Underground

The meaning of a String – Reading Borges – At the library – Ricardo del Ponte – Today’s Borges. (Map this!)

No puedo combinar unos caracteres dhcmrlchtdj que la divina Biblioteca no haya previsto y que en alguna de sus lenguas secretas no encierren un terrible sentido.
- Jorge Luis Borges, “La Biblioteca de Babel”

agcttttcat tctgactgca acgggcaata tgtctctgtg tggattaaaa aaagagtgtc
tgatagcagc ttctgaactg gttacctgcc gtgagtaaat taaaatttta ttgacttagg
tcactaaata ctttaaccaa tataggcata gcgcacagac agataaaaat tacagagtac

The meaning of the above string stands somewhere between pure nonsense and extra-ordinary. It is also possible that it is one of the most amazing phrases that humans have known, but the chances of that are slim. You have probably guessed that the string of letters is not particularly random; for one it is a tedious repetition of only four letters A-T-C-G, letters that encode DNA sequences. This particular one is a part of one of the 4493 genes that make up the genome of Escherichia coli K12, a rather useful organism to science. The Library of Babel, if it existed, would contain the blueprints necessary to create all living beings, all those that are extinct, and all those yet to evolve.

Fred Gault was shocked that I had never read Borges. “You must start with this story, ‘The Library of Babel‘.”, he opined. Since then I have read much by the Argentine author, but “The Library” was the first, so I HAD to visit the library that inspired it. Out of the way, in the Boedo district of Buenos Aires, the Miguel Cané library is a small branch library where Borges worked between 1937 and 1946. I had imagined a vast library with the stacks stretching almost to the vanishing point, but the entrance to Miguel Cané indicated a small local branch.

…debe existir un libro que sea la cifra y el compendio perfecto de todos los demás: algún bibliotecario lo ha recorrido y es análogo a un dios.
- Jorge Luis Borges, “La Biblioteca de Babel”

For a higher resolution video click here

“It is forbidden to take pictures here!”, said the man severely, in between puffs of his pipe. His thick glasses and light blue lab coat gave him an air of authority.”Who are you, and what do you do here?”, I asked in a loud stentorian voice, barely able to contain my anger. I had driven 37,743 miles, taken two subway trains, and walked several blocks to Miguel Cané, and I resented being pushed around. “I am Ricardo del Ponte, in charge of cataloging, and a Professor of History.”, replied the man, “And I repeat you may not take pictures!”

I had come to Miguel Cané not expecting to see much, but as I talked to the man my anger ebbed. Here he was in real life, a passionate and eccentric librarian. Our conversation covered Aaron Copeland, Beowulf, Wagner, Edgar Allen Poe, and a vast array of other topics. With intensity and passion he described the UDC and the codes for its main categories. His manner softened. “Come, I will show you the room where Borges studied”, as he shuffled to the stairs.

One of the first English translations of Borges’ work were done by Norman Thomas di Giovanni, in collaboration with him. After Borges’ death, his widow forbade any subsequent publication of those translations.

A small corner of Miguel Cané is dedicated to Borges, the small room where he studied Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” and Dante’s “Divina Commedia“. A case in the corner displays several of first editions, including Ficciones. “I understand the importance of Borges to Argentine literature, but I find some of his work rather infantile.”, confided del Ponte. With the energy of a boy he showed us the rare book room, filled with irreplaceable volumes. “They aren’t in the UDC system yet, but they will be!”, he said with glee.

When we got back to the apartment, I started to do the research for this article and received quite a shock. In my ignorance I had assumed that Borges, given his stature, had been in charge of the Miguel Cané library, which was turned out to be false. If this were The Garden of Branching Paths, and I had arrived at Miguel Cané in the late ’30s or mid 40’s the man in the light blue lab coat would have been none other than Jorge Luis Borges, for his real job was that of cataloger.

Cuverville Island

Reasons – An Unusual Destination – Maverick Life – the Real Reason  (Map this!)

When we asked our fellow passengers for the reason that they had wanted to go to Antarctica, we got an answer similar to the famous repost by George Mallory, “Because it is there”. Antarctica has a mysterious draw that is hard to explain. We met people that had traveled all the way across the world just to run a marathon in King George Island. Others were there for visiting the “Peace Continent”, so called because of the fact that no one country owns it. One thing is certain, it attracts a very select set of travelers.

You can also read An Antarctic Dream – The White Continent (1/2), part one of this series

“In the Antarctica you always meet special people”, Daniela, our travel agent, said. I guess it does take a particular type of person whose idea of vacation is to take an old converted boat with no stabilizers, lurching his or her way for two days through the dreaded Drake passage just to visit a cold, barren land, penguins notwithstanding. This is after spending a kings ransom to get there. At home, it would be unusual to hear Antarctica nominated as the coveted destination for the next vacation. But in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in Argentina, the young and the old, the rich and the not-so-rich, people from all walks of life are all headed towards their white dream.

For a higher resolution video click here

Back home, we are mavericks. We take frequent, long vacations at the cost of our career and bank balance, have no kids and no permanent home. As some might say, “We are not “settled”. Stan, a close friend, once said to me, “Neena, you are not normal”. But once we embarked on our journey, we found we were just one in a crowd. We routinely met backpackers taking between six months to a year to explore the world. Better still are the “mobile” voyagers traveling in their vehicle of choice, who have made it a lifestyle of traveling, people on the road for several years. Once you pursue your dream, you find that the abnormal rapidly becomes the norm, the extraordinary becomes ordinary.

Sometimes I wonder at the cost of deviating from the tried and true way. It is comfortable to do what everyone around you is doing, it forms the basis of the fabric of society. But unless we explore the unknown, how do we know what we are missing? How do we challenge our comfortable existence? Maybe one day, like the marathon which was once a realm of the crazy few, more would risk money and career to the self abandon and the self-enrichment of long-term travel. As Senhor Jose in Saramago’s “All the names” would say, “One often has to travel a long way in order to arrive at what is near.”

Curanto

What to do with a mountain of seafood?  (Map this!)

What do you do with a “mountain” of “mariscos”? You dig a hole in the ground, heat up some stones and dump the shellfish on top, add spicy sausage or longaniza, chicken and pork for good measure and potatoes just because you grow a hundred different varieties, then cover it all up with the local Nalca leaves and steam it for a couple of hours. The “curanto” is now ready to be enjoyed with a glass of Chilean wine.

The “curanto” is a chilote speciality, from the island of Chiloé. Blessed with many types of clams, mussels and the really strange piura, the Chilotes have found this admirably simple method of cooking seafood. Before tasting it, I would never have believed that mussels and clams could be cooked for hours and taste anything better than carbonized lumps. But this method of slow cooking gives it a rich, creamy texture that we have never tasted in them before.

For a higher resolution video click here

After having visited Chiloé once before and tried the curanto, we couldn’t resist returning to try it one more time, this time arriving in enough time to watch the complete preparation from the beginning. This video traces the path of the curanto from the “oven” to the table.

In the video, we see “chapalele” and “milcao” being added to the curanto. We could not capture the explanation on tape, but here it is. “Milcao” is potatoes grated and mixed with pork rind or “chicharon” and “chapalele” is mashed potatoes mixed with flour. These are wrapped in plastic to prevent dirt from getting in them and added to the whole delicious mix.

For a related post on Chiloé, click here.

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.

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

Humberstone, Chile

Nitrate crisis – Crumbling buildings – Magnificent ruins.
(Map this!)

I have found ghost towns fascinating but until now I have never had the opportunity to visit one. The closest I ever got was old abandoned warehouses, which are species of mini ghost town unto themselves. The northern part of Chile has quite a distribution of ghost towns, mostly related to the nitrate industry that operated in the Atacama desert from the latter part of the 19th century to the early part of the 20th. The development of the Haber process in the 1910’s provided for a more economical way to make fertilizer and the nitrate industry went into decline and eventual extinction.

For a higher resolution video click here

Today in the desert one can find crumbling buildings, rusty heavy machinery, and decrepit power plants and ovens. What once was so vital to Chile that it fought two wars with its neighbors Peru and Bolivia lays strewn across the sands of the Atacama. Eventually the same will happen to the artifacts of our current civilization and some future humans will have the pleasure of rooting through our ghost towns. I hope we leave behind magnificent ruins…

The worst hike – The Colca Canyon – Andean Condor – Reward for diligence.
(Map this!)

You know that you are on the worst hike in the world when

1. You start the off not feeling well and know that you probably shouldn’t be hiking in the first place.
2. Your expectations of an easy hike are unfounded, the hike turns out to be a knee busting downhill schlep over a gravelly path that defies sure footing.
3. You expect to find lunch at the halfway point and are told “No hay comida” (There’s no food).
4. Having started the hike late, you expect to find mules for the way back but all the mules have been booked by tour groups.
5. On the way back you develop diarrhea and realize that you have no toilet paper.
6. Your reward for the hard hike is less than spectacular scenery and the goal is an uninspiring grassy campground with a swimming pool.
7. You get rained on on the way back and it gets dark.
8. Your knees have turned to jelly and you can’t negotiate the stairs to your room when you reach your hotel

Click to see our video of the Andean Condor

I wasn’t impressed by the Colca Canyon. Touted as deeper than the grand canyon, it is neither as impressive nor as spectacular. It isn’t even that deep. A popular hike to the bottom of the canyon is only 3,500ft. I have no idea how they measure it, maybe there’s one small area that’s really deep. Or, maybe they include the mountains surrounding the valley of Colca in their measurement.

At the Cruz del Condor

The Colca canyon is more of a valley and it is pretty. Rustic villages surrounded by a terraced countryside make for a pleasing lansdscape. Entirely missing, however, are the steep, sheer walls that create such a visual impact at the Grand Canyon or at Zion. In contrast, the Colca Canyon is a gentle valley leading to an ordinary canyon.

The Colca is famous for sightings of the Andean condor. The condor is a huge bird, one meter tall, with a three meter wing span. The sight of this bird, with its black and white wings spread out perfectly to ride the uprising thermals, its white collared neck streched out looking for food, is a spectacular sight. Especially when seen in a flock of five to six birds, rising up in evergrowing circles, out of the highest mountains surrounding the canyon, until they are a speck against the blue skies.

Terrace Farming

You have to be incredibly lucky to see this spectacle. More often than not you see a lone bird, rising far in the distance, and have to be satisfied that you saw a condor. Well, this is wildlife, you say. You cannot guarantee it. But without a sighting of the condors the Colca Canyon is just another pretty but uninspiring spot.

We visited the Cruz del Condor three times. Our diligence was finally rewarded when the third day dawned bright, clear and hot, and we could see about ten condors gliding close by, up, up and out of the canyon on their search for their daily bread. (On that day the condors left their nests early, however. A lot of tour groups, arriving after 8:15am, never saw even one.)

New additions to the website:
• Slideshow on Manu Biosphere Reserve.
• Slideshow on Santa Catalina Monastery, Arequipa.
• Review of Garmin 60csx GPS

Beef

Foreign markets – The need to buy. (Map this!)

There’s something about markets that is appealing. Visiting the colorful village markets of foreign lands give us a whiff of a foreign life with unfamiliar customs and exotic goods. The sights and smells overwhelm the senses. But for me the most powerful stimulant is the acquisition of the wares on display.

We often bemoan the “materialistic” nature of the U.S., specially the acquisitive greed which burdens people under mountains of debt. Yet, the need to buy is something rooted deep within us. I often find myself at the farmer’s market with way more succulent vegetables and fresh fish than I need and then planning the next meal with a gleam in my eye. Artesan markets are so much more fun when I can actually buy some of those wonderful crafts on display.

For a higher resolution video click here.
To see more pictures of the Otavalo market, click here.

This trip has been difficult for me as I cannot even indulge myself in one of the most permissible acts of acquisition in my eye – collecting books. With our limited space and no permanent dwelling, we stop ourselves from buying anything which is unnecessary to the trip itself. So we try to capture the exotic local color of the markets in photos and video and be satisfied. But sometimes, in spite of the best intentions, we do end up buying some small things….