worldtour

Peru - Rock of the Puma

Lake Titicaca - yes, we all used to snicker at the name as kids.   But even the tour guides here get into the act!   It actually means 'rock of the puma' and is pronounced ´titi-kha-kha´ which gives it a much different meaning than the other choice!  The lake lies at 12,500 feet (3,810 m) above sea level in the Andes Mountains of South America, astride the border between Peru to the west and Bolivia to the east. Titicaca is the second largest lake of South America (after Maracaibo) and is considered the highest navigable lake in the world.  It covers some 3,200 square miles (8,300 square km) and extends in a northwest-to-southeast direction for a distance of 120 miles (190 km)! It is 50 miles (80 km) across at its widest point. A narrow strait, Tiquina, separates the lake into two bodies of water.   The photo above is of the waves as our boat went forward on the lake.

We flew into Juliaca and then took a collectivo mini-bus down to Puno.  Puno is known to be divided into three parts - the Aymara speaking, the Quecha speaking and Spanish.   These days, most of the Aymara have intermarried with the Uros and now the people on the floating islands speak mostly Spanish (also because Spanish is spoken throughout most of Peru).

The city of Puno itself doesn't have much beyond its main drag, Calle Lima, which has several good restaurants and bars.  But the real highlight was the visit to the Floating Islands and the Sillustani funerary towers. The floating islands are all made from reeds or totoras that grow all through Lake Titicaca.  The people that live on the islands are known as the Uros.  The islands are abuot 2-3 meters thick with a spongy surface...all the houses and structures on the islands are made from these reeds.    The reeds are used for all sorts of additional things, including food (the center of the reed is a good source of iodine), thatching for huts, building material for boats, building material for shoes & clothes and more!  Smruti immediately got down to housekeeping duties, as you can see from the photo!

These days, the islanders use solar panels to get their power, so on another on of the islands, there was a small post office, a hospital and school.  The boats look like Viking ships with their fierce looking figureheads.  The Uros had moved to the floating islands during the Inca period to to isolate themselves from the Inca invasion and to avoid paying any taxes.  But now many leave after school to go to the mainland.  We also visited the primary school which had a solar-powered computer! 

The same afternoon, we took a tour of the funerary towers at Sillustani.  Apparently, the towers are built in the shape of an uterus based on the pre-Inca belief of pacha mama (earth mother) and that people were buried in fetal position in order to be prepared for re-birth.  The largest of these towers is 12 meters high--the only way in is a small passageway that faces east.  It's a wild, bleak place.  you can see the towers from miles away. 

We would have stayed and explored further but got caught in a sudden lightening and hail storm-- thought it would be safer to be away from high exposed places!  We did see the rain approaching from miles away.  Apart from Brazil, this is the only place I´ve seen the streams of rain from far away (as opposed to seeing it fall on myself).  From Puno, we took a bus down to Arequipa.  On the way, we saw some fantastic landscapes consisting of lakes and snow-clad mountains.  We even caught a rainbow on our camera! 

- Smruti

Peru - Ucan sutipa'h Machu Pichu

Peru is our last stop on our round-the-world trip!  Our plan is to do part of the "gringo trail", going to Cusco/Machu Pichu, Arequipa and Puno/Lake Titicaca before heading to the Northern Highlands (Cajamarca).  This is the rainy season so we could not do the 4-day Inca Trail hike to Machu Pichu... can't say whether I'm happy or sad about this!

We stayed in Lima just one night - everybody we'd spoken to, prior to travelling to Peru, told us to minimize our stay in Lima.  So other than seeing parts of Lima (such as the rich suburb & beaches of Miraflores and the Plaza del Armas), we did just that.  Flights in Peru are very easy to get - several competing airlines keep the prices low as well - the opposite of what we saw in Brazil.  The only memorable thing about Lima was the heightened warning in our guide book about crime in Lima.  We were warned not to take any valuables with us.  We followed orders.

We immediately took a flight to Cusco or Qusqo, the legendary capital of the Inca civilization.  The Inca empire was divided into 4 zones (N, S, E, W) and Cusco was the center of this empire - Cusco means 'navel' in Quechua, the Inca language.  Quechua is alive and well today as a language, as is Aymara which was spoken by the Pre-Inca civilizations.  Castillian Spanish is the uniting language in Peru.

Cusco is built on hills and has several beautiful historic sites, mostly dating from the Spanish conquest, as opposed to Inca or Pre-Inca times.  We saw the Cathedral, various Inca walls (which is all that's left of the Inca structures - see photo to the left), the Inca Museum, Coricancha Museum and various other museums.  Needless to say, we were quite museumed-out by the end of this day!  We were also accosted at every corner by vendors selling sweaters, finger puppets, woolen hats and other handicrafts-quite cheap compared to what you see being sold int he tourist shops.  And finally, we slowly got acclimatized to the altitude - Cusco is at a height of 3800 meters - this is the height at which we spent two nights on Mt. Kilimanjaro as we were all getting severe headaches. 

We also went to see a dance program put on by the cultural institure of Cusco.  Several traditional folk-dances were performed, with colorful costumes, including the beautifully embroidered skirts & hats worn by the women.  It was still a bit odd to see the women wearing what looked like bowler hats...  Several dances involved sticks...hmm Inca dandia, anyone?

We also went to see four Inca sites just outside Cusco - Sacsayhuaman (pronounced "sexy woman"), Qenko, Puca Pucara and Tambo Machay.  Sacsayhuaman is an Inca fort which was the site of the last stand of the last Inca (Manco Inca) against Pizarro's conquistadores.  Puca Pucara is an interesting rock, with caves and sacrificial altars.  It has zigzag channels leading away from the sacrificial altars, presumably to carry away the blood (see photo on the left)!

The highlight of our visit to Cusco was the trip to Machu Pichu, of course.  We took a 4-hour train to Aguas Calientes (30 minutes from Machu Pichu).  The magnificent Uribamba river (which empties into the Amazon) was raging along beside us - the rainy season had increased its water volume greatly. The Peruvian national railway has a monopoly on the train to Machu Pichu (there are no roads whatsoever) and therefore charges monstrous prices.  Our train broke down along the way - the Peruvians have a separate 'tren local' or local train for the non-tourists where the price is much much lower.   Our carriage had a huge bunch of Japanese tourists plus various other South Americans and North Americans.  On our RTW trip, other than Paris, this is the one place where we've seen US tourists.  Many of the tourists had come to Peru just to see Machu Pichu - they were not visiting any other place in Peru!

It was raining but the mist cleared up enough for us to see the site and the two mountains bracketing the site.  It´s quite a spectacular sight - various temples (Sun, Moon, Condor etc.), houses, terraced fields and more.  Nobody quite knows what the purpose of Machu Pichu was as the Incas did not have any written records.  The site itself was discovered in the early 1900´s by a professor from Yale University - he carted off all the valuables back to the US.

Our guide at Machu Pichu insisted on telling us that Machu Pichu is becoming a very important stop for people interested in mysticism.  Apparently, the center of mystical energy on earth is moving from the Himalayas to Machu Pichu this decade - he followed this up with a resounding "Om."  He made us put our heads inside the alcoves/niches of the walls of Machu Pichu and say whatever came into our heads in order to hear the echoes and reverberations.  He also gave us a mini-lecture on the seven chakras of the human body.  I´m quite impressed that this idea from India has travelled all the way to Machu Pichu!

The guide also showed us the site where women were sacrificed to appease the gods.  Apparently, the most beautiful women were chosen, starved for a couple of weeks, drugged with chicha (local alcoholic brew) and then sacrified with a blow to the left temple.  80% of the skeletons found buried ceremonially in Machu Pichu are of women.  The photo to the far left is of the Temple of the Condor (the beak is at the front and the two rock formations in the back are supposed to represent the wings).  The photo on the right is the hilltop where they did their sacrifices.

We saw several llamas grazing on the terraces of Machu Pichu.  No need to let the grassy terraces go to waste, I guess!  We also took a 30 minute walk to an Inca drawbridge that seemed to go nowhere!  I almost got vertigo just looking at the precarious location of the drawbridge.  The drawbridge is the black & white photo to the left.

Moving on from Machu Pichu, our experience with food here in Peru has been pretty good.  The photo is of our time at a great restaurant called Witch´s Garden in Cusco.  For Smruti, there has been fresh juices  and vegetarian adapted Peruvian food (including lomo saltado made with soy, etc. and of course she got the recipe).  As for me, I´ve had alpaca steak (alpaca is a cameloid just like the llama) and ceviche (raw octopus, clams, fish, etc. served with lime and onions).  There is much more (cuy or guinea pig, etc.).  I am a bit leery of going beyond this though, especially after one Japanese tourist whom we met insisted on telling us that he was on a six-month gastronomic trip around the world where he had eaten fried tarantula legs (in Vietnam), dog, camel, snake, frog and finally, in Nairobi, elephant, zebra, crocodile, lion, and peacock!  I typed "fried tarantula" into google and actually got a bunch of listings, including a treatise on the vitamins and minerals in tarantula.  Too much information!  In case you are interested, here are some of those links on tarantula: passport, weird foods and treatise.    Yuck!

And if you´re still wondering what the title of this blog (Ucan sutipa'h Machu Pichu) means, it is an Aymara phrase for ´It is called Machu Pichu.´

- Dev

Brazil - Booooooooooooooo...

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We spent 5 days in Buzios, a beach resort town about 3 hours north of Rio.  According to the marketeers, Buzios became famous when Brigitte Bardot spent a summer there with her Brazilian boyfriend.  Previously, we had planned on going to Foz de Iguacu (waterfalls) and the Pantanal (marshland with lots of wildlife) but a timing mistake prevented us from getting the Brazil airpass which one can buy only outside of Brazil.  We had no problem getting to Buzios - Brazil has a great network of comfortable buses which run on time (quite unexpectedly!) to all corners of Brazil. 

Our goal in Buzios was to get certified for open water diving, something that we had wanted to do in Thailand but did not do because of the tsunami. Bernd and his brother, Jan, were very helpful in this respect and referred us to a well-reputed dive-shop in Buzios named Casa Mar (pronouced 'kashamah') run by Marcos Dias (known as Kupeu around town).  Kupeu turned out to be great instructor and we would highly recommend him if you happen to need open water certification.

Our lessons were conducted in the ocean near a beach in about 7-8 meters of water. We had the usual problems of learning how to equalize our internal pressure with the ambient water pressure (through the valsalve movement) - without this, our eardrums would collapse - how nice!  We also got to know how to put on all the equipment (wetsuit, tank, buoyancy compenstor jacket, regulator, timer, pressure gauge, flippers, mask...).  One of the keys is to breathe regularly in the water with a normal inhalatation and then a long exhalation (sounds like 'Booooooooooooo'). 

On our last day, we took the boat out to Ilha A___ (can't remember the name!) for our big dive!  We spent about 4 hours there.  We dove to about 23 meters depth.  The water was warm on top and ice cold further near the bottom!  We had a bunch of other divers with us also.  We saw moray eels, turtles (I swam along with it and touched the shell!), twenty types of fish, octopuses (octupii??) and crabs!  On the way back, we sighted several dolphins which swam along with the boat for several minutes!

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Well, after five days of theory lessons and diving classes in the sea, we are now certified to dive in open water up to a depth of 25 meters!  We got the PDIC certification (Professional Diving Instructors Corporation) which is equivalent to the PADI certification and is accepted around the world.  Our only regret is that we hadn't gotten our diving certification earlier - we could have gone diving in some of the best places in the world on our RTW trip - Red Sea (Egypt), New Zealand, South Africa, India, Spain, France etc.  Anyway...

We spent the days on the beach and in training and the evenings going around the restaurants and bars of Buzios, listening to bossanova and noisy crowds (and me with Brigitte Bardot! - see photo to the left).  Huge crowds there with music and dancing going on until 6am!  Quite insane! Also, too many speedos around here!  Time to move back to Rio and then on to Peru!

- Dev

Brazil - Carnaval!

Wow!  Carnaval in Rio - something I've been dreaming about for a long time!  Even as we were taking the bus to Ipanema right after landing in Rio, we could see the partying along the beaches in Copacabana and Ipanema.  The sea-front hotels were gleaming and the whole city looked quite nice.

Next morning, Bernd, my classmate from business school, called us as he had come down to Rio from Sao Paolo along with his wife, Valeria, and their two kids Steffen and Thomas.  Throughout our stay in Rio, Bernd and Valeria were very hospitable and took a lot of time out of their stay in Rio to show us around and make us feel very comfortable in Brazil.  Thanks to them for doing this!

Bernd took us around to Corcovado which was completely jam-packed and then also to a street party (banda) along the beach in Ipanema.  Along the way, we stopped at Chaika's for a quick lunch - Brazil has a ton of great desserts, supposedly because it used to have a lot of sugar plantations.  The banda was LOUD and RAUCOUS. A truck was moving along with three or four singers on it singing at the top of their voices, completely off-key.  There was also a little tiny guitar that sounded like a banjo.  There was a guy dressed as spiderman on the roof of the truck.  A huge crowd was streaming along behind and in front of the truck and everybody was generally having a good time.  The beach was packed at the same time with tons of vendors selling cold beer and soft-drinks moving along with the crowd.

That evening, Smruti and I took the metro from Copacabana to Prinze right next to the sambadrome in Rio Centro.  The metro was packed with performers who were going to be part of the samba school parades.  There was a pack fo 20 Canadians who had flown down to Rio to practice and then take part in the Unidos de Tijuca samba school.  We have been told that this requires USD1000!  The Canadians had mostly given up trying to memorize the lyrics of the Unidos de Tijuca song and were just focused on dancing around and having a good time.

Near the sambadrome, we scouted around for tickets and got them from a scalper for a grand price of USD10 per person.  Our seats were near the end of the sambadrome (which is just a mile-long straight road with bleachers on each side).  We were there from 1am to 5am and the crowd was getting even bigger when we left at 5am!  We saw two samba schools go by (Unidos de Tijuca and Manguera).  Each samba school had over 1000 performers and 4 or 5 big floats - a huge production!  The floats included vampire cakes (with vamp ires appearing through doors every few seconds), bird floats (with 200 performers dressed as birds), a Planet of the Apes float (with many performers dressed in nothing) etc.  Every few minutes one of the dancers walking along with the floats would break into samba - we tried to follow along but gave up after some time.  Each samba school has a song written and produced specifically for each carnaval... they are sung by everybody in the crowd at the top of everybody's voices - the 2005 samba lyrics are at: Unidos de Tijuca and Mangueira.

Next day, Bernd and Valeria invited us to Bernd's parents place - we had a very nice lunch there.  They then took us to nice beach which was a bit further away from the tourist crowds and therefore quieter.  It was surrounded on three sides by a mountain range which made the setting very beautiful! 

That evening, we met up with Selma, Bianca and Bruno to party the night away.  After downing a huge amount of beer in a bar, we went over to Barronetti's in Ipanema for a few hours of crazy dancing.

Needless to say, this schedule of going to sleep at 5am and getting up at 12 noon got to be a bit too crazy!  We now needed a break from all the madness... Solution: Buzios, a resort town about 3 hours north of Rio.

- Dev

Brazil - Heeo dge Jhaneiho

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I bet you can't guess what that says in the title - in fact, the Brazilian-Portugese accent is such that many letters are pronounced differently than in English - ´r´ is pronounced as ´h´, ´j´ is pronounced as the ´g´ in beige, ´d´is pronounced as the ´dge´in bridge and so on... So the title is how Cariocas (residents of Rio) say Rio de Janeiro.  Anyway, ....

We finally made it to Rio after a marathon 52-hour trip from Christchurch - check out our flights - Christchurch-Auckland-Los Angeles-Chicago-Sao Paulo- Rio de Janerio.  Due to the nature of our round-the-world ticket, they could not find any other way from New Zealand to Brazil... shameful!  As you can imagine, we arrived in Rio pretty shattered... thankfully, we had a confirmed booking at the Ipanema Inn in Rio so we had a place to stay.  Our carnaval experience and also meeting friends in Rio is described in the other blog on Rio.

Before describing what we did in Rio, let me just say a word about the culture of Rio.  It is very laid back and a very beachie type of culture.  Everybody is wearing the least amount of clothing possible.  Everybody seems to be extraordinarily fit and trim.  And they all speak a sing-song type of Portugese which sounds very nice!

The city of Rio de Janeiro is beautiful!  It has huge mountains in the middle, similar to Cape Town, has lots of beautiful beaches (Ipanema, Copacabana, Barra de Tijuca, etc.) and lots of beautiful people!  We had to do the tourist thing here so we visited various Sugarloaf mountain, the Botanical Gardens and Corcovado (with the statue of Jesus Christ).  In the evening, we went for a relaxed walk around La Goa which is a lagoon right behind Ipanema & Leblon.

On our last evening there, I went off to a football game at Maracana stadium, the largest soccer stadium in the world (100,000 person capacity).  The game was between Botafogo and Volta Redondo.  Botafogo (the home team) won 2-1 so this was a relief.  The crowd was pretty raucous - black & white are the Botafogo color and the fans too are very extreme - reminds me of the Oakland Raiders and their extreme fans and stadium.

After Buzios, we returned back to Rio for a day before heading off to Peru.  Bernd´s brother, Jan, was very kind in taking us around Rio for a while, including visiting the Benedictine monastery and the Cathedral.   We had lunch with him at  Delight, which is a great idea -  buffet style and charged by weight, rather than item by item.  We also decided to splurge a little bit and went for dinner to the Copacabana Palace Hotel - wow, quite a place!  Now, we have to go on an extremely low budget to make up for this splurge...

-Dev

New Zealand - A Little English

Our final stop in NZ was Christchurch- probably the most classically English looking of all NZ cities. Some clues to this impression were the trams trundling through the city center, Gothic architecture, punting down the Avon river which meanders through the downtown, manicured lawns and gardens of Mona Vale, the many many pubs and the cathedral square. However, a bit of the cheeky has crept in what with the Kabab, Chinese, and other international cuisine kiosks on the square and the slightly eccentric ´Wizard´who gets up on his ladder and espouses different philosophical viewpoints for hours everyday.

We decided to treat ourselves and stay a bit outside of the hustle and bustle of Christchurch.  We luckily found a lovely B and B in Sumner which is only 20 minutes outside of Christchurch. Villa Alexandra is a 100 year old Victorian home perched high on the cliffs above a lovely, uncrowded beach.  We enjoyed the peace and quiet,and the lovely views!

Compared to Queenstown, Christchurch was relatively quiet and more attuned to the arts and culture scene (also a great bar and nightlife scene!) We walked up and down tree-lined streets and visited the Museum of Contemporary Art (COCA)- a definite must see. The artists on display at this particular time had all painted or sculpted around the theme of how they saw NZ or the direction they thought the country was moving towards.  I liked comparing and contrasting the different styles of painting- some more pastoral and landscapes, others almost like comic-book or pop art.   The city Botanical Gardens are also gorgeous- whether you are a flower lover or just want to get away from the asphalt and cars- I think I went a little crazy snapping pictures of vibrantly colored flowers- in beautiful colors I have never seen!

Another ´cool´place to see is the Antarctic Center. Among the fun exhibits there is the `Storm Chamber`- you get to bundle up in the types of coats and boots that the scientists wear and experience a storm with temperatures of -18 degrees Celsius! That´s -25 Fahrenheit!!  Of course, that was the day that both Dev and I decided to wear sandals...thank goodness we didn´t wear shorts!!!!    (Comment from Dev - this is quite a terrible photo.....)

From here it´s on to Brazil! Carnaval, here we come!!!

-Smruti

New Zealand - A Glacial Place

After an exciting few days in Queenstown, we decided to move on down to the other side of the South Island Alps. We drove through Haast and on to Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers.  New Zealand is one of the few places in the world where glaciers come down almost to the sea/ocean (the other place that has this is Finland).  This means that the glaciers are accessible to almost everybody and do not require week-long treks to get there.  Similar to Finland, the glaciers have carved huge fjords near the ocean.

In Franz Joseph city, we decided to go kayaking on Lake Wanaku.  We had seen people kayaking on the glacier lake near Mt. Cook and, as a result, were inspired to do so ourselves.  Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into! We contacted Ferg's Kayak shop in Franz Joseph and were told that it'd be no problem - beginners would have no difficulty kayaking through the lake.  Our guide, Danny, was very very laid back...

We got to the jetty at Lake Wanaku and put on our kayak aprons - it looked very funny - thankfully, I decided not to take photos with our camera!  After getting into the kayak, adjusting the rudder pedals and fitting the apron onto the kayak, we had to wait a few minutes for everybody to get ready (we had a Russian, a Canadian, two Australians and a Kiwi along with us) - the sandfleas wasted no time at all getting busy - they inflicted several bites on each one of us... some bites are still in evidence on me a few weeks later! 

The lake was beautiful.. a little choppy water and placid streams feeding into the lake.   We had to be careful to point our kayaks into the waves otherwise we'd run the risk of getting tipped over (not a very pleasant experience, I'm sure).  We were out on the lake for about 3 hours, in which time we got somewhat excited, then somewhat scared that we were in the middle of lake with nobody around us, and then excited again when we went up this creek (see photo to the left).

We could hear several bird calls from the surround forest.  Danny explained to us that the Kiwi bird is almost extinct in New Zealand.  The kiwis have gone from 5 million 75 years ago to 75,000 today!  Quite a sad story, given that the Kiwi is the national bird of New Zealand. Apparently, before human beings came to New Zealand, the island had a gazillion species of birds and almost no animals.  The birds evolved greatly without any real threat... the kiwi took this opportunity to evolve into a flightless bird as most of its prey was on the ground.  Once humans arrived, they brought with them stoats which started preying on the kiwis.  So now, there are big conservation programs under way.

Next morning, we drove down to the Fox glacier to do a heli-hike on the Fox glacier!  This was a fantastic experience.  I had no idea that glaciers are not just huge blocks of ice but have large streams of water, huge ice caves & tunnels and lots of rock mixed up with the ice.  The Fox glacier itself has been retreating but many others in New Zealand have been expanding over the last decade.

Our helicopter ride (our first ever) was amazing.  We could see the glacier from on top and also flew by waterfalls and icefalls along the way.  It was just a 10-minute flight but was worth the money.  We could see streams winding their way down from the glacier to a river & a lake below.  We could see forests going by...  Make me want to learn flying!

We then landed on the glacier.  Our guide then took a pick axe and started carving steps for us in the ice to climb through the glacier. In quite a dead-pan voice, he kept saying that the guides have hacked their feet by accident several times... not funny!  We saw ice caves and drank from the crystal clear stream.  We tried to avoid falling into the crevasses (successfully, thank god). 

So now that we've done our share of adventure sports, we're heading on up to Christchurch for the last part of our New Zealand trip!

-Dev

New Zealand - Hobbits and rings and elves, oh my!

Warning: the following entry might make non-LOTR fans yawn, roll their eyes, or frantically click on any pop-up window hoping to see anything else besides hobbits,  dwarves, and elves. Continue at your own risk!!

Those of you who know me might know that NZ holds  a special place in my heart for a few reasons. 

1)  All things Finn (i.e. Crowded House, Finn Brothers, and Neil Finn as a solo artist). It was great to hear his music on NZ radio-- you rarely hear anything except ´Don´t Dream it´s Over´ on Bay Area radio anymore! (but that's a different blog)

2)The fact that the Lord of the Rings movies was filmed there and the scenery used in the movie was spectacular.

So, of course, one of my ´must do´ items in NZ would be to take an LOTR tour, right?  Even though the films are long over, there still seems to be ´Ring Fever´ alive and well in many parts of NZ...for example, there are many companies that do tours or safaris of the filming sites.  What usually happens is that they take you to various filming sites and tell you the stories behind the filming.  Maybe if you are lucky, you meet someone that was an extra in the films. We decided to take a half day ´Glenorchy´ tour near Queenstown with Nomad Safaris.  We were picked up in a huge green 4x4 appropriately named ´Bilbo´.  Ian, our tour guide told us stories that he had heard from his friends that worked as extras. Apparently, most of these guys and gals had a great time working all night as extras as Rohan refugees or bloodthirsty Orcs and then stumbling into work the next morning bleary-eyed and unable to give any juicy details as they had signed some pretty strict confidentiality rules.

As we drove to some of the different filming sites, he told us about how the film makers had combined various locations to make the magic of Middle Earth happen....  BTW, all the photos on the left are our own photos and the ones on the right belong to Peter Jackson and co.

Lothlorien, the Elven Kingdom, was actually filmed in the forests in Glenorchy, an old gold mining town near Queenstown.  We took a short walk from the road to the interior of the forest, where we were surrounded by tall trees with sunlight filtering through the canopy. It was very easy to believe that you might run into elven guardians holding arrows on you telling you that you breathe so loud that they could shoot you in the dark or lovely elven women named Arwen or Galadriel wearing long flowing gowns among these ancient trees and groves. Of course, none of the actual structures or buildings were there, as they had all been computer generated or taken apart when filming was over.

We then went to the location where Sam, Frodo, and Gollum spot the Óliphaunts´and are subsequently taken prisoner by Faramir (The Two Towers).

The area is called Twelve Mile Delta and is an extremely popular camping and boating site.  To get there, we actually had to drive across several streams  and climb up a small hill. 

Another funny story was how Ian would point to a rock and say, "that's the rock they hid behind for the scene where......To be perfectly honest, it looked like any other rock!  But I guess if you work for a Lord of the Rings associated tourism job, you better know what you are talking about!!

He also said that many scenes were blended- that the first part of the scene would be set somewhere, and the background of the scene would be computer generated in....something like the scene where the Dead Marshes are filmed. 

Finally, we ended the tour with a cup of tea and cookies for elevenses..... something that no self-respecting hobbit, dwarf, elf, or Dark Lord could refuse!!

-Smruti

New Zealand - Adventure Sports HQ

If I had to compare Queenstown to somewhere I´ve been in California, I would say it's like Lake Tahoe, but hopped up on adrenaline. It definitely deserves its reputation as the Adventure capital of the South Island.  If you want to fly, freefall, parachute, ride a jetboat at 100plus mph, bungee, cave raft, this is the place to do it!!

Our agenda in Queenstown was little more than to chill and enjoy the glorious weather.  We stayed at yet another YHA-(which, is actually a pretty good deal for two or more people..they have pretty good kitchen facilities if you plan on doing your own cooking).  We lazed about the lake( which is so damn blue and clean-we couldn´t spot any litter.. sorry, even Lake Tahoe isn`t as pretty in the parts that are right next to shops and piers), walked the grueling 5 minute walk into the center of town, watched the tons of Japanese, Korean, German, and American tourists, and hung out at the Irish pub overlooking the pier.   

Oh, the adventure sports part?  We wanted to try bungee jumping and skydiving, but decided to save dinero for the heli-hike at Fox Glacier. So we decided to take a jet boat ride.  They are built specially to be able to maneover easily over a very small amount of water- between 3 or 5 cm of water! Then for thrills and kicks, they spin you around 360 degrees, so you get dizzy and drenched in the process.  We have some great videos of me screaming and getting soaked. The ride itself was thrilling, but again we goggled at beautiful scenery- sparkling green and blue water, and the Remarkables mountain range in the background (what a great name!) .  On to Fox Glacier (after a stop in Middle Earth!)

-Smruti

New Zealand - Cook and the Hermitage

We did a marathon drive from Kaikoura on the east coast of the South Island to Twizel (near Mt. Cook) on the west coast of the South Island.  Driving is such a pleasure in New Zealand, though, that the drive went by very enjoyably.  The pictures on the left are from Lake Tekapo near Twizel.  Somebody told us that the glaciers in New Zealand have ground huge amounts of rock into fine dust.  This dust then hovers near the bottom of the lakes and reflects the sunlight almost perfectly.  As a result, the sky is almost perfectly reflected in the lake - hence the fantastic sky blue color of the lakes and also the almost perfect reflections of nearby mountains and clouds.

While we hadn't planned on staying in Twizel, we did end up doing so on the spur of the moment.  We looked up the New Zealand B&B Guide (freely available in any tourist location) and found an awesome B&B on a farm.  We had a view of Mt. Cook and a 2-minute drive to Twizel.  Funnily enough, we found exactly the same model of rental car (Nissan hatchback) parked there - it seems as if 90% of the tourists in New Zealand rent exactly the same type of car.

The next morning, we took the 45-minute drive up to the Hermitage, near Mt. Cook (3755 meters).  Mt Cook is a very technical climb but we took some satifaction in having climbed much higher to Mt. Kilimanjaro (6000 meters)!  The Hermitage is a tourist destination in and of itself and is probably the most famous hotel in New Zealand.  One can see Mt. Cook from here as well.  Unfortunately, due to our budget and time constraints, we could not stay here!  We followed several Japanese tourists up the Kea Point trail to the Hooker Valley glacier.  As you can see from the photos above, the glacier itself has been retreating for a while and we could only the the moraines (in the black & white photo) left behind by the glacier and the glacier lake upon which several people were kayaking.  The view of Mt Cook was fantastic - we could see the ice glistening on the top of the mountain.  The right-most photo here shows the view from the Hermitage.

- Dev