Trip to Peru part 5

We took a trip to Aguas Calientes to visit the ruins of Machu Picchu. It was a beautiful train ride through the Andes to the small town. The town itself was smack in the middle of the mountain ranges, and had a huge river running through the middle. The view from our hostel room was great, and being such a touristy place we had no trouble finding food.

Our trip to Machu Picchu began around 6:30 am, and was a windy bus ride up to the entrance. The ruins were incredible, perched high up on a mountain. The amount of skill and dedication the builders must have had to build such a large city this high up is mind boggling. The Incas were very knowledgeable in astronomy and building techniques. There were canals which brought water throughout the city, and many of the features were in relation to the direction of the sun. After touring around the city with a guide, a few of us went to hike up neighboring Wainapicchu. It was a long hard hike, up some pretty steep grades, but the views from the top were worth it. Then we returned to Aguas Calientes to catch our train ride back to Cuzco. My pictures from Machu Picchu are here.

Trip to Peru part 4

We had a few packed days of service and fun in Peru. One day we visited an orphange for young girls to help paint their walls. It was great getting to do some hands on service work, and the little girls were so cute! A few of them insisted on helping us paint saying, ¨Its my house!¨. We had lunch at a Japanese restaruant with a surprisingly decent veggie menu, and then the kids put on some wonderful dancing and musical performances. You could really see the warmth in the orphanage, and it felt a lot less institutionalized than what we have back in the US. The people running the orphanage were so caring towards the children, and it really showed. Even though the orphanage itself was poor in material goods, it was rich in love. Then for dinner we visit a Seva Cafe-ish restaurant, which donated all the proceeds to a project called Yanapay.

Another day we paid a visit to an amazing place called Casa de Milagros, run by a couple from Colorado. It is a small organic farm in the middle of an amazing valley, surrounded by sheer mountain walls. The couple has adopted 29 local children and were raising them as their own. It was an incredible place, totally awe inspiring in both natural beauty, and how these folks were living their lives. Our task here was to decorate a few walls with paintings. After discovering some Dragonball Z DVDs in the boys room I volunteered to draw some anime characters on their wall. After I finished drawing, some of the other volunteers painted in the rest. The kids were really excited and telling us the names of the characters I drew, and it was really exciting for me as well. I´d really love to come back and spend more time there someday. Apparently they´ve also got some connections in Hollywood as Woody Harrleson and others visit from time to time.

That evening Sukh, Shveta, and I also visited the Yanapay school mentioned above. It was essentially a free daycare for the poor kids, that anyone could go to after school. They are open from 3 till 7pm, and it was just jam packed with kids being tutored, and playing. The area they were located in was tiny, but they made the best they could with what they had. A number of foreign students were volunteering there, and spent a little while there playing with some kids.

Trip to Peru part 3

We flew into Cusco and met up with Pastor Willy at the airport. Cusco is at around 11,500 ft. and has beautiful views of the Andes mountain range. We walked around the town a bit, and really loved the main square, Plaza De Armas. It is definitely one of the most scenic cities we´ve ever visited. Anytime you look out you see the steep green Andes, and there are numerous lovely old buildings. Of course, being a relatively poor country, we were surrounded by street vendors and beggars all the time, but for the most part they weren´t too pushy.

For dinner we visited a Hare Krishna restaurant chain called Govinda, which was delicious. Definitely recommended for vegetarians who happen to visit. Its been alot of fun getting to know the folks from Be The Cause. Everyone is so friendly and easy to get along with. As a group we started a Secret Santa Random Act of Kindness project for the trip. Basically you try to do acts of kindness for a person whose name we drew. Its been fun both receiving and giving these little kindness gifts.

Trip to Peru part 2

We spent the day in Lima visiting a wheelchair distribution by Free Wheelchair mission. It was a heart warming event, and we really enjoyed interacting with the friendly people there. Afterwards we were invitied to a performance of the play Annie, put on by a local church. They were kind enough to provide simultaneous translation of the show, and it was a great performance. The next day we headed off for Cusco. Our pictures from Lima are here.

Trip to Peru part 1

We flew with the group from Be The Cause from LAX to El Salvador for a 5 hour layover. During the layover a few of us decided to head into the city of San Salvador for a quick look. It was a nice drive into town, and reminded me alot of Costa Rica. The main town was pretty packed with traffic, and we got off by the main cathedral. The cathedral had beautifully painted ceilings, and stained glass. Right outside the cathedral was a few blocks full of stalls selling all kinds of stuff. We wandered around, taking in all the hustle and bustle of the streets, but then had to hurry back to the airport to make our connection.

We landed in Lima, ending our almost 24 hour day of travel, and were taken by bus to our hostel. Lima is a very modern and westernized city. Along the drive we passed by numerous Pizza Huts, McDonald´s, and other American chains. Everyone was pretty tired and hungry, so after checking in we headed over to a shopping mall with a food court for dinner, then went to bed. Our pics from El Salvador are here.

Kiva.org

I recently read an article in Good Magazine about a cool organization called Kiva. They are basically using Paypal to connect small donors/lenders with people in need of loans in the developing world. It reminds me of the Grameen bank, but on a more personal and smaller level. I just signed up and lent some money to two different ladies trying to start business in their countries. If you'd like to participate, check out their website: kiva.org. Keep in mind that these are loans and not donations, so you can expect to get your money back, but are lending the money to someone in need.

What others are saying about www.Kiva.org:

'Revolutionising how donors and lenders in the US are connecting with small entrepreneurs in developing countries.'
-- BBC

'If you've got 25 bucks, a PC and a PayPal account, you've now got the wherewithal to be an international financier.'
-- CNN Money

'Smaller investors can make loans of as little as $25 to specific individual entrepreneurs through a service launched last fall by Kiva.org.'
-- The Wall Street Journal

'An inexpensive feel-good investment opportunity...All loaned funds go directly to the applicants, and most loans are repaid in full.'
-- Entrepreneur Magazine

India Trip: Conclusion

Well we've been back in the US for a few days now, and its really good to be home. India was a really interesting place, full of warmth from family, and so many contradictions. I'm really happy that I didn't get sick from the food while I was there, and enjoyed all the amazing sights. The biggest problem I had was all the pollution and garbage all over the country. It is such a beautiful place that it made me sad to see how badly it has been kept. Everything there seemed to be at contrast with each other, but somehow it all worked. It will be really intersting to see how things change and evolve by the time we visit again, I'm hopeful that much of the pollution problems will be better as globalization takes hold. But at the same time I hope that India is able to remain India, and keep some of its rich culture.

India Trip: Vaishno Devi

The next morning we woke up early to ride a helicopter up to Vaishno Devi. It was the first time any of us had been in a helicopter! The ride was so much fun, although it only lasted about 2 minutes. It was a strange feeling as you just lifted off the ground and flew up into the mountains. The views from the copter were breathtaking, and I wish we could've flown around a bit more.

When we reached the helipad on the top we then began a 2 km hike to the main temple. Many people walk up to the temple from the town below, but we had heard that security can be difficult for foreigners to pass through, so we decided to go the helicopter route. The hike there was the first walkway the cleanest I've seen in India! All along the walk we saw horses and other pilgrims pass by saying, "Jai Mata Di", as they passed.

At the temple we had to remove our shoes and walk on some freezing concrete sidewalks to the main shrine. The primary attraction here was a series of three rocks called Holy Pindies. These rocks are located deep inside cave which you had to crawl through a small tunnel to get through. It was pretty fun to crawl along the cave tunnel, for much of the crawl your feet were immersed in some ice cold water running below you. Then you arrive at the shrine, are blessed by a priest, and get about 30 seconds to look at the rocks before being hurried on. Apprentely the priests were curious to know where I'm from, since I definitely didn't fit in with the rest of the pilgrims, but I didn't understand him, and thought he wanted me to hurry up so I hurried by the whole thing.

Afterwards we retrieved our shoes, and went back to the helipad for our flight down. That afternoon we spent shopping around the town and relaxing in the hotel. Then we flew back to Delhi the next day and back to the US the day after.

India Trip: Delhi and Jammu

We spent a few more days in DDun before heading back to Delhi to meet up with Shveta's dad. On the way to Delhi we stopped over in Meerut to visit some more family, and stayed with Mintu, her husband, and her HUGE dog. Mintu runs a small preschool in her house, so we got to see some more really cute kids. One of them was so excited to see the camera and stuff he quietly let out a, "balle, balle!". :)

We were only in Delhi a couple nights, then met up with Shveta's dad to fly to Vaishno Devi, a temple built to honor Mata Vaishnavi. Our original plan was to go to Devlali and visit with Sunny, Nikki, and the kids, but unfortunately there were riots going on in Mumbai, so we changed our plans last minute to go to Vaishno Devi instead.

We caught an afternoon flight to Jammu from Delhi,and went through the tightest airport security I've ever seen. We were screened at least 4 times before we got on board the plane and had to go outside to identify our baggage. During the flight we got some views of the Himalayas which looked spectacular.

When we landed in Jammu, you could see the heavy military presence everywhere you looked. We took a cab to our hotel for the evening. In the distance you could see the mountain where Vaishno Devi was located.

India Trip: Rishikesh

The day after we got back from Mussorie, we met Sunny, Shveta's cousin in the army, and headed for Rishikesh. Poor Sunny had just gotten off a train earlier that morning, and was now our driver for the day. On the way to Rishikesh we stopped at her uncle's school, built in honor of his daughter Neelu. It was a cute little school with about 8 classrooms. We were a huge distraction for the cute kids as we walked around and looking into the classes going on.


Then we headed on to Rishikesh, a city right by the holy Ganges river. The river was a beautiful alpine blue, and was full of devotees bathing. After we parked we crossed a "pedestrian" footbridge full of monkeys, cows, scooters, and people to the Swarg Ashram. There we had lunch at the famous Chotiwala, and visited a few ashrams and temples. We decided to walk down one of the staircases and splash around a bit in the Ganges as well, and Shveta joked that, "You are now official converted into a Hindu!".

We then drove down a bit further down to Lakshman Jhula, a famous old bridge anchored on either side by temples. After looking around a bit it was starting to get dark so we decided to head back to DDun.

India Trip: Mussorie

On our one year anniversary we traveled up to Mussorie for the day/evening. Mussorie is known as the "Queen of the Hill Stations", and is a small town about an hour up the mountain from DDun. Some friends of Shveta's dad, CP Singh and his wife, were kind enough to hire a car for us to take up to Mussorie and spend the evening. The ride up was through lovely green forests and winding roads, then when we were just a few km away from our destination we were stopped. Apparently there was a big protest going on and the roads were all closed. So we backtracked a bit to a hotel for lunch.

When lunch was over the roads were still closed, so our driver dropped us off near a small town where we did some walking around, down by a school and along the roads. Eventually the protest finished, and we got to our hotel for the evening. After checking in (to the sound of "Everything I do" by Bryan Adams), we headed out ot Mall Rd., the main drag of Mussorie. Mall Rd. was full of various shops and eateries, and tons of people were out for their evening stroll. It was a nice 3km walk to the end of the road, all the while with sweeping views of the Doon valley below us. Then it was getting late, so we headed back to the hotel for dinner and some rest.

The next morning we woke up and headed for Kempty falls, about an hour further into the hills. The ride was even more twisty than the ride up to DDun, but we caught glimpses of the Himalayas in the distance. The falls were tall and silky, spreading out like a fan over rocks. The hike down to the base of the falls was basically along a concrete path filled with vendors. It really made me appreciate our national parks, and all the work of conservationists. Even with all the stalls everywhere, the falls were very pretty and worth the trip. Then we stopped by company gardens on the way back to DDun.

India Trip: Dehradun part 2

We spent the next few days hanging around Dehradun (DDun), visiting family, shopping at the world famous Paltan Bazar, and taking in a few sights. It was really nice to stay in one place for a few days, and have a home base. The city itself is still a bit hectic, although much more manageable than the large cities we've been in so far. I was able to get around by flagging down autorickshaws by myself, allowing me to make visits to Internet Cafes and McDonalds when Shveta and her mom went shopping.

One afternoon we took a trip to see a large buddhist stupa near an air force base. As soon as we entered the 'Tibetean' area, it suddenly seemed a lot cleaner! The temple area was really nice, with a tall white building in the middle, and prayer flags all around. Inside the temple were various statues and paintings, and it was very peaceful. There were also some huge prayer wheels that you could spin, so of course we took a few turns to send out good wishes to the world. There were some interesting signs forbidding the eating of peanuts, apparently they had some issues with people dropping peanut shells all over the place.

Here are the pictures.