Today Jr. performed at the Pushpanali Dance Academy's annual day. She has been learning for at least 8 years now and has been practicing when she gets a chance. She loves to dance and she has come to a realization that her performing is directly proportional to the practice!
She did pose for photos before the performance (now that I have studio lights set up!) and there were some good shots during her performance..
Kept thinking about my sister today because Jr. is a splitting image of my baby sister!
Here is a video with a few snippets of the 10 minute Thillana performance..
and a few photos that were taken in between shooting video snippets!
My baby is a big girl now! As a dad it is not an easy thing to accept.. but I will go through the learning curve and hopefully get on the other side of that curve soon!
A lot of folks celebrated Holi last weekend. I had just got back from Asia and was very tired, not to mention going through tooth ache. So we were very happy to celebrate Holi this weekend with friends.
Eveyone was colored.. we saw Indians, Chinese, White folks, Hispanic folks, black folks. . . the pets.. and we pulled in the cops to play Holi as well and they were nice and got colored by the kids!
There were a 1000+ people in Foster city and the gang went and had a fun time with colors and jumped around to music from the DJ.
Here are a few pictures that just show how big this was..
and the one shot that made my day of the 200+ taken over two hours..
Happy Holi everyone! May this year bring you a feeling of oneness with everyone around you.. When you are all colored in such hues, you realize what true equality is and happiness is in sharing love!
Today total strangers came and put colors on me and let me put colors on them.. we gave a smile, hugs and wished Happy Holi !!
Day 7 was the last day. We started at Puno in the morning and drove to Juliaca airport. We almost missed the flight out to Puno. The bus driver stopped at every street corner and waited to pick up passengers, not all of them going to the airport.
We were cutting it very close and a lot of airport folks said "please get us to the airport". This person was tryig to make a few extra bucks picking up people en route to drop but it could have cost us a lot more if we missed the flight. There were not that many flights out of Juliaca!
Finally after some anxious moments we made it through a traffic jam to the small airport and made it to Lima. It was almost 3PM in Lima. Our original plan was to stay in the airport till our 1AM flight back to US.
We were sitting at the starbucks in Lima airport talking to a girl and her mom who were on their way to India for a two week sightseeing tour, giving them tips when we realized we had time.
We called our tour agent and said "please get us a driver to take us around some local sights in Lima and drop us back at the airport at 9 PM or so". He quickly arranged a 4 hour block and guess what? we got the same driver who had picked us up 6 days ago when we started the tour. He was a really nice guy and we talked about his family and life history while we talked about ours.
He also volunteered to take pictures of us. We had four hours. So we decided to spend 2 hours in Miraflores, the waterfront recreation area in Lima. It was beautiful! Nice breeze, sunset, lots of people out there on new years eve coming to celebrate.
We walked and rambled on top of large stones to go into the edge of this walkway of sorts and got some great family photos!
We had to take one picture with what a Beligian couple told was "sexy llamas" the previous day in Isla de Tequile. I took a photo of them on their camera and they were doing this with their fingers.
We stopped outside one of Lima's top rated restaurants for a few photos. Then we were on the other side of the road as we made it into Lima for the last stop. Dinner at an Indian restaurant to close out the new year.
As we watched the sunset over the large statues of a man and a woman in various kissing holds and the bustling night life around the statues, we realized that the trip was coming to a close and this had been a lot of fun!
Dinner at Mantra was a quiet affair. There was Shah Rukh Khan hamming his way through some song and dance sequences on a big screen and an international crowd that had come in to celebrate New Year. We had a quick dinner as our driver was waiting outside and wanted to get home to his family by 9:30.
Then he dropped us off at 9 and we were back in the airport. Lima airport is small and it has one VIP lounge. Usually they let only one guest in with my United pass, but given it was New Year's eve, they let the entire family in. We had a decent Wifi connection and an unlimited supply of orange juice and chex mix!
So the family settled in for the next 3 hours till boarding time. Then we watched the ball drop in NYC on the big screen with spanish commentary and all the agents in the gate area did a little walk for us and we thanked them all for their service.
Next thing you know, 2017 started with a 1AM flight.
Day 7 in video..
I am glad that Sangeetha pretty much forced me to agree to this trip. Had wanted to laze around and recharge at home during the break, but the wife and kids gave me an ultimatum. We are going somewhere!
It was a lot of fun and I did get to recharge with all the activity. This year, I am not going to fight it and instead join in the plans.
There are a lot more places to see in Peru and package tours within package tours. We might go back again in a few years to see the Nasca lines, the jungle tours and see more excavated sites in the high mountains.
The little one saw me editing this and said "Seriously, we went to Peru between Christmas and New Years! and you are still not done with this?"
The short answer is yes. It takes time to go through a 1000 photos, select a few, edit them, post them etc. The good thing is I am disciplined enough to do it. The bad thing is that things like work, dentist appointments three days in a row, jet lag etc. come in the way.
If Machupicchu was the first highlight of the Peru trip, Lake Titicaca was the second highlight. At 7000 feet above sea level, a navigable lake, with floating islands of reed and villages built with reed and a tribe that has been living like this for thousands of years!
We left early in the morning to reach the dock and went on a boat ride to the Uro villages. There were went on a reed boat ride, followed by demonstrations of how the islands are built, how the people live etc. They did not welcome visitors till recently and now they have solar power and their kids are going to school. Soon this way of life as we see it might be over. Technology is leveling everything!
The reed villagers were very nice and hospitable. Their kids were adorable!
There are lots of pictures that capture this experience. Here they are in a slideshow.
Then we had a long ride on the boat to Isla de Tequile, which is one of the larger islands in the middle of the lake. We started on one side of the island, went on a steep and long hike to the top to have a lunch to remember facing the lake.
This island was relatively empty except for our group. The locals were not around trying to sell us stuff like we were used to over the last 5 days. It was quiet, just us and the scenery.
Then it was another long hike to the other side of the island through the church and square. It was a hot day with perfect views. We got a few family portraits on the island..
Another slide show with views from Isla de Tequile and lake Titicaca
Finally we walked back to the boat. They have built a beautiful dock on one side with amazing views of the lake. We got to goof around there for a good 30 minutes before the return journey to Puno.
Puno has a nice plaza with lots of restaurants. We found one where the owner was nice and we got custom vegetarian food.
A slideshow with only the HDR shots. If you go to Peru, do not miss this! Something you don't see everyday!
Our day 6 in video!
At this point our trip was pretty much done and we were packing our bags that night. We had to make our way from Puno to Juliaca airport the next morning, fly to Lima, spend 10 hours in the Lima airport and board shortly after the ball dropped in Times Square..
Little did we know that our plans were subject to change for day 7!
As promised to the little one, I will post day7 later tonight..
Finally after another fortnight, managed to get back to the photos and videos from the Peru trip! Family thinks it will be December by the time I get to Day 6 and the last day of the trip to this blog..
It has been a busy two weeks with work, yoga and things happening at home, thanks to some really heavy rain.
This time we start with the family portraits.. we got two on a 12 hour day. The first one was taken at the Raqchi ruins and the second one at Raya Pass.
Day 5 started okay. No waking up early for the kids. We had a taxi waiting to take us to the bus stop and once there we waited for everyone to load their suitcases into the bus. After a 30 minute wait we were off to Puno from Cusco.
We had a nice driver, a tour guide and a lady who was serving coca tea and coke pepsi to the folks at regular intervals. The ride was 11+ hours at least, with 6 stops every hour and 15 minutes to hour and a half. That made the ladies very happy!
Our first stop was an amazing church built in the 1600's. There was no photography allowed inside. It is the most beautiful Church I have seen to date. Maybe the sistine chapel will top this when I get to see it someday.
Every wall, every piece of the ceiling was covered with amazing art work. There were strategically placed mirrros everywhere that took sunlight from openings high up and reflected them everywhere to create a disco light effect. Locals who visited it for the first time probably just kneeled down and bowed their heads to this magnificence. I sure did!
We also saw the amazing scenery around the church and watched the dozen or so stray dogs outside for a good 15 minutes while waiting for everyone to come back to the bus and we saw a "Bajaj Auto". I was telling the kids "that is an Indian Auto". They agreed it was an auto but did not think it was a Bajaj..
Then we moved on to another place with a small museum of sorts that showed the history of the region between Cusco and Puno over time. This place had some mummies of royalty who used to compress their skulls and they had elongated skulls! I thought this was a hoax. Apparently it was very much in vogue 600 years ago..
The first skull had a line across it.. the second one didnt. There were lot of photographs of other mummies that showed same thing.
Like the display of the 100's of potato varieties in a previous museum, this one had corn varieties that grow in Peru. It was impressive.
Then there was the usual jewelry and how they make it with natural materials show.. we got used to this one after three of these show rooms.
The next stop after this was a rope bridge in another ancient city. The wife and kids decided to stay in the bus. I walked over the bridge and got some shots with a Japanese family while the rest of the bus visited the biggest attraction after a 90 minute ride.. aka restroom at Checacupe!
Apparently this was fixed after the original bridge collapsed. Still it was a neat experience. They are still excavating the place to find more ruins..
After this we went to the ruins at Raqchi. It was made of mud bricks and stone. This time they had figured out how to make the mud bricks stronger by mixing human and animal hair and feathers into the brick. The Incas had figured out "composite materials" by trial and error and perfected it enough to have a mud brick structure that was 50 feet tall stand for 600 years!
There are more photos of Raqchi in the galleries..While coming out of the place saw this flower. We used to have a lot of flowers in our house. Thanks to the construction work, we have lost most of them. Watching a single plant with a flower when there was rocks and ruins everywhere made me smile!
We wandered around the shops outside the little museum and bought some local jewelry.
It was back on the bus to our next stop.. Lunch! It was a beautiful drive with farm lands, grazing alpacas, waterfalls.. just frame after frame of beauty!
After lunch we were told to take a nap. It was going to be some serious driving along mountain passes and we would stop at the highest pass... we saw some wild alpaca, llamas and vicune on the way..
and we were there!
and the locals had set up shops ready for the buses! They added color to the scenery..
Didn't even have to edit these photos. Most of them are just cropped. Next to Manali, this is the one place that makes me think beyond god!
We were given 20 minutes at Raya pass to take pictures. Then we were off to Pukara, which was the last stop.
This place had a civilization before the Incas in 400 BC based on the finds. It was interesting to see three layers of excavations. There was an amazing church here as well but it was closed for visitors. There was some big peacock like native birds which were far away on a window making loud calls (got it on video).
The tour guide gave us an elaborate explanation of what was going on in Peru with all the excavations, how they are now open to tourists etc. etc.. In short it was a "Make Peru Great Again" speech.
We saw the museum, the ruins and finally made our way to Puno. We went through another big city 30 minutes before Puno called Juliaca, where the local airport was. I finally proved to the family that the autos were indeed Bajaj autos. We saw a few hundred of them on the roads there!
It was late in the evening when we made it to our hotel. We had a couple of hours to explore the town square.
Then it was time for a good rest before we had to get ready at 6:30 for another interesting day..
Day 6 was going to be Lake Titicaca and a visit to the Isla de Tequile.
Saturday, April 1, 2017 at 9:55PM ;)
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