Working Hard at Kaiken

The Material World – On the shores of Fagnano – Daring the weather (Map this!)

Both Neena and I are big fans of the book Material World, where photographer Peter Menzel photographed people from all over the world with all their possessions. One day, while driving we had the idea to do the same with all our things.

We wanted to realize the photo in front of a dramatic backdrop, but the weather in Patagonia is fierce and unpredictable. After weeks of scouting out locations we decided to do the shoot at Hosteria Kaiken on the shores of Lago Fagnano, in Tierra del Fuego.

We started early in the morning, a little after first light and worked into the afternoon. By the time we were done capturing the images the wind had kicked up and the sky was overcast. Much to our surprise the best one turned out to be the 40.81 megapixel panorama stitched with twelve images, not the single shot.

Our Material World. Click here or on the picture to explore further

To view the 40.81 megapixel panorama click here.

On Petermann Island, Antarctic

Specially abled – An eight dollar squish – Penguins! – Dali landscapes.  (Map this!)

It takes a special person to go to Antarctica. To get on a converted Navy ship that takes you through waters so rough that you can barely stand up and lurches so violently that you pray to the God you don’t believe in to have mercy. Mercy that the steak and salmon that you had for dinner in the evening won’t come up in thick partially digested chunks and that the pills you doped up on will keep you comatose till its over. In that sense ’special’ starts to resemble the politically correct description ’specially abled’. But our fellow passengers were quite delightful and turned out be a part of the charm of Antarctica, better by far than any other companions we have had on our other previous packaged holidays.

You can also read An Antarctic Dream – The White Continent (2/2), part two of this series

Since we shelled out enough moolah to finance an entire Bangladeshi village for a year just for a self indulgent cruise we had very high expectations. Every time I donned my company issue rubber boots and stepped out onto the mud each squish said, “You paid like $8 for this squish, so make it count.”

If you have the bandwidth, I would highly recommend the high resolution version with larger pictures.

Ask anyone in America about an image of Antarctica and you’ll most likely get a response like “I’ve never been to that country.” Okay, but the second most common will be “Antarctica – that’s where you see penguins!”. And there are a lot of penguins in Antarctica. Just as the smell of America is coolant and rubber, the smell of Antarctica is of penguin shit. You smell them WAAAY before you see them. They smell bad but are very cute! Maybe because they are bipedal like us or maybe because they appear so clumsy and vulnerable on land we tend to imbue them with human qualities. Their cries are reminiscent of the cries of the Bangladeshi villagers you didn’t help and took this trip instead.

For an unvarnished account see my unedited trip log. Contains profanity, not suitable for children.

The landscapes in Antarctica are vast, dramatic, and breath-takingly beautiful. Locked in the grip of ice are tall mountains and towering cliffs. Glaciers with the bluest of blue ice spill into the ocean, creating icebergs sculpted into shapes even Dali could not conceive. The pull of the white continent is so strong that despite the sharp tang of Penguin and the stomach churning seas we will return to explore more of it.

At Onelli

Perito Moreno – Other glaciers – Calafate.  (Map this!)

The Los Glaciares National Park has two sections, El Chalten, in the North, with the famous peak of Fitzroy and Calafate in the South. From here, you can access the famous Perito Moreno glacier, the arrow headed expanse of ice that tumbles into Lago Argentina. Seeing Perito Moreno is quite a sight, huge pieces of ice crash into the lake with a deafening CRACK!. The glacier creaks and groans almost continuously. Various companies offer “treks” on the glacier, presenting a rare opportunity to study glacial crevasses, moraines and lakes.

The Perito Moreno Glacier.

For panorama click here

The other glaciers, Spegazzini, Upsala and Onelli can be visited by an overcrowded boat where you have to jostle into position to get any pictures. This does nothing to minimize the sheer splendor of floating among the giant glaciers and icebergs.

The town of Calafate has been overbuilt and this, in addition to the financial crisis, maybe the reason we didn’t face contention as badly as in El Chalten. Staying in the “Casa de Grillos” help mitigate some of the pressures of tourism; it is a wonderful B&B run by ex-schoolteachers. And Calafate has its own interesting “characters”, as anyone who has faced the redoubtable proprietress of the local bakery will know.

Click here for larger pictures.

You can also read Toxic Effects of the International Trekker – Los Glaciares National Park, (1/2) , part one of this series

Chaitén

Eruption – Destruction – Disturbance.  (Map this!)

“You haven’t heard about the eruption in Chaitén? The Carretera Austral is closed.” , said the man in Temuco. That was the first time we heard about Chaitén; with relief we found that the ferry was still running and we could still do the Carretera Austral.

In May, 2008, when the volcano of the same name erupted, Chaitén was hastily evacuated by the Chilean government. Since then some of the hardy residents have been coming back, but now they face a different threat – how will the government react to the uncertainty of the still erupting volcano? The aid so far includes a generous monthly stipend and a lump sum large enough to reconstruct a dwelling of modest size. But the officials have kept the people in the dark about the factors that they took into account while making their decisions, especially the one to relocate the town.

For a higher resolution video click here

The residents of Chaitén are frustrated. They decided to vent their feelings towards the all-powerful government on the day we arrived, creating a second eruption to parallel the first.

“The government is authoritarian, in the sense that they do not ask the people of Chaiten what they want”, Bernardo, the leader, said.

“The government shouldn’t come here to force us off our land. We will never move”, another resident said.

We felt a lot of sympathy for the protesters; even though the government is trying to help them they deserve to know the criteria being used to make the decisions that will have a lasting effect on their lives.

For pictures of Chaitén, click here.

And food for the brain.

Vinay Yadappanavar joined us today and brought all kinds of goodies. Indian snacks, which we have missed a lot…and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of them. And books. Good books in English are hard to find (understandably so) in Central and South America. The pitiable English section in most bookstores contains bestsellers and sometimes translations of the most famous Spanish authors. Now we have a supply that will last the trip. Thanks Fred, Ada, Lakshmi and Vinay!

Indian snacks and English books

The worst border crossing of the entire trip – The Chile-Argentina border close to Parque National Aconcagua.

Six hours waiting in line just to get to the customs and immigration post – this has got to be the worst border crossing that we have encountered. At least the touts and con men in Central America are of entertainment value! Here, at about 10,000 ft, we had to provide our own entertainment; which we did by watching “Scanner Darkly” and “Life of Birds“.

The worst border crossing so far

Bossetti Falls

The Iguazu Falls – Should I jump? – Panormama and the election. (Map this!)

Throughout this trip, we had been looking forward to visiting Iguazu falls on the Argentina-Brazil border. And not only did they not disappoint, they exceeded our expectations. The Iguazu falls are formed by the immense Parana river thundering over the earth’s surface in the shape of 275 waterfalls. It envelops the San Martin island, flowing over it, around it, through it. It creates the poetically named “Garganta del Diablo” or “Devil’s Throat”, such a churning maelstrom of water, vapor and mist that it sometimes obscures itself. It forms waterfalls of every shape and size, from thin streams intertwining like lace to a wide deluge forming an orangish velvet curtain.

For a higher resolution video click here

Everyone likes to visit waterfalls. And both Argentina and Brazil have created incredible walkways to explore the Iguazu falls, from panoramic viewpoints to walkways going close enough to the falls to get totally drenched. What is it of thundering nature that inspires such awe, that keeps you hypnotized? As we stood over one of the numerous walkways over the Devil’s throat, I couldn’t help feeling – wouldn’t it be exhilarating to jump in? (One of the Park Ranger’s said that no one has yet attempted to go over the Iguazu falls in a barrel).

Use arrow keys to navigate panorama. Use +/- keys to zoom.

In this case, pictures are definitely worth a thousand or more words. And so we decided to experiment with panoramic images, a new hobby suggested by good friend Jan Botoroff. We spent many exhilarating hours experimenting with the panoramic images, while watching the US election drama unfold. And I must say, I am extremely satisfied by the results of both!

Evening	Rock	Garganta	Butterfly

Bossetti Falls	Caterpillar	Sign	Brazil

Cathedral

On the road to Merida, Campeche is a lovely stop. (Map this!)

The moment we pulled into Campeche, I felt a strong desire to spend more than the couple of nights here than we had originally planned. A World Heritage site, Campeche is a walled city located on the coast, with a refreshing breeze blowing in from the sea dispelling the tropic heat. The houses along the streets are all painted in pleasing pastels; must be a city rule as all the colors go so well together.

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An undiscovered gem, it seems devoid of the usual tourist surge. The government seems to have high hopes that tourism will take off, though, as most of the beautifully painted houses are actually façades with just grass, blue sky and old ruins behind the closed doors. With such a beautiful setting, I have to assume that one day it will be as popular as San Cristobal.

At the zocaló in San Cristobal de las Casas – The pedestrian and car traffic created interesting pictures!

At a busy intersection in the zocaló, ghostly feet compete with traffic!