Texas

I've been in Texas for the last 2 days attending a Indian wedding. After this, the normal Christian church wedding can't compare. This has been so beautiful and elaborate. Everyone is wearing different vibrant color saris and the venue is decorated with flowers, cloth and gold statues of deities. On the first night, they had the tumeric ceremony. It starts with a prayer, then the soon to be married couple get dotted with tumeric paste on their feet, hands and head. Tumeric is supposed to be good for your skin but it also makes it yellow. Then the next night was the Sangeet (sp?) which was basically a party. There were dances and speeches in honor of the bride and groom to be. This morning we attended the wedding ceremony. The groom comes in on a horse while everyone dances in front of him. This is to symbolize the journey the groom makes to meet his bride. Traditionally, this would be the first time they meet. The bride wore a gorgeous red sari with gold trimming. The venue was adorned with flowers and scarves and gold statues. The ceremony was about an hour long. The parents sat under an awning with the Hindu priest and bride and groom. They performed various tasks such as offering rose petals to
Ganesh (with the elephant head) . Clarified butter and rice were fed into a small fire. The couple also walked around the stage area 7 times and kicked 7 small piles of rice. I don`t remember what this stands for. I will have to look this up. They weren't allowed to kiss dues to religious customs so the priest had the couple feed each other by bringing their arm around the shoulders. Tonight I think the reception will be similar to what we normally witness in America.

In a few hours...

I'm am off to Houston for a wedding. It should be fun so I'm looking forward to that. I also hope it will be warmer than New York.

Next I'm off to Cancun to start the Central America leg of the trip. For now, this is the itinerary:

3/13 Houston
3/16 Austin
3/17 Cancun
3/26 Belize
3/31 Guatemala/Tikal
4/5 Belize
4/8 Cancun
4/9 NYC

4/13 Thailand
4/18 Japan
4/28 NYC

4/29 Budapest
5/1 Vienna
5/3 Cesky Krumlov
5/4 Prague
5/6 Berlin
5/10 Holland
5/14 Belgium
5/15 France
5/17 Dover (cruise to Copenhagen, Berlin, St Petersburg, Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm)
6/3 Cairo
6/19 Jordan
6/22 NYC

Counting Down

Big progress. I handed in my resignation. I bought my ticket to Central America. Planning to go to Cancun to do some cenote diving. Then Belize to dive the blue hole and hang out with locals and hopefully check out Tikal, Guatemala.

Japan and Thailand next. Going to check out Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Hopefully I can actually make it to a Muy Thai match this time. It's a little scary because it seems so violent but it's a cultural experience I want to witness. Then hopefully I will get to see some sakura in Japan.

Then off to Europe to do some backpacking --Budapest, Vienna, Prague. Amsterdam to see the tres hermanas from my Patagonia trip. Brussels and maybe Paris. Kill some time in London to meet up with the start of the cruise through the Baltic countries / Skandinavia.

Last leg ends with an Intrepid tour through Egypt and Jordan. Can't wait to check out Petra.

Natural Beauties

The first photo is an image of Fitz Roy (the mountain the back). The 8 hour hike was definitely worth the sprained ankle, blood, sweat and tears (slight exaggeration). There are two beautiful milky blue glacier lakes in front of Fitz Roy and the panoramic view was incredible. Joe, he was on my tour, works for Patagonia. His t-shirt with the Patagonia logo is based on the silhouette of Fitz Roy. Notice the similarity?

The second photo is of Torres del Paine. More often than not, Torres is not known to show itself behind the clouds. We were extremely lucky to have had full view of the towers. The temperature was also extremely HOT! People were all getting sunburned. We were constantly reapplying sunscreen. The lake here wasn't as beautiful as the one at Fitz Roy but the towers were more impressive. We sat and admired them for almost an hour before heading back down. Getting down the rock scramble was tricky. Bring hiking poles. They would probably help.

Seafood... mmmm

I´m back in BA now. The dive was fun. Not much to see but I always enjoy going diving. It´s so peaceful in the ocean. I dove in the Beagle Channel. It wasn´t quite a kelp forest but there was a lot of kelp and tons of tiny lobsters and crabs. I saw one king crab. Too bad those little suckers are protected. They would have made a tasty meal. I stayed down much longer than I had expected -- about 55 min. The water was 7 degrees Celcius. I wouldn´t have survived without my wet suit.

Patagonia es Bonita

Not sure where to begin. It´s been almost 2 weeks now and I´ve done so much. Hike 8 or 9 hours to Fitz Roy. It was brutal. Sprained my ankle, but the view was worth it. It was just amazing. You see the peak close up with the two glacial lakes below it. We have been VERY fortunate with the weather. Fitz Roy is known for not being seen. Patagonia is known for rain and unpredictable weather. We had both. We saw Fitz Roy and all it´s glory. We had unbelievably warm weather. I wasn´t but other people were wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts. We also camped out and hiked Torres del Paine for 2 nights and 3 days. We did what they call the W trail. The first day we hiked 8.5 hrs and saw the 3 famous peaks of Torres del Paine. Next day was 4 hrs and the follow was 6 but I think I stopped around 4 or 5 because of my ankle. I´m not sure I enjoy the act of hiking but the final outcome if it is worth it. It´s beautiful here. I definitely recommend it. And if you can learn to speak basic or conversational Spanish, your trip will be enriched a little more. The locals are very friendly and funny but they are more open if you speak or try to speak their language.

I also went to Punto Arenas to view the Otoway Penguin colony. I got some cool photos there. At first, I thought I wouldn´t be able to get very close to them, but as we kept walking we discovered spots where the babies settled near the boardwalk. They were a bit stinky but adorable! Today I took a tour of the Beagle Channel. I saw some Sea Lions and Cormorants (sp?). Tomorrow I´m planning to go diving. Everyone thinks I am nuts. Apparently I´m the only one on the boat tomorrow. I guess they´re right. I´m actually looking forward to it because I get to say I did it. I don´t think I will get to see much besides some kelp, crabs and star fish but I enjoy the actual act of diving... even if the water is only 4 degreed Celcius. I´m only doing one dive so hopefully it won´t kill me.

So far, what has been memorable? Definitely Fitz Roy. It was really beautiful. The majetic peaks with the beautiful glacial milky blue lakes sitting in front. I also walked on a glaciar but that wasn´t as exciting. It was fun for the first hour but it got a little old quickly. It was similar to walking on large large piles of ice cubes. Not really what I expected. I was hoping to try the ice climbing but it was sold out way in advance. Note to self... book early if I want to try ice climbing in Patagonia.

Torres del Paine was a more impressive natural wonder than Fitz Roy. If you do one, you have to do the other. Camping was interesting. We shared tents and really got cozy with our tent mate. My tent mate is cool so we had fun just chatting for a bit and going to bed. We had a 4 star camping experience. For dinner, we had an actually dining room with ceramics and silverware and a chef. Split pea soup, turkey with rice and dessert. That was only for 1 night though.

Considering how bad my memory is, I think I will take away the following things when I get back home.

1. The beautiful colors of Patagonia. Rich greens mixed with red, purple, white, and yellow folowers.

2. The friendly people. We´ve encountered great people along the way and the international group in my tour were also amazing and caring.

3. The difficulty of reaching each of the sites. The remoteness of the destinations are both a mix of pain and pleasure. Because they are remote, they are not over run with more tourists than they already are. Think unpaved highways and 12 hr bus rides. (But there is are signs of highways coming up.) Then again, it´s difficult to get from one destination to another which is why I went with an organized tour.

From Buenos Aires

After a long day of flying on airplanes, waiting in airports and riding buses, I finally made it to Argentina. Its sunny and warm here. If youre wondering, I cant figure out how to use the apostrophe. I stayed at Hostel Estoril. I was cute and clean. They had a little outdoor patio. I was on the 6th floor. Im not sure if the one on the 6th floor does also. People are friendly. My roommate was from Ireland and she was staying for two nights. Then she was heading to an apartment she rented and is planning to learn Spanish for two months. Shes then planning to travel throughout South America. I checked into my hotel, Hotel Waldorf, no affilication to the one in NY. Its dark as the reviews say but I guess the room is decent. Im about to go find out how much it will cost me to change my flight to an earlier day. I also saw a pilates studio so I might take a class if it works out. Im so sore from sleeping in strange positions on the plane. The tour group is meeting at 7.30p tonight to discuss the itinerary, meet one another and pay the local payment. Im was nervous about the trip but I think Im excited now. Looking forward to seeing the glaciers, penguins and fjords.