirties). Before heading out to Lake Mead we also stopped at the visitor center for a while which has a small museum, souvenir store and restrooms. Even though I wasn't lucky to be there at "Golden Hour" for photography, I think I was able to get a couple of good pictures due to vividness of the landscape. An informative brochure about the park could be found here and the park website is this.

Rock N Roll, San Jose Half Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 16:52:35 PDT

Ran the Rock N Roll, San Jose Half Marthon today and finished it in 1h53m6s. After regular practice, sort of a strict diet and losing few kilos, I was able to finish within my target time of 2 hours. Here's a short log of the event.

Vijay and I reached HP pavilion at 7:45 and to our bad luck, the parking at HP pavilion got full exactly when we were about to enter. We didn't have much time to look for any other parking, just parked the car at the curb very close to the pavilion even though it was two hours parking only and started a quick gait towards the race start near Almaden Ave. We saw an ocean of people there and we quickly were part of them and I had squeeze through the crowd to get closer to 2h corral. In just a couple of minutes the countdown started and the race began, just like any other marathon, we had to walk for first couple of minutes till the crowd dispersed. I surged ahead and cross the 2h corral leader (the guy carrying the board).

I felt super energetic and fit at the start of the race and did 8 min odd a mile and thankfully I was able to sustain it pretty well till the end. The course well traversed the historic downtown of San Jose (course map) and I have never seen San Jose that well as I did while running. Almost all the marathons I've run was with music in my ears, but I decided to run without my ear plugs for there were bands playing for us. There were bands almost every mile apart playing all sorts of music from blues to pop to rock and there was even a school orchestra band at some stage. There were also many cheer groups with kids upping our spirits along the way and I also saw people with bells and jingles every now and then encouraging the runners. I would have clocked the marathon better if the weather were to be colder, but it was sunny and warm which I didn't like much.

I felt my energy drained a bit at about 8th mile and 10th mile, but Gatorade and Energy gels that were given along the track helped me cope up with it. After 12th mile I paced up a bit and last few meters I almost sprinted. I was gasping for a breath after the finish line when a volunteer offered a plastic bag thinking that I wanted to throw up. I thanked her for that, got my finisher's medal, got photographed by marathonfoto.com photographers and binged on all the refreshments that were given - bananas, chocolate milk, Gatorade, Jamba juice smoothie, protein bar, mini pretzels etc. I walked out of the secure area (meant only for runners) and waited outside for the rest. I saw Ying and Susan coming out and after a long wait Vijay walking out. We all later met at section C, had the free beer, relaxed for a while and dispersed.

This was the best timing I have ever clocked in the marathon and this was my first ever marathon in the US. After running this I felt it's lot easier to run marathons here in the US than in India due to weather conditions. This marathon also made me feel that a full marathon is feasible for me, now I need to give serious consideration for that.

SF again!

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 15:58:40 PDT

I seriously can't get enough of this city. The more I walk through it's streets, the more I love it. Yes! It's not as clean or spacious as south bay area, it's street's got many homeless and poor, it's foggy even in summer, it's traffic drives you mad, finding a parking is a nightmare and what not. Despite all this, I so love San Francisco. I wish I lived there, but it's too expensive and too far a commute. I love the narrow streets, I love the artsy buildings, I love Golden Gate, I love Embarcadero, the bay and piers on it, I love China Town, I love the downtown, I love twin peaks, I love Coit tower, I love the art galleries and cafes, I love the people and food, I love the feeling that it takes me back in time by few decades atleast, I just love everything about San Francisco. It's a heaven for landscape and street photographers housing world's most visited landmarks and a culturally vivid crowd. Here are few more pictures of the city:

Luna Park Chalk Art Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:09:52 PDT

We stopped by at the famous Luna Park Chalk Art Festival last weekend. Chalk art, also called Street Painting, is an art form where the artist renders his imaginations on the pavements/sidewalks using colourful chalk. The art may range from small simple forms to intricate 3D paintings. Luna Park Chalk Art Festival is held in Backesto Park in San Jose and the event website is: http://www.lunaparkchalkart.org/

Here are few of pictures I shot of the event. We went pretty early and you can see that most of the artwork is still being made.

Lassen Volcanic National Park

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:23:37 PDT

Lassen Volcanic (LaVo) is the second national park I ever visited here in the US, Yosemite being the first. After postponing the trip to Las Vegas for Labour day weekend, my incessant desire for hiking and camping made me think about a place which is close enough for a road trip, have campground vacancies, have things to do for 3 days and still be awesome. LaVo was the first thing that came to my mind, I went ahead and booked Manzanita lake campground for two nights.

We started driving very early on Saturday morning and drove along this route to reach LaVo by noon, with a stop over at Red Bluff for packing the lunch. The drive along I505 and I5 was terribly boring for there's no great landscape, no curves, no traffic - I had to stay wide awake, leave the car on cruise mode and lock the steering straight for about two hours! The entry fee to the park is $10 per vehicle and $16 per night for campground. We stopped at the visitor center at the entrance and watched a 20min documentary about LaVo park at Loomis museum. We then were greeted by two beautiful lakes on either side of the road, Manzanita lake and Reflection Lake. We went straight to our camping ground which was right besides Manzanita lake and pitched the tent, after which we had the packed lunch of burrito and sandwich.

Post lunch, we went to Butte Lake since my wife wanted to hike Cinder Cone, as I had already seen a cinder cone volcano before (Vulcan de Paricutin, Michoacan). I baby sat my son at Butte lake while she hiked the Cinder cone. Getting to Butte lake from park center requires almost a 40 minute drive on CA89 and Old Station Road and a 6 miles drive on dust track. Butte lake definitely was very beautiful and calm, set among the volcanic ash on one side and coniferous forest on other. My son and I had great time in the lake swimming in the freezing water, munching snacks on the bank relishing the scenery around. We spent about 3 hours, my wife took a dip in the lake to wash off her fatigue of the hike once she came back. We then head back to our campground after collecting firewood nearby. The park officials recommend to collect firewood instead of buying it in campers store for good reasons - it reduces the chances of fire, it keeps the park cleaner and you get to save quite a lot of money for the firewood at camper's store is very pricey. The charcoal was burnt, the rum was gulped and the food was barbecued and devoured. Quesadillas, carne asada, costillas, pollo rostizados, arracheras, assorted veg barbecue were dished out one after the other.

The next morning, I was up by 6:15 and drove to Lassen Peak trailhead which was a good half hour drive. The trailhead's got a huge parking and restrooms but not water fountains. Lassen peak is the highest peak in the park and is a plug-dome type of volcano. The trail is about 2.5 miles one way, it starts off with easy stretch with few coniferous trees and gradually gets tougher the higher you go. The flora and fauna is impeccably vivid and the view of the landscape keeps changing with every turn on the trail. I found Clark's nutcracker, golden mantled ground squirrels, dark eyed junco and grey jays along the trail. It took about 2 hours for me to reach the summit after having stopped many times for clicking. The view from the top is truly breathtaking - the gigantic crater of Lassen peak filled with snow, snow-clad Shasta peak on one side and an ocean of infinite mountains with hazy tops and numerous extinct volcanoes. It was a bit tough and dangerous scrambling through the rocks to reach the final rocky stretch of the summit. I finished a delicious tuna sandwich prepared by my wife and had lots of fruits, stayed on top for about half hour, before I started my descent.

After the descent, I came back to campground to find my wife and son, we drove slowly on the park main road and stopped at Devastated area interpretive trail which was more like an exhibit with placards displaying some rocks that were tossed off Lassen peak when it erupted in 1915. We stopped over and lazed on the banks of Summit Lake which is a serene lake along the park main road with camping ground besides it. We then hiked Bumpass Hell trail and I could see my son's gonna be a hiker and outdoor lover like me when he grows up. Since it was not a stroller friendly trail, he hiked almost half way on the rocky trail and he just loved it and didn't want to be carried at all. Bumpass Hell trail is about 1.5 miles and an easy one, the last stretch is a bit steep but not too tough.

Bumpass Hell is the most active geothermal area of the park with fumaroles, boiling pools mudpots and steaming ground. When you reach almost the end of Bumpass trail, your nose will be hit with a strong rotten egg smell of sulfurous gases oozing out from the earth and your eyes would notice vivid colours of red and brown and yellow and orange and grey shades of the earth and boiling pools. They've made a wooden pavement in the active area of Bumpass Hell which would lead us closer to boiling pools and mudpots. A bit more technical information about Bumpass Hell could be found here. It doesn't make sense to go to LaVo without stopping by at Bumpass Hell. We then returned to the tents and finished off the rest of the food in ice-box by barbecuing it.

We woke up late and had corn and juice for breakfast, packed and started the drive again on park main road. We stopped at King's creek trail head and started hiking towards King's creek water fall. The trail is a beautiful one that passes along the creek's edge and turns into coniferous forests. Since the regular trail was blocked, we had to take the longer tougher one and it wasn't stroller friendly trail. I decided to baby sit my son after seeing the terrain and asked my wife to continue to the fall. I fed my son with fruits and yogurt and walked him back to the trail head, during which he fell asleep on my shoulder. My wife told me the fall wasn't any great. Our next stop over was at Lake Helen for a few clicks, followed by Sulphur Works.

Sulphur Works is a down scaled version of Bumpass Hell but along the park road, so no need to hike. It's much smaller and there were no fumeroles. There was vivid coloured earth and boiling mud pot and that's about it. After few clicks, we stopped at Kohm Yah-mah-nee visitor center for filling water, using restroom and buying coffee (which they ran out). We then head out of the park and followed the route back to home.

LaVo is definitely a great place to visit. It receives a lot less crowd and attention when compared to Yosemite, but nevertheless it's a nature lover's paradise. LaVo has some terrific views of milky-way on a dark night (we were unfortunate on that front), very diverse fauna and flora, a live laboratory for geologists and beautiful landscapes. I would highly recommend this place for a long weekend.

The magnificent Lassen Peak at Sunrise

A group of friends take a dip in freezing Butte Lake

A Steller's Jay on the banks of Manzanita Lake, a heaven for ornithologists

Tall pine trees along Lily Pond

Sunset at Manzanita Lake

Golden Mantled Ground Squirrels kiss each other

Trail to the moon! Volcanic screes on Lassen Peak

An angler returns to the shore of Manzanita Lake after hours of angling

A calmer mudpot in Bumpass Hell

Lassen Peak from Hat Creek meadow

View of the valley

Snow capped Shasta Peak with Lassen Peak Crater in the foreground

Lassen Landscape

Dark Eyed Junco on Lassen Peak Trail

Lupine's on Bumpass Hell trail

Lassen Peak summit

Vivid earth at Bumpass Hell

Another view of valley

Boiling Mudpot at Sulphur Works

View from Lassen Peak

Clark's Nutcracker on Lassen Peak Trail

Lassen Peak overlooking Helen Lake

Sulfurous smoke at Bumpass Hell

An angler throws his hook at Manzanita lake during dusk

Golden mantled ground squirrel on Lassen Peak Trail

Lassen volcano crater

Lassen park main road

A placard explaining the types of volcanoes that could be found in LaVo

Fleecy clouds over Summit Lake

Bumpass Hell

A blue lagoon at Bumpass Hell

Colorful flora on Lassen Peak

Mudpot at Bumpass Hell

Monterey Bay Aquarium

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 12:14:49 PDT

First of all, profuse thanks to Hariram Purushothaman, who lent his guest passes to the Monterey bay aquarium. Established right on Monterey bay, the aquarium is a treasure house of numerous weird but true sea-creatures. It's the biggest and best aquarium I've very been in my life, takes a minimum of four hours to finish. The jelly fish experience area showcases various jelly fishes from all around the world, the sea horse section displays a plethora of sea-horses and sea-dragons. The Kelp forest houses varieties of sharks and bigger fishes. The fish feeding and sea-otter feeding events are not to be missed. Photography is a bit challenging there due to low light and moving creatures, add to it the fact that usage of tripod is prohibited.

I've also posted few photos of the nature genre in Monterey. I'm not gonna say anything more about the aquarium, go check it out yourself. The official website's got tonnes of information about the aquarium exhibits, events and news updates which can all be accessed by clicking: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/

Natural bridges

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:49:23 PDT

On a sunny Saturday evening, we did a leisure trip to Natural bridges state beach in Santa Cruz and below are the photographs.

Point Reyes and Stinson Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:58:41 PDT

A long pending task to hike the Bear Valley Trail with my son was finally fulfilled over the last weekend. Traffic in San Francisco and road construction on Sir Francis Drake Blvd greatly slowed our journey to Point Reyes. We were at the trail head by 1 in the afternoon, after collecting the map and buying a small souvenir, we started out hike along 4.5 miles long Bear Valley Trail. Despite scorching sun, the hike was pleasant due to profuse canopy all along the trail and the sound of the flowing brook was very soothing. We stopped over for a picnic lunch at Divide Meadows under the shade of a big tree. Divide Meadows has a restroom and couple of trails start from there, however there is no source of water. After lunch we continued our hike to Arch Rock, which took us about an hour and a half with Chinthan hiking at times and maneuvering the stroller along the narrow trail in the last stretch.

The feeling that one usually gets when they reach Arch Rock, after 4.5 miles of hike is a complete awe and ours was no different. A high rise rock overlooking the mighty blue Pacific, with warm sun and cool breeze, Arch Rock definitely offers a beautiful panoramic treat to the eyes. My wife and I took turns to get down the Arch Rock to actually see the arch and the beach. We had to cross a small rivulet to get to the arch and eventually to beach. To cross the arch one has to wait for the waves to recede and run across, else it may get dangerous. The beach in Arch Rock is a bit rough and abyssal, you hardly see too many people entering the beach unlike Stinson or Santa Cruz. Chinthan enjoyed seeing gophers just popping out of their burrows on the Arch Rock. We started our return hike which was faster than onward.

After a short stop at Bolinas lagoon for few clicks, we got stuck badly in the traffic before we could reach Stinson beach. It was golden hour when we reached Stinson beach and the beach just looked lovely basking in the golden sunlight with the backdrop of misty mountains. It was a bit less crowded since it was already late, Chinthan had ball time kick off the waves. I didn't bathe in the beach for I would have missed the golden hour, I kept clicking. We spent about half hour in the beach before we started our drive back home among the foggy, winding CA1.

Photographs from the previous hike in Point Reyes is here.

Misson Peak

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:58:08 PDT

Thanks to Hao Chen for the invitation for Thursday morning Mission Peak hike, the event page here. Roberto and I started the hike at 5:15AM and reached the summit by 6:25AM. The trail is easy and dusty, with no trees/shadows. It's pretty much stroller friendly except for the last stony stretch. We met some Chinese hikers from Bay Area Hikers Club at the summit. The view from the summit was breath taking - auriferous sunrise at one side, pale sky with the full moon shining over the bed of fleecy clouds on the other side. The best time to go to Mission Peak is definitely early morning, or probably late evening for there is absolutely no shade along the trail. We waited for Hao for about 20 minutes and started descending and we met him enroute. He invited us for the breakfast but since we had already started the descent, we skipped it and reached the parking by 7:30AM. It felt great to wake up so early and get some exercise, I hope I could join the event every Thursday.

Carmel, Big Sur, San Luis Obispo and Solvang

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:10:11 PDT

This one is the first official family vacation in the US, just the three of us in our very own car with our very own pace. To me it was a repeat, my first visit photos are here and here, but the feel of the trip was completely different this time - more relaxed, slow paced, lesser importance on photography and more on Chinthan. After I missed all the deals for Las Vegas for the 4th of July vacations, we decided to drive on CA1.

We started off at 9 on Thursday morning, 5th of July, since 4th of July was spent at San Francisco. The weather was quite disheartening for photography all the way upto Carmel - overcast, as a result of which the Pacific looked very dull. We stopped and walked around in the most beautiful "Ocean avenue" at Carmel. The beach didn't look that great due to overcast, the street, nevertheless, was crowded and look very pretty with aesthetic cafes, galleries, restaurants, souvenir shops. We had a quick lunch of breakfast burrito and soup bowl at Carmel Coffee house, before we continued further south on CA1.

After Carmel, the clouds scattered and the sun shone on the Pacific which magically turned from a dull grey to multiple shades of blue. The wild yellow flowers on the shore made the drive even more pleasant. We stopped at almost all major vista points before we stopped for a snack just before Gorda by the sea. We encountered Mr. Lonnie Campbell playing country songs with the rabbit on his head there, which Chinthan greatly enjoyed. An expensive coffee at Gorda by the sea did a lot good till our next break at Piedras Negras for the famous elephant seals. They were a lot more energetic and active this time than I had seen them in winter.

We stopped at Hearst state beach and took a walk on the pier, after which we stopped for one last time on some unnamed beach about 35 miles before San Luis Obispo (SLO) for sunset and we head straight to SLO. Dined at one of the Mexican restaurants, checked into the motel, showered and crashed.

The next morning, we had a yummy breakfast of pancakes and breakfast burrito at Frank's Famous Hot Dogs at the junction of Monterrey St. and California Blvd. after which we head straight to CalPoly (California Polytechnic) and ambled around in the trail that leads to the Poly Canyon to see the architectural structures created by the students. There were structures of different size and shape with horses grazing around, a good sight for my camera. We then walked around the historic downtown of SLO - around Higuera, Monterrey, Santa Rosa, Marsh and Broad streets. We stopped by "Bubble Gum" alley where a zillion chewed bubble gums have been stuck to the wall. After having a heavy Mediterranean food at Jaffa restaurant on Higuera and Toro St. we started our journey to Solvang.

Solvang is a smll touristy town with a Danish feel to it - windmills, bakeries, cafes. We walked around the town, shopped few souvenirs, had a cup of coffee, bought some Danish pastries and returned back to Sunnyvale.

San Francisco on 4th of July

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 12:55:24 PDT

Don't attach too much significance for the title except for the last few photographs of fireworks. I didn't capture any photographs related to 4th of July celebrations or anything, it's just that we went to San Francisco on 4th of July evening. Vivek, Liyan, Chinthan and I thought of seeing the 4th of July fireworks from bay front and head to San Francisco, but in the end it happened that we had to watch it from a narrow street close to Coit tower but not from bay front.

We first stopped at City Hall square and walked around the area which is home to neo-classical buildings - Van Ness-Mc Allister-Hayes-Market st area. It was a pretty sad scene due to holiday, the Market st. was almost closed down and empty except for a Starbucks where we stopped for a coffee. We head to Alamo square to meet the Seven Sisters. Alamo park was busy with people basking the warm afternoon sun enjoying beers and barbecue. Seven sisters were pretty with a warm sunshine on them with the backdrop of the San Francisco skyline as the backdrop.

Our next destination was Twin Peaks, we drove up drooling over the houses on mountain top with a terrific view. To control crowd, a cop had stopped the cars way below the peak, we had to struggle to find a parking on a narrow street. It was windy and very cold and we wore nothing more than a flimsy tee-shirt. We ran up the mountain pushing the stroller to warm up but that didn't help us much. The view of the city was breathtaking, though a bit hazy as usual. After getting enough of views, we were almost dying of cold before we started running down towards car.

We had to spend atleast 30 minutes to find a parking before we sat down at New Lun Ting Cafe for dinner, suggested by Yelp. It took another 40 minutes for them to serve the food which messed up our waterfront view of fireworks. Dinner, no doubt was great and it was quite sometime that I had Tsing Tao beer. By the time we finished dinner and walked out, the sky was already lit by the fireworks. We rushed towards Coit tower to get an elevated view, roads were too crowded, I just had to pull over in some place to watch the fireworks. It was only for about 10 minutes we watched before it came to an end and we were a bit disappointed that we couldn't watch the fireworks from waterfront, however the evening was well spent and below are the photographs.

Tioga Road and Mono Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:33:08 PDT

After a tiring Half Dome hike, the second day in Yosemite was spent driving on Tioga road all the way upto Mono lake. Tioga road has got innumerable lakes, some of them along the road and some could be reached after a hike. It also houses many vista points (Olmstead point being the famous one) , trail heads and the famous Tuolumne Meadows. The section of Highway 120 in between Big Oak Flat Road and Highway 395 is Tioga road and this section is closed during winters. We did an easy drive stopping at many vista points and lakes, while our final destination was Mono lake. By the time we reached Mono lake, it was about 2 in the afternoon and sun was shining hot and bright. We entered the lake from South Tufas which has an entry fee of $2 per person. We grabbed some beers and watermelon to the lake which is about 15 min walk from the parking. The specialty of Mono lake is gigantic Tufa columns (somewhat like stalagmites) and its special eco-system of brine-shrimp and alkaline flies which forms major food source for birds. We spent about an hour and a half at the lake guzzling beers and finishing watermelon under the burning sun, before starting our journey back.

I was quite disappointed in terms of photography for the day was extremely bright and with no traces of cloud, the sky looked very boring.

Half dome from Olmstead Point on Tioga Road

Tenaya Lake

Tufas at Mono Lake

Elery Lake

Trace of snow even in summer around Elery Lake

Half Dome Hike

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 00:19:55 PDT

During our first visit to half dome in winter, we decided that we were gonna come back for Half Dome, the trails of which were closed for the season. We missed the big lottery pool for permits by just a couple of days, we applied for a permit on Friday night to hike on Monday (to avoid crowd) and waited all day on Saturday while we shopped for the trip. The shopping list was huge and by no way it looked like a backpacker's list - charcoal, firewood, meat, bread, lettuce, tomato, ham, avocado (for gourmet sandwiches), tortillas, salsa, beers, carrot juice, lemons, shallots, chips, watermelon!.... By Sunday morning we still had not heard back from recreation.gov about our permits, no mail, no phone call, we just went.

We had a reservation at Crane Flat camping grounds which we cancelled in the last moment when we got space at Camp 4 camping grounds very close to Yosemite valley. The evening was spent with a small hike to Mirror Lake followed by raising the tents and beers and barbecue.

An alarm in the neighbouring tent woke me up at 3:30AM while mine was set to 4:30. I tried to fall asleep but couldn't, just spent an hour lying in the bed till my alarm fired. By 5:30, we were ready, all packed and prepared for the hike. My knapsack consisted of 2.5 liters of water, a bottle of Gatorade, a bottle of Ensure protein drink, 2 sandwiches, lots of energy bars, some fruits and my 20D with 17-40/4L and 70-200/4L. We drove from Camp 4 to Happy Isles and started our hike exactly at 5:50AM on dot. The first part of the hike was the easiest, a walk from parking to John Muir trail which was super plain and easy. Then a stretch of steep tarmac, with mountains on one side and river on the other, leads to the bridge which gives a first sight of Vernal fall. The 0.6 mile Mist trail starts after the bridge with John Muir trial deviation as well. The Mist trail is called so due to the mist generated by Vernal fall. The view of the fall is terrific and the trail has many steep steps to climb before it takes you to the top of the fall. This trail is closed during winter, Vernal and Nevada falls could be reached by John Muir trail then.

Nevada fall is another 20min easy stretch from Vernal fall. We didn't stop too long at any of these places since we had done it during our previous hike. We continued to the top of Nevada fall and took a break to see around. The next part is an easy, sandy stretch along the Merced river in Little Yosemite Valley floor after which the steep trails run through the forests. After hiking about 3 miles and shooting a bear, we reached the bottom of the subdome where we were stopped by the ranger to check permits. He checked for our names in his tablet, he couldn't find and he didn't let us in. He was kind enough to give us another option to check with hikers if they extra permits, they could just hitch hike us in. We had to wait for half our to find someone who had extra permits.

The sub-dome hike is a tough one with countless number of steps with a very steep elevation and completely open with no trace of shade. We were at the cables once we climbed the sub-dome. You find a pile of gloves discarded by hikers at the start of cables you could pick any that fits you and start the most interesting part of the hike - the cables. The terrain is vertical and two cables run parallel to each other using which you gotta conquer half dome. It's exciting! You feel as though you're climbing to the top of the world using these cables. It's scary if you've got fear of heights, it's tiring especially for the hands for it has to haul the weight of your body up. It took us exactly 20min to reach the summit of half dome. All the pain and tiredness disappeared magically once we were on the top. The view from the top is breathtaking. Rocky mountains all around, some with traces of snow on them even in peak summer, some covered with pine trees, most completely bald and open. The area on the summit is quite big offering views of Yosemite valley, El Capitan and many other small domes. We spent a quality hour on the summit - clicked few photos, had our sandwiches, fruits, walked around before we head back to the cables.

The descent was definitely more scary and dangerous than ascent. The rocks were super slippery and our hands couldn't be just removed from the cable even for a jiffy. It was almost like a controlled, slow motion bunjee jumping. It took 8 minutes to descend, the very thought of the return journey reeled our heads and tired us more. The sub-dome descent, the long descent down to Little Yosemite valley, the slow gait on the sands of valley floor, going down two waterfalls and the last stretch of tarmac, walk back to parking were all still pending for us to finish the hike. We walked back slowly taking enough breaks. The mist trail felt just heavenly in the afternoon sun, it mitigated the tiredness to a great extent. At 6:10PM, I pressed the unlock button of my car key! Our legs were lifeless but the very fact that we ticked off half dome from the "To Do" list elated us. We came back to Camp 4 and hit the shower at Curry Village which was followed by beers and barbecue.

Below are some videos shot from my iPhone:

Sunnyvale Art and Wine Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 23:58:48 PDT

Few street shots from Sunnyvale Art and Wine Festival that was held on 2nd and 3rd June at Sunnyvale Historic Downtown.

Hiking in Yosemite

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:13:06 PST

After procrastinating it by few weeks, we finally hiked in Yosemite for which we prepared ourselves by hiking local mountains. The plan to leave office by 3:30 was completely changed and we left an hour later, thanks to Roberto and Umesh. By the time I picked up everyone and revved the SUV towards Yosemite officially it was 7 in the evening. After a sumptuous dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Santa Nella and picking up coffee at drive-in Starbucks, I drove non-stop to Yosemite view lodge at El Portal. We checked in showered and crashed.

We were up by 6 and were out by 7 for getting some golden hour shots, but the lights and clouds played beautiful drama over the mighty Yosemite valley. There were patches of light falling on the valley wall and the Yosemite fall and the clouds diffused the light beautifully on the meadows in the center. There were a herd of photographers covering this natural drama and I joined them. We then head to the parking at Lower Yosemite, had a look at the Lower Yosemite fall and started our Upper Yosemite hike. The hike is long, steep, strenuous but definitely picturesque. After a break for having the tortas that we had packed at the Mexican restaurant on the previous night, we continued to the top. The mountain tops had fresh snow and was completely obscured by the fog. Only a small patch of waterfall was visible from the summit of Upper Yosemite. After relaxing there over energy bars and fruits, we continued our hike to Yosemite point. The hike was fully among the snow and it was just the way I had pictured in my mind. At Yosemite point again, the fog formed a heavy veil which, luckily, was torn by the winds only for few seconds and gave a glimpse of the beautiful valley. We then resumed our descent which was a heavy toll on our knees and thighs and seemed never ending. We started the hike at 9 in the morning and by the time we touched back the trail head it was 6 in the evening, a normal office hours long. We grabbed a coffee at the food court and went back to the hotel and showered away all the sweat and fatigue and head out to Mariposa for dinner.

The next day we were up early, had a heavy, healthy breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel, checked out and head out towards Yosemite. We wanted to do Mist Trail, but were disappointed to know that it was closed during winter. We stopped by at the river side ahead of the valley and I got lucky with the rainbow on Yosemite fall and a beautiful reflection of it on the water. It looked like a handwork of an impressionist painter with beautiful hues artfully distorted by the water surface. We then head to Happy Isles parking and head out towards Vernal fall. It was a pleasant elevation on the asphalt all the way up to the bridge. From the bridge, we get a distant view of Vernal fall and the Mist trail starts. Since it was closed, we decided to take the longer trail to Vernal fall and we were glad we did that. We got a very different view of the Yosemite valley and we encountered snow again on the mountain top. As we proceeded towards the fall, the snow gradually turned to ice and it became slippery. The view of the Vernal fall was splendid and also Nevada fall showed up at the distance. We went to Emerald Pool and Silver Apron just above Vernal fall and finally reached the top of the Vernal fall which has safety railings. The feeling was literally "Top of the world", you're standing right next to a roaring fall and have the vista of the pine tree covered valley in front of your eyes. From there we head to Nevada fall which was another 45min hike. The beauty of reaching the bottom of the Nevada fall is the gigantic boulders that you have to cross by jumping, scrambling, crawling and pouncing on the rocks. The bottom of Nevada fall had a huge iceberg underneath of which the water flowed. After few clicks we hurried our way back with the hope of getting a glimpse of Fire Fall, the famous event that happens in the month of February, in which the light hits Yosemite fall in a particular angle during sunset that makes the fall look like a falling flame, but we were unlucky. The clouds had completely veiled the sun and I got was the landscape with fleecy dark clouds. We then grabbed the same coffee from the same food court, had dinner at the same restaurant at Mariposa and drove back in the rain.

Hiking in Point Reyes

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:25:11 PST

Saturday morning at 7 I received a call from Roberto which was quite surprising, a Mexican waking up at 7 on a weekend morning! He told me "No te levantas todovia? Voy a pasar por ti en trienta minutos" (Not awake yet? I'm gonna be there in thirty minutes). Cursing him for waking me up that early, I got out of bed and was ready in fourty minutes and he took exactly sixty minutes to reach. Almost by a toss of a coin we decided if our destination was Mt. Diablo or Point Reyes and we decided on the latter since the former was tougher and for both of us it was quite a while that we had hiked and kept the former for the weekends to come.

We drove for two hours with a coffee break at San Francisco to reach Point Reyes National Seashore. We wanted to do Palomarin trail but we ended up at Bear Valley trailhead. After collecting the map and required information at the information center at the trailhead we started our hiking exactly at 11:00AM. Instead of taking the conventional and easy Bear Valley trail, we deviated to Mt. Wittenberg trail and there was a steep hike for first one hour till we reached the summit of Mt. Wittenberg. The view from the top was breathtaking - pine trees in the foreground and blue Pacific in the background.

We then took Sky Trail to reach Arch rock area which was a good three hours hiking. The view of the Pacific kept changing as we walked with beautiful stony islands at the horizon and a spectacular play of light on the blue waters. We reached Arch Rock area by around 3PM and it was crowded with hikers. Arch Rock is an overlook point which has a terrific view of the Pacific, it's an outstretched piece of elevated land over the beach. There is a small rocky trail that takes you down to the cove which is a bit of an adventure. One has to cross the creek holding the rocks and go down to reach the actual arch which forms a small estuary opening to the beach. I believe its hard to reach this place if the tides are high. Even though it's a tad tough and adventurous to reach this place, I personally felt this is the best part of the whole hike. I so missed my tripod there but could get a couple of reasonable shots handheld.

With a couple of energy bars and water, our energies were pretty much drained out but we still had 4 miles of Bear Valley Trail to hike to reach to the trailhead. We talked about camping, about babes, about bikes, about movies, about music and somehow finished it. Our legs were sore but hearts were happy for the fatigue of the hike, we drove down to Novato to refuel the car and ourselves with some delicious comida Mexicana serverd by a beautiful chica Mexicana in Novato and drove back home.

San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:24:04 PST

San Francisco is paradise for photographers, be it street, people, art, architecture, landscapes et. al. Here are few photographs from a couple of previous visits.

Good bye

noreply@blogger.com (Sachin Bharadwaj) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:28:58 PST

My dearest friend AH,

You've bereaved me today so badly in this alien country. I reckoned you to be one of my closest friends in this country and how could you desert me out of the blue like this? I cried my heart out for your departure, I have no more tears left, my eyes are dry and sorrow is all I have in my heart.

We both biked together, we both were into photography, we both were fans of jazz music, we loved soujouk wraps at the corner Mediterranean restaurant, we both spoke passionately about our family, we argued about Linux vs. Windows. Who am I gonna continue all this with?

You were supposed to suggest me a good mountain bike, you were supposed to have dosa with my family, you were supposed to share Armenian music, you were supposed to bring me baklava prepared by your mom, we were supposed to travel together, we were supposed to do this year's help portrait in bay area...you've left with me with too many unfulfilled promises!

We became close friends in no time and in no time you left me alone. The office seems deathly silent to me. I miss your jokes, your laughter, your questions, your ideas and most importantly your presence. You don't know the extent of melancholy that you've brought me today.

May your soul rest in peace and may your family have enough strength to cope up through the situation!

Miss you,

Sachin