CARNAVAL!

Rio!

When we started our year-long trip, one of our big objectives was to make it to the Rio Carnaval (Picasa link). We never really got around to planning for it, and it was finally in December, while we were sitting with our feet up in India, that we decided to look into the Carnaval. Well, tickets we selling out fast and we barely managed to get tickets to it. And so, two months later, on a warm Miami night we took off for Brazil. About 24 hours later, weary from an overnight flight and then a 8 hr. bus ride from Sao Paulo, we finally got to Rio. We were staying with Roberto, a fellow traveler we had met in Turkey, and it was with considerable relief we entered his house and crashed. The next morning we woke up to views of Corcovado and Pao de Acucar - two of Rio's most iconic sights. You see, Roberto lives on the 21st floor of a high-rise right between the two peaks and is ideally placed to enjoy them both.

Bloco madness!

First things first though - it was the official start of the Carnaval and Roberto insisted we make our way over to a 'bloco'. Blocos are parties that decades ago started off with just a couple of friends and their drums and drinks, making their way around the neighborhood. They quickly out-grew that phase and are now serious affairs that can easily include over 10,000 participants. For those from Pune, think Ganapati visarjan from each of the 'peths'. For those from the US, think wild University Halloween parties, but on a scale that's unimaginable. There are over 100 such blocos taking place all around Rio over the course of a week. We headed to one of the older ones, the Santa Teresa bloco, which wound its way through the old, historic and beautiful neighborhood of Santa Teresa. We spent the next couple of hours following the band around, dancing for a bit and trying to not get trampled apon, before the heat and crazy crowds got too much.

Realizing that we probably needed some peace and quiet, Roberto then took us to the best place possible - the Parque de Tijuca. The park, formed in the latter part of the 19th century, is the largest urban forest in the world and its location means that you can escape to it within 10 minutes from almost anywhere in Rio. We spent the next two hours checking out stunning vistas of the city and doing a short walk to a waterfall. After a spot of lunch at a typical Brazilian 'kilo restaurant', we then retired to the fabulous Ipanema beach for sunset - and unintentionally got caught up in another bloco. Thus ended a packed day in Rio.

Need's no introduction

Another day, another bloco. This time it was in Centro and the parade culminated into a gigantic open air samba concert. After extricating ourselves, we took the funicular up Corcovado, to do as all tourists do - to see the famous statue of 'Christ the Redeemer', the symbol of Rio. We managed to time it well enough that we caught the last of the daylight, and then enjoyed stunning views of the city lit up at night.


Finally, dawned the big day. We were heading to the big Carnaval that night and in preparation, spent the afternoon in the peaceful environs of the botanical garden. After getting home and packing some sandwiches we headed to the Sambadrome. A few lines on the how the Rio Carnival works. There are 12 schools that strut their stuff over two days (six on each). Each school makes its way down the Sambadrome - think six football fields lined up end to end - and each school gets an hour to do that. The schools are judged on a number of criterion, including, theme, costume, dance, singing, crowd appeal, and timing. The last two teams from each year are relegated to the second division for the next while the top two from the second division make it to the first. There's big money and prestige in being one of the top twelve, and as a result the competition is intense. We got there in just in time to watch the first school, Sao Clemente, make their way down the Sambadrome.

CARNAVAL!!

The next eight hours were an assault on the senses and we enjoyed every minute of it. At 4.30AM as things were finally winding down, we escaped the madness, and caught the subway home. A deep slumber ensued and we woke up to post-Carnaval blues to try and figure out how we were going to spend the rest of our days in Rio.

It was bloody hot in Rio and so, on one of the days we decamped to the hills, specifically Petropolis. Petropolis was built in the 19th century and served as the summer residence for the Emperor and later the government - and its not too hard to see why. Only an hour from Rio, its a beautiful town high in the mountains. Stepping off the bus, one would think you've stepped into small-town Europe. As it was built for the Emperor, it has all the trappings of a quaint European town. Think Cathedral, canals and the obligatory palace, and we spent a happy and cool day exploring the town.

The rest of our days in Rio were occupied by walking around the neighborhoods and of course, laying on the beaches. The juxtaposition of high granite peaks and beaches is something that is unique to Rio and is what makes it such a stunning city. For example, on our last day in Rio, we hiked up a peak with a naval fort at the top, called Forte de Leme, to enjoy some views of the harbor and the city. Feeling the heat we made our way down and walked right onto Copacabana, for a refreshing dip in the Atlantic. There's just so much to see in the city, that even 10 days proved quite inadequate and its with a heavy heart that we took its leave.

Next up is Salvador and the Bahian culture. From what I understand, its even hotter up there.

- Ashish

Right ho! After spending a fair chunk of time at home in India, it was time to hit the road again. But we weren't quite ready as yet..so we decided on spending a few days at our home away from home - Nirupa & Steve's (Aunt & Uncle) place in Miami. My cousins Peter and his wife, Kristin, along with Kristin's family, joined us in Miami for the weekend too, and we had a great time together. Some of the highlights were - Nirupa Atya's cooking, Uncle Steve's made-fresh-daily-home-made bread, attending Puccini's opera, 'La Rondine', and a picnic at the open air concert of the New World Symphony. Taking advantage of the awesome weather, we decided on heading to the Everglades for some canoeing. We proceeded to canoe through Nine Mile pond and were just admiring the perfect weather, when we were dumped on by a short but intense shower. Thus passed by 5 idyllic days in Miami.

Hiking up Pacaya

From Miami it was onto Guatemala (Picasa link) and having heard not too good things about the capital city, we promptly hightailed it to Antigua. Antigua was the capital city for the past five centuries and was where the Spaniards setup base when they made their way over in the 16th century. The result is a city choc-a-bloc with historic buildings and churches, built over the centuries by Spanish rulers and missionaries. Antigua in the 17th and 18th centuries suffered the indignities of multiple earthquakes that left most of the churches in a state of ruin and you certainly seem to run into one really frequently. However, and this is why the city will always be a firm favorite, it is surrounded by five volcanoes that lie in various states ranging from dormant to active, and each and every one of them is climbable. Upon reaching Antigua in the evening we dumped our bags at our hosts' place and made plans for climbing Pacaya - one of the dormant ones. The next day saw us waking up at the crack of dawn and making our way up the volcano. Steam vents are to be found on the higher reaches and our guide made a big show of toasting bread and roasting marshmallows up there. We then spent a very agreeable afternoon wandering around town, exploring the various ruins and checking out the few buildings that were still upright.

Told you there were no roofs!

We next made our way over to Lago de Atitlan. In keeping with the volcanic theme, the lake is ringed by no fewer than seven volcanoes, though we stuck to the lake shore this time round. The lake has really nice small towns, that, in a few cases, are only accessible by water and we spent the next couple of days here. One of the days we decided to hike from San Marcos, where we'd spent the night, to Santa Cruz, a town a couple of miles along the coast. The path was high above the water-line and we enjoyed stunning views of the lake framed by volcanoes throughout the hike. After gorging on avocado and pineapple smoothies and nachos at Santa Cruz we then caught the launch back to San Marcos. Heading out from the lake the next day, we were still undecided on our next destination, so we headed back to Antigua to figure out our course of action.

After a bit of research, we finally settled on the Mayan ruins of Copan in Honduras. As is with these things, the actual ruins are called Copan while the town outside the ruins is called Copan Ruinas, which is where we headed to the next day. The ruins made for a fabulous morning of walking around and the on-site museum could not have been put together any better. Hats off to the Hondurans for putting together a really informative and interesting site. From Copan, it was back to Guatemala, specifically Livingston. Livingston's history bears special mention. The town is populated by the descendents of slaves that were bought over from the Caribbeans by the Europeans in the 17th century.

Casa Rosada

Livingston, being semi-isolated from the mainland, resulted in the development of an independent populace and culture, called Garifuna. The people look different, speak a different language and the food's different too. The plan was to spend a day or two here before moving on, but then came Casa Rosada. We had no bookings when we got to Livingston, and based off some online reviews, walked over to a hotel by the name of Casa Rosada to inquire about their availability and prices. It was love at first sight. The place consists of a main house and 10 small shacks - all on the water-front. They have a jetty running into the water with a small open hut at the end, in which are slung a couple of hammocks. Our day and half stay quickly turned into four. At only one point did we even attempt something more strenuous than lowering ourselves into a hammock - a long walk along the beach to a series of seven pools called, predictably, Siete Altares. The rest of our stay was occupied reading, surfing the net, and figuring out where we were having dinner. On day five we finally roused ourselves and made our way up the Rio Dulce to Finca Tatin - a basic hotel in the jungle. So basic, in fact, that they didn't even have electricity. Still, we had a good time there and met quite a few interesting travelers, who we sat swapping travel stories with well into the night.

Ole King Jaguar's Temple

Onto our final destination in Guatemala, the ancient city of Tikal. Tikal is regarded by many to be one of the most important Mayan ruins around and we decided to honor that opinion. We managed to get ourselves talked into an early morning tour and found ourselves at 4.30AM the next day, piling into a van heading to the ruins. I did say it was early! Tikals' heydays were from the 7th to the 14th century, and man, did they go on a building spree. Similar to Angkor Wat, each ruler felt the need to immortalize himself, and the ruins are filled with pyramid shaped temples, each bigger than the previous one. After the civilization collapsed in the 14th century, the jungle took over and covered all traces of a city, that at one point housed over 200,000 people. The ruins were only discovered in the 19th century and its only in the last 70 years that formal archeological work has been carried out at the site. The entire site is still under heavy vegetation and it makes for a pleasant surprise to round the corner and come face to face with a 200 foot temple. We spent a few hours tagging along with our guide and then the next few wandering around the site on our own. After having shot a boatload of picture we made our way back to Flores (the base town for Tikal). From there we caught the overnight bus to Guatemala city and then the flight back to Miami. Another two days of R&R with the family and then its onto the last big leg of our journey - four months in S.America!

- Ashish