Monthly Archives: March 2011

Chandigarh to Rishikesh

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March 31, 2011-

View from a rickshaw to Sector 43 bus station.


View from a rickshaw back to Sector 17 bus station (where we originated). So much for bad travel advice.


View from our Rishikesh-bound bus. This kid was taking pictures of us with his mom’s cell phone.


In between all this was roughly 7 hours of incessant honking, slamming on brakes, near-misses with huge transport trucks, stopped traffic, touts, bumps, and more honking…most of which I don’t care to remember. On the upside, there was gorgeous rural scenery and the whole trip cost roughly $4.

A Rock Garden Dystopia & Pakistan v. India

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March 30th, 2011-

Matt took us to Chandigarh’s big tourist highlight: the rock garden. Built by a local artistic “visionary” and made of largely reused materials, this rock garden (entrance fee: Rs.15, a.k.a. US$0.33) is not to be missed. Does YOUR rock garden have waterfalls?


Or midget-sized gateways separating its various chambers?


Or Indian people who insist on taking a family photo with you?


Or menacing metal gnomes sentries?


Or funny mirrors?


(Hey there cowgirl.)


Or a CAMEL? (Photo credit: Brenna)


After all that rock garden adventure, we needed a nap. Unfortunately I discovered Brenna cheating on me with an inflatable penguin named Pedro.


Later that day, the cricket world cup semi-finals were on: India v. Pakistan. Apparently Indians don’t really care about winning the world cup so much as beating Pakistan, their long-time nemesis. The match took place just a few kilometers away from Chandigarh, so the streets were packed with fans and gawkers.


We Americans celebrated by eating. Kate’s friend from the internship program, Maria from Siberia, joined us. This time: South Indian “domas” and my first Chai Masala tea. YUMMMMMM. Best meal yet.

Our group caught the end of the match at a local pub. Kingfisher is the Budweiser of India.


Brenna got TRASHED for the cricket game! And by that I mean: we shared a beer and then went back to the hotel at 10pm to fulfill our jet-lag-sleep-urges.


India won. The various explosions and wild cheering coming through the window told it all.

Delhi to Chandigarh

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March 29, 2011-

We grabbed a 4.5-hour-long “second seating” train form Delhi to Chandigarh for the bargain basement price of $3.50.


We were definitely the only white people on this train car.


First autorickshaw/moto-taxi/tuk-tuk ride.


After we found our friends Matt & Kate (Kate is doing an internship here, and Matt is her boyfriend visiting from Boston), we took even more autorickshaw rides! And I made even stranger faces.


YUM first Indian food dinner! Picture below is my “thali” (= a little bit of everything) with hot naan bread to the left. YUM YUM YUM.


I’m purposefully not eating any “sweets” on this trip (defined as chocolate and sugary snacks), but I made an early exception for these fruit-based Indian desserts. They were pretty weird (and most Indian sweets look equally or more weird), so I don’t think my goal will be a problem.

Welcome to Injia!

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March 27-28, 2011 (including time travel)-

Two weeks after returning from South America, I’m on the move again—this time to India for 5 weeks.

Why India, Blake? Well, good question, Blake.

Honestly, India isn’t the big attraction for me: it’s the Himalaya.

Ever since I watched Seven Years in Tibet and met my friend Dan, a Brit who treks and works in Nepal, I’ve had the urge to visit the Himalaya mountains. I have no desire to do some monstrous climb of K2 or Everest or something like that, and I never have. I just love the beauty of the mountains, and the Himalaya combines that with the chance to experience a new (and, for a westerner, affordable) foreign culture.

So when I was planning my year out, slapping an India trip into my travels just made sense. I had the time, money, and no binding commitments in the States, so I jumped on the opportunity. I’m going to die sometime, right? Do it while you’re still young!

Another big plus for India was that my girlfriend, the esteemed potter Brenna McBroom of Asheville, NC (www.brennadee.com), also wanted to visit India. She threw a bunch of pots and saved up, and now we’re traveling together. Hot dog! It doesn’t get better than this.

A final motive for the trip is: to do research for a potential future Unschool Adventures trip. India is not a place that I would send a group without checking out myself, so here I am, and maybe we’ll run a trip there in 2012 if it all feels right.

Okay, enough background story. On to the photos!

Directly after the conference, Brenna and I got a ride to Chicago O’Hare airport to await our direct flight to New Delhi on a big fat 777 aircraft. Here she poses with our chariot.


The big novelty of this flight is the length: 14 hours. This is my longest flight ever. We entertained ourselves with reading, movies, uncomfortable napping, snacking, and joking about the older Indian man behind us who would forcefully push our seats into their upright positions when we attempted to recline.

My eyes often returned to the big flight information board in the front of the passenger area. Those hours ticked away slowly.


Arriving at New Delhi, Brenna was confused by the airport’s lack of bathroom signage. Which one to choose??


We waited around for our pre-arranged hotel taxi, which was an hour late, and then we waited a bit more for the driver to get gas, since he was on empty. In India, you have to pop the hood to fill the tank.


Now it’s 5:30am Delhi time, which is really 7pm Chicago time, and my body is hating on me for the jet lag. Our next stop is Chandigarh, four hours north of Delhi.

Travels Between Travels: Asheville & Chicago

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March 13-26, 2011-

Between South America and my next big international trip—India—I spent time at Brenna’s house in Asheville and presented at the InHome Conference outside of Chicago. While there were many highlights, here are the ones that I managed to photograph!

Hanna, Jonah, and Garrett wished me goodbye after all the other South America students founds their flights home from Miami.


I crashed with my old friend Tom Fiori (from Bakersfield and UC Berkeley) and his wife in Miami. He’s a radical anarchist, and we don’t see eye-to-eye on many things politically nowadays, but it was great to hang with him nonetheless.


In Asheville, Tara Dean (another former Unschool Adventuree) and her friend found us while driving across the country. A few days later, Tara was taking off to volunteer in Africa delivering babies. Dang unschoolers!


Fast forward to March 23-26, where I presented a ton of workshops at the InHome Conference—a 1000-person, all-inclusive homeschooling conference drawing people from all over the midwest. Here I led a teen workshop entitled “Indescribable Sexiness” (edited by the conference board to “Indescribable Attraction”).


Many former Unschool Adventurees were at this conference! Featured here (from the top-left, clockwise): Aytch, Nicolette (who applied to go on a trip that was canceled), Paige, and Claire.


They helped me run my exhibitor booth, along with Erica and Luke.


You gotta watch out at these homeschooling conferences—lots of tricky Christian games and curricula out there. Here, someone apparently redesigned the (excellent and non-religious) game “Settlers of Catan” to become “Settlers of Canaan”, where your goal is to lead your tribe of Israelites to salvation or something. I was offered 20% off because I told the guy that I was going to India, which he immediately assumed was discount-deserving missionary work.


But really, the highlight of the whole conference was seeing my name on a foil balloon. What more does the human heart desire?

Wrapping up South America

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March 10-12, 2011-

After Machu Picchu, I was spent. The next two days (the 10th and 11th) consisted of prepping for the return home, enjoying our time in our new-and-improved “party hostel”, The Point, and doing closing meetings & feedback forms.

Before the South America trip, Julie made plans with me to extend her travels. She flies out of Cusco, but not until early May! To fulfill her big plans to visit Patagonia and Bolivia over the next seven weeks, she grabbed a bus back to Arequipa the night before our group took off. Here, Jonah showered her with goodbyes, a.k.a. party foam leftover from Carnaval.


It’s okay, she forgave him…and Wyatt, at the same time. We bid farewell to Julie and wished her merry adventures (and lots of steamy hot Argentine men). She will be missed.


I did some last-minute gift shopping. I typically dislike bringing back touristy crap that no one will actually use. Luckily I found a nice lady who agreed to knit a custom cap for Brenna, inscribing the phrase “Throw or Die” on alpaca yarn. Unfortunately she neglected to include the spaces, and the inscriptions reads more like “THROWORDIE”, which throws many people for a ringer.


On Saturday morning, we grabbed three taxis to Cusco International Airport. After seven weeks of highly responsible room sweeps and maintaining control of virtually all my stuff, I forgot my shoes in the hostel in Cusco. South America strikes again!

Ingmar accompanied us to the airport and left us whimpering like puppy dogs behind a glass wall. (He’s also staying in South America a bit longer—just one week in Cusco.)

Here the group awaited our connecting flight to Miami in Lima, Peru.


Upon arrival in Miami the students kissed the floor, remembered what non-concrete-90-degree-angle architecture looked like, and thanked their creators for clean drinking fountains and reliable porcelain toilets. And ran up and down the moving walkways.


LAN Airlines courteously put us up in a four-star hotel for the night after not-so-courteously canceling our original return flight. The students pitched in and I ordered a Papa John’s pizza feast delivered to our rooms. Between this and the hot tub, we had some happy campers.


Not as happy as Jalen, who one week prior had pre-ordered a vegan carrot cake with “cream cheese” frosting to be delivered to the hotel.


Yum.


And to top it all off, Garrett (a former Unschool Adventuree) showed up.


Thus ended the Unschool Adventures South America trip!

Machu Freakin’ Picchu

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Wednesday March 9th

Guess what we did today? Yup. Visit Machu Picchu.

It all started at 4am, when we woke up and joined the line of people waiting for the first buses to Machu Picchu. We did this so that we could be some of the first people in the NEXT line, outside of Machu Picchu’s entrance gates, to get an authorization stamp to climb Huayna Picchu (only 400 people get to climb it each day, and it’s first-come, first-served).

Ahh, 4:30. What a magical hour.


After entering the park, our first stop was the “guardhouse” where we awaited our guide. Hey look, it’s Machu Picchu!


The last time I was in Peru (2007), my friend Patrick and I skipped Cusco and MP because they’re so touristy. Well, they are touristy—that’s a fact. But I really enjoyed finally getting to see the ancient Incan kingdom.


Requisite butt shot.


Trip leader shot.


Myspace shot.


…and a few more group shots.


Our tour guide loved talking about the triangles that are everywhere and how they relate to the glaciers and asked if we were “CLEAR TO THE IDEA?”


Vicious wild llamas wandered the ruins.


Wild “chinchillas” too.


And “Andean eagles”


We climbed up Huayna Picchu, the big mountain that you typically see photographed next to Machu Picchu.


Goodbye Machu Picchu.

Machupicchutown

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Tuesday March 8th-

We spent all day in transit to Aguas Calientes, a.k.a. Machupicchutown. This consisted of a gorgeous 2-hour bus ride from Cusco to Ollyatatambo folllowed by an equally gorgeous 2-hour train ride to Aguas Calientes.


Look how excited Lani was!

So Much Yet So Little Water

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Monday March 7th-

The hills of Cusco are steep.


Maybe that’s why there’s no WATER in our bathrooms from 6pm-6am. It’s just too hard to travel uphill at night. Despite the rain every day.

But really, Inca Wasi Hostel, don’t tell me every day that “we’ll definitely have water tonight”, and then leave me confronted with three unflushed toilets.

Carnaval

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Sunday March 6th-

We hiked to the “Christo Blanco” on the hill above our hostel this morning…Benji held a striking resemblance.


Cusco.


The early morning hiking crew.


Today, Cusco celebrated Carnaval. For those of you who don’t know what Carnaval is, it’s when the locals stock up on water balloons, buckets, spray guns, and foam spray canisters…and wait for the gringos to walk by.

Jalen felt the wrath of this group of locals.


Nor were the rest spared.


Lunch made it all better.

La Cuerva de las Ladrones

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Friday March 4th-

Last night I took the students to a discotheque that Malena (of the Spanish school) told me was hip with all the young’uns in Arequipa. The students reported a much higher incidence of balding middle-aged men. Ha! Too bad.

Today everyone packed up and moved out of their homestays and (staff) hostel in preparation for our night bus to Cusco. We did internet’ing and last-minute city exploring. Julie and Ingmar took Benji, who’s been dying for a good climb, to the lock rock gym, the Cuerva del Mono (¡que divertido!):


Unfortunately, Benji’s luck took a turn for the worse at the bus station. He left his camera out on a chair and a team of four female thieves distracted him (and the rest of group) while one of them “bumped into” the chair and grabbed the camera. (I wasn’t there—this is the story I got.)

Benji was thankful that this happened near the end of the trip. The camera was covered by traveler’s insurance, but there was no tourist police to file a report in the bus station, and police from one district (i.e. Cusco) won’t create a report for a crime that happened in another (i.e. Arequipa), so Benji is SOL in terms of getting compensated. Bummer!

You Can’t Slick the Slicker

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Thursday March 3rd-

[OKAY SO, it’s actually March 14th today. This is the farthest that I’ve been behind on my blog, but I’m determined to catch up.]

The highlight of this morning was tricking not one, not two, but THREE of the students into owing me a frappucino!

I did a classic card trick where they cut the deck, look at a card, put it back in the middle of the deck, and then I flip through the cards and tell them that I’m using my psychic powers to determine when the card is near. I purposefully flip past their card, play dumb, and tell them that the next card I’m going to flip over is theirs. I then get them to bet against this proposal, and then I crush their dreams by flipping over their card from the pile of discards.

Kina and Benji were the first to bet against me (a frappucino each), and Claire later did the same. Here’s me cashing in on my sweet victory with Claire.


On another sugary note, Inca Kola is the official soda of Peru. It tastes like a cross between bubble gum and vanilla cream.

Five Shots

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Wednesday, March 2-

A shot from our daily morning meet-up at Cusco Coffee:


A shot of Mount Misti, the volcano next to Arequipa:


A shot of Julie traversing the bouldering wall at La Cueva del Mono:


A shot of Ingmar scoping out the Mono himself:


And a shot of Ingmar doing a sick dyno:

Gatto in the Park

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Tuesday, March 1

This morning our group (minus Quinn, the late-sleeper) walked to Yanahuara’s central plaza and scoped some epic views of the surrounding mountains and volcanoes.


We discovered a few pleasant and quite side streets.


And we spent the rest of the morning discussing John Taylor Gatto, unschooling, and education theory in the sunny park. Very nice!