Masti @ Matheran

One of the lazy week end…decided to spend in Matheran along with my friends. Turned out to be a nice refreshing weekend thanks to calm and peaceful Matheran. Matheran is the smallest hill station of India, located around 90 kms from Mumbai, on the Western Ghats range at an elevation of around 800 m (2,625 feet) above sea level. Matheran is connected by toy train to the mainline rail route at Neral Junction. Neral Junction is well connected by local trains from Mumbai and Pune.

From Neral Railway Junction even sharing taxis are available which charge Rs.60 per person and drop till Dasturi Car Park. Dasturi Car Park is the point beyond which no vehicles are allowed to reach Matheran town.We preferred to walk  for 3 km from Dasturi park till Matheran Town.

Our walk through red dusty pathways was although tiresome [due to layers of fat on our bodies!!:) Indeed it was just amazing. Matheran is popular amongst trekkers. All trails in Matheran are well marked. So if you decide to explore the place by walk also getting around is not so difficult in Matheran.

 Matheran is an eco-sensitive region, declared by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India. It is one of the few places in the world where vehicles are not allowed. This is the uniqueness of the place, makes you feel like you are again part of historic era where you have no vehicles around. If you want to roam around the place you either walk or hire a pony/ hand pulled rickshaws.

There are so many Parsi heritage bungalows which are converted into Heritage hotels or resorts in Matheran.  Most of them have head office in Mumbai from where booking can be made in advance. Even so many tourist agencies are there just outside Neral Railway station for people like us who do not do advance booking of hotelsJ.

No noise pollution of honking horns or no air pollution – in short divinely peaceful place where you just get lost in serenity of natural surroundings.  You listen sweet songs of birds when you get up from bed; wherever you see around you find dense green forest and soothing smell. All in all a paradise to be in. An ideal place to spend a lazy week end.

Atithi Devo Bhavah...

Recently I had a chance to visit Adalaj ni Vav near Ahmedabad during holidays of Janmashtami. To give brief about this place, the term ‘Adalaj ni Vav’ is gujarati word  which means ‘A step well of Adalaj’. It is a master piece of magnanimous Indian architecture of Ancient Indian era. Adalaj is small town located near by city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat –India. One can easily reach through Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway route by road within 30 minutes from Ahmedabad. This step well was built in 1499 A.D. by Queen Rudabai. It is said that following its construction (which took 15 years) the entire workforce was killed-off to prevent any rival ruler or realm from replicating its work. 

When I entered premises of this step well in 2010 I was astonished by its cleanliness!! My eyes could not believe that this is the same rotten place which I visited along with my friends during my College days way back in 2004-05.

This was the scene at same Adalaj ni Vav in 2004-05. Although stone carvings of the well impressed us but pile of garbage kept here and there inside and outside Step Well’s premises depressed us at the same time. Most of the tourists whoever had visited this place earlier had put their name with charcoal here and there on walls of the Well. Also so many wrappers of empty food packets and beverages were lying inside the premises. Ugly act of few idiotic people’s urge to make their name remembered forever by writing their names on walls was spoiling the marvellous beauty of the Well.

Why people do think that by writing their names on wall of historic monument they will become eternal? Or rather I believe that’s the only way those stupid people know to make count on their names. They lack any other skill to get noticed in people’s eye otherwise!! Whatever it may be but as a tourist to that magnificent historic place of India we were not at all happy to look all this ugliness.

But what a paradigm shift in 2010!!! Here I go again to the same place; to my surprise the premise out side the well was neatly cleaned and maintained. There was a decent garden made outside the well for people to rest and enjoy with family. Inside the well all those idiotic names and funny jokes were wiped out from each corner and wall.

There was only sheer beauty of stone carvings and architecture of the Well in front of my eyes. Being a Janmashtami holiday there were few tourists also inside the premises around 100 of them. But at no place I found single peace of waste garbage. People were calmly roaming around the place and enjoying the scenic beauty of the well. What a drastic and positive change in 5 years!! I was very happy to see at least one historic tourist place in India getting back to its glorious well deserved respect amongst tourist.

I know still there is much more left to be done like proper parking arrangements are not there or decent hotel/ restaurant facilities also absent. But still The step well premises and its internal beauty is well preserved now.. and I was so proud to look it in this shape…

While coming back I was thinking about this facelift of the Adalaj ni vav. How and who would have made this to happen. So many probable reasons came in my mind which may be driving force behind this paradigm shift.

1. May be it was due to recent visit of Amitabh Bachhan and his shoot for Gujarat tourism Advertisement. All employees of tourism department of Gujarat would have gone there and put their force in full fledge to clean this premises out and put it back to its previous glory. But I visited this place many days after that shooting happened and the gap of few days is enough to make that place dirty again with kind of inflow of local tourists it gets everyday…

2. May be it was due to Aamir khan’s Advertisement ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’ for Tourism department of India. He has inspired common people in real sense and which has lead to generate awareness, respect and sensitivity towards our very own historic places amongst common man. http://www.incredibleindia.org/newsite/atithidevobhava.htm#3 
3. Or may be Generation Next of India our very own Youngistan has matured enough to exhibit self discipline to preserve such historic tourist places by them selves.

Whatever may be the reason but an avid tourist I would like to see such kind of paradigm shift at every place in all over India so that together we can make and vouch for ‘ATULYA BHARAT’. At the end I would like to share one link with you all which is created by Ministry of tourism http://www.atithi.org.in/. I really don’t know how effective it is but such a thought itself is driving us towards new beginning of the partnership of common people and government towards positive and Impressive India if we can really make it work and implement in true sense….

Ahhh..Lonavla

Hmmmm...I know I am back to blogging after loooong gap... but it is always better to be late than never right!

Recently I got chance to explore Lonavla and Khandala. What a refreshing and charming experience it was. These places get converged in to heaven during rainy season....I had heard only this sentence thousands of times but ahhhhh what an astonishing experience it was when actually I could feel it myself.

It was indeed a funny experience to watch madly rush of people engaged in activity of reaching out to every drop of waterfall to get drenched :). The vendors who were selling 'VadaPav' [Indian Fast food, popular in Maharashtra], Sweet corns, Bhajji [Very popular Indian fast food, especially in rainy season] right admist of waterfalls carrying umbrella in one hand and plate full of various food items just amused me.

Such an prompt and innovative idea to reach out to customers, create and cater to new markets for their business. Believe me each and every tourists present there were getting attended by vendors and their orders and payments were getting collected in such a orderly fashion. Shop owners who were having food stalls near by all these waterfalls; had also arranged life gaurds to save people if they slip down in water. Huuuh Boss here I saw corporate social repsponsibilty along with unique marketing technics as well. Do they really need to go to any MBA schools to learn all these management fundamentals? !!!

The beginning 2010....

Year 2010 started for me with my visit to One of South India's great temple towns, Madurai on 1st January, 2010. As per popular anecdote about this city- On the day the city was to be named, as Lord Shiva blessed the land and its people, divine nectar (Madhu) was showered on the city from his matted locks. This city was henceforth known as Madhurapuri, which later on became Madurai.

My mother was accompanying me this time. We started our bus journey from Bangalore to Madurai. It was scheduled to be only overnight journey and we were supposed to reach Madurai around 6 am. As usual when I am traveling it will never go smooth. Madurai trip was not different then that. You would have already guessed it by and large if you are regular follower of my blog.

I was as usual busy sleeping in bus and it was around 6 am my mother woke me up. She told that she is sensing something unusual the way driver was driving the bus. Bus was going Zigzag way on a straight highway which was very dangerous. In fact all passengers suspected that driver must be drunk that’s why he is driving like this. With so much annoyance for forced sacrifice of my dearest sleep, I got up and started to go towards driver’s seat to talk to him along with fellow passengers.

Suddenly one bus stopped just ahead of our bus, and that bus’s driver started yelling on our bus’s driver. Of course those hot headed dialogues between two drivers were in Tamil language and I could hardly understand anything out of it. One of my fellow passengers looking at my puzzled face came to rescue and translated their conversation. Our bus’s driver was getting scolding from other driver for his rash driving. Our bus’s driver was giving clarification that he is feeling so sleepy that he is not able to drive bus properly.

Hmmmm poor driver was forced to drive by his manager. Driver told he was continuously driving for 48 hours throughout various tourist locations. Their manager was not ready to give them rest even to sleep. Due to heavy rush of tourists, manager was lured to cash in profits by making all their staff to do overtime. as demand was high and his resourses to cater to that demand were optimal . The end result was that all of us were suffering…

We called our tour bus operator and asked if he can arrange to send any other driver so that bus can reach Madurai. But he showed his inability for the same and instead he started scolding driver. Horrified driver asked us to get in to the bus and he was all ready to drive the bus till Madurai in that condition. All the passengers chose not to continue in bus. Luckily after around 15 minutes waiting on highway one state transport bus stopped. We all got in to that bus and continued our journey towards Madurai.

Unluckily that bus was having TV inside. Let me put it this way, TV was not reason for our bad luck but the Tamil songs and comedy shows which were getting showcased in that TV were definitely the reason for bad luck for me and my mother. My mother was really terrified by continuous torturing of those shows and its super high volume.

With great respect for Tamil language I am not demeaning it by putting this statement. But to a person like my mother who has hardly listened Tamil words in life, to tolerate all Tamil songs, videos, comedy shows for almost 4 hours was really hell lot of pain.  We were like aliens in entire bus… on completion of one joke in TV almost all passengers used to laugh like mad people and enjoy every bit of it. The same time my mother was having exactly opposite reaction on her face.

I couldn’t stop my laughter on observing this contradiction in reactions. Looking at my laugh my mother got more irritated and started scolding me –“Why you are laughing now? As if you understand all jokes which they are yelling in TV here.”  I told my mom that my stay of 3 years at Bangalore and 6 months at Chile with all Tamil teammate’s gang at least gave me tolerance level now to withstand this language!!! She got more furious now as I was making fun of her irritation on those TV programs.

When finally we reached Madurai by 11 am, my mother took big sigh of relief. After almost 4 hours I saw a smile on my mother’s face!!!!! We took auto to reach Meenakshi temple straight away. Temple’s huge, amazingly sculptured tower at least reset my mother’s mood and took her out of shock of Tamil entertainment which she got in bus!!!

The Meenakshi temple is the geographic and ritual center of Madurai. The temple walls, streets and finally the city walls (ancient) were built around the temple in concentric squares, symbolizing the structure of the cosmos. Ancient Tamil classics mention that the temple was the center of the city and the streets happened to be radiating out like the lotus and its petals. It is one of the few temples in Tamil Nadu to have four entrances facing four directions.

While driving through lanes of Madurai, for sight seeing, suddenly our cab driver stopped our car at one corner. There was one Muslim durgah located there and just besides it a sign board of TVS Company was there. Driver started narrating stories of TVS then.

How many of us knew full form of  TVS Scooty  - The famous two wheeler which we drive in India. TVS stands for ‘TV Sundaram Iyengar and Sons Limited (TVSs)’. Needless to mention here that T. V. Sundaram Iyengar started his first business venture in 1911 in Madurai. I found utter respect and proud for Mr. T.V. Sundaram in Local public of Madurai. For them he was like a superhero.

My cab driver was showing us the place where TVS got started. TVS started its operations just behind one  Durgah [the holy shrine of Muslim Saint]. The company offices located there remains closed during prayer time of this durgah. According to his words Mr. TVS had utter faith in this Durgah. As gratitude to this durgah, he promised to the priest that his company will forever maintain it from the company’s funds. Mr. TVS believed that blessings from durgah were also one of the driving forces in success of the TVS Company. This is Real flavor of India don’t you think so.

I am not sure how true this information of TVS and its connection with Durgah was. But because it was given by a local person who had born and brought up in Madurai and knew the place for 50 years, my instinct tells me to believe in his words.

One more confession here, it was during return journey from this great temple city; the idea of writing this travel blog clicked in my mind. And then starting a travel blog based on my travel experience became my New Year resolution for 2010.

I know by and large this is the only one New Year resolution in my life which I am able to implement until now!!!! This visit was milestone for me. It gave me strength to revive life with new hopes and aspirations. I could gather strength to bounce back in life with my original zeal which I had lost somewhere.  Hope this new beginning will continue, and will give me enough interesting travel experience to share here in my blog.

Close Encounter with Death @Cajon del Maipo, Chile

Surprised by the title?!!! Well you will understand why I chose to give this title to my post... as it unfolds.

My stay in Chile was nearing to its end. My return tickets had been booked. Yet deep down in my heart I was wishing to make for at least few of the long list of destinations in Chile which I could not visit during my stay. Before finally I bid goodbye to this wonderful Latin American country, I wanted to make one Ghanchakkar trip.

Cajon del Maipo was one of that. It’s a is a canyon (as shown above in photo) located in the Andean southeastern portion of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile.. This time I was lucky enough to get few of my colleagues also to join in this trip. On one fine sunny afternoon of Saturday we all started our journey towards this marvellous place.

We had done our stay arrangements @ Cascada De las Animas Resort. I have only one sentence to describe this beautiful resort i.e. ‘A stunning place to stay and let yourself get lost in nature’s beauty.’

My main motive to visit Cajon del Maipo was to go for White water rafting in River Maipo. What an experience it was!!! Rafting is indeed an exciting thrilling outdoor adventure.... not to be missed in lifetime...

That Day Maipo river was flowing between Level 3 to 4. For people who are unaware of the Rafting, let me share this information. The International Scale of River Difficulty is a standardized scale used to rate the safety of a stretch of river, or a single rapid. The grade reflects the technical difficulty and skill level required associated with the section of river for Rafting. There are total 6 levels are defined according to this scale. Level 1 is easiest while level 6 is termed as unraftable river.

After finishing our insurance formalities we straightway headed with our instructor for Rafting. Before it got commenced there was briefing sessions for all of us. On our special request instructor gave us additional session in English language. At the end of the session instructor asked “How many of you does not know to swim?” It was only me in the entire group of 24 people who raised the hand!!!!

It was really a good and thrilling beginning, to put on special rafting attire, to learn how to handle paddle... to learn how to follow instructor’s order in case of emergency situation....instructor again and again repeatedly told all of us that even if you happen to get thrown out of Raft because of Rapids just don’t panic. Just keep flowing with the water , make sure to hold on the paddle, As the paddle is very costly, we can’t afford really to lose it ....He also showed us the Rescue Kayak and place of the holding hook where we can hold in case of emergency rescue is carried out in the river.

I have shared few of the images of our raft and team in this post. Initial 2 or 3 rapids went past smoothly and we were enjoying each moment. Typical team cheers after passing across each rapids was awsome feeling. Our eagerness and adrenalin rush started reaching high...so as the Rapid levels and the water force.

 It was a real wild, swirly and chilly river- roaring at its highest pitch and inviting us to conquer it. For a little while river was little calm, so guide asked all of us if we want to feel the water of river we can jump outside the raft and swim for a while. But of course it was allowed for people who can swim!!! Even though he was not very well versed with English language his ability to guide the team was exorbitant.

Mani, My friend who was also accompanying me on the raft told me: “Hetal I am jumping in the river, I can’t stop myself to feel this.” I stopped her forcefully, telling that she should not take that risk. After all we are all away..far far far away from our family. What will happen if suddenly rapid will come, unnecessary risk we should avoid taking. Mani started laughing at me telling Come on Hetal coming for rafting that itself is biggest risk we have taken, but if you are telling no then I will not jump. I even don’t know why I stopped her from jumping in the river for only 10 seconds even though she knew swimming. But my instinct told me to do so. And I forcibly stopped her.

We were reaching to our halfway through. Mani was upset with me. She was keeping on making faces and cursing me for not allowing her to swim in that wild river. We kept on laughing and enjoying the rafting.

Soon the force of the water became so much wild; we could here only roaring noise of river rapid and instructions by our guide to paddle backwards and forward. Suddenly one big rapid came and guide asked us to paddle backwards fast. I started paddling don’t know why I was getting tilted and sliding slowly in the raft towards outer side....I could hear one voice from behind.. From my friend Arun..”Hetal paddle it hard don’t move yourself why are you tilting towards right... keep on paddling and I am getting scared....”

Banggggggggggg.... those were the last words I could hear. Suddenly I saw a big white wall kind of forming in front my eyes and immediately next I found myself deep inside water. Total blackout. There was no voice of anyone, no breath, no light. It happened in flash of second...I could hear only wild sound of roaring water.

I tried to wave my hand sideways, to understand where I have come suddenly. I got only water around me. Still I was not able to see anything, I couldn’t hear anything. But at least I could sense that I am flowing inside dark water. Except this my mind was not giving me any signal. I was totally clueless on the situation on what is happening around and within me.

After 5-6 seconds I could think that may be because of that wild rapid, I am actually thrown outside the Raft and now floating in the water. But I couldn’t understand why I am not able to see anything, as I was wearing life jacket, ideally I should be floating on the surface of the river.

I started now trying to take stock of the situation by waving my hands in upward direction. I found some rubber kind of material up like a ceiling wall. I started to raise my head also up, I got hit with that wall kind of material and my helmet’s inner ring which holds the head got broke. So helmet got slide till my nose covering my both eyes. Except that wall kind of stuff up still everywhere around me there was only water.

After around 1 minute floating like this finally I saw some light from the little gap of close to 1-2 mm between my nose and helmet ring. Suddenly I started listening voices of Mani.. “There she goes.. She is on left side of raft floating away in the river... save her ...Hetal hold the rope... catch the rope”...Instructor’s voice ...”Don’t panic... we will save you...try to catch the rope.”

Now I could understand entire situation. Actually I was sitting on the right side of the raft, that wild rapid thrown me outside raft in the river. After I was thrown in river, because of the direction of Rapid or the flow of river I actually slide underneath the raft. And that wall kind of stuff above my head little while ago was nothing but our own raft. I was floating underneath it in river. That was the reason I could not hear anything. After some time raft got drifted sideways so luckily could come on the surface of the water because of the life jacket which I was wearing. And that’s how I could start see some light and hear voice of people. Now it was rescue time for them to save me.

Interesting situation isnt’t it :). I couldn’t catch the rope thrown by my instructor because of the broken helmet was covering my eyes almost entirely, I could hardly see anything. I started drifting farther and away from my raft and team. God knows why but my mind was following each instruction given by the guide at time of briefing of what needs to be done in time of emergencies.

I didn’t breathe inside the water, when I was floating underneath the Raft. This actually avoided the ice cold freezing water of Maipo River to enter inside my body. It saved my body to get frizzed underneath water. I didn’t tried to swim against the flow of water when I came to surface, instead I kept on floating in the direction of the water flow of the river keeping my body in same position as we were taught to keep in case of such situation. This avoided any injuries to my body due to rocks and wild water rapids in the river. All these things my mind was following without my deliberation and knowledge actually! I was letting my self float in water keeping tight grip on paddle which I was carrying. For me my paddle was only companion which was accomnying me throught out that deadly incident :).

On failure of rescuing me through rope, guide sent Kayak [Which can be seen in upper right corner of the photo] behind me to catch me. Kayak is a small boat which has a covered deck and can cut the wild river water and its swirls very swiftly. These kayaks are handy as last resort for rescue operations when no other technique has worked. After around 5 minutes of floating alone in mid of water, I could hear some Spanish voice around me. Yes it was from the paddler of the Kayak. I was thinking why Spanish should haunt me here also where I am struggling between life and death!!!!

I shouted on top of my voice: “I can not see annnnnnnnnnythingggggggggggg.”

Paddler on Kayak: $$$$%%%%########%%%%%%

Me: No Espaniol..Ingles por favour...I

Paddler on Kayak: $$$$%%%%#####%%%%

Me: I can see anything. English please.

I started waving my hand and I could feel its Kayak I am striking. I got relieved that now my life will be saved, finally safety Kayak has come to take me from this River. But because my vision was obstructed due to broken helmet I couldn’t see the holding hook of the kayak that normally a person is supposed to hold during rescue operation. Instead I started to hold paddle of the Kayaker. As a result of that he lost his balance and kayak turned upside down. I got slide further away from Kayak as well!

It was this time I actually lost the hope. I presumed that now Kayaker is also in the water like me, nobody can save me. I need to keep on floating in river, now god will take me wherever he wants. So I just closed my eyes and started visualising each of my loved ones one by one. May be it was last time in my consciousness I was going to feel them before me death. These thoughts were keeping me engaged and this time water came rolling down in form tears from my eyes. This was only moment in entire incident where I found myself weak.

To my surprise again after sometime same Spanish voice got struck into my ear. Bingoooo ..ray of hope again of my survival. Soon my hand got struck to the rescue kayak again. I, like a blind person, started banging my hand on kayak’s side surface to get the holding hook to hold on. This time I was lucky, I could catch it. I could hear voice: ‘Si Senorita, $$$$%%%%%%&&&&’. I assumed I have done the right thing by holding some part of the Kayak and that tiny little boat started drifting me towards our main raft. After 2 minutes or so I started listening clapping and cheer sounds from so many people. That gave me hint that I am reaching towards my raft now may be.

On reaching near to raft, our guide pulled me inside the raft. Mani rushed towards me and hugged me. I still remember her sentence: “Are you ok Hetal?” On waving my head upside down in affirmation to her question, She uttered: “ Lucky mad girl, you must have enjoyed there no? Instead of you I sould have got thrown out in water, I missed that feel , How exciting :) and she kept on laughing”.

I busted into laughter listening to her words. Guide asked: “ Hetal are you good to go? We are still half way though, we have to finish entire stretch... shall we continue, will you take your position and start paddling again?”

I nodded my head and straight away started to paddle again for onwards journey. We reached the end point after 30 minute and crossing few more rapids even worse than the one which thrown me in river. But this time I conquered them all....In return journey to the base camp in the bus all fellow tourists were talking about me and how they rescued me...:) . One lady came near my seat and told:” Brave girl, Heard about you just now, in spite of being a non swimmer you held on and fought for life and continued to raft again till the end... bravo Indian lady..hats off to your spirit.”

Unforgettable encounter with death....indeed. This was my last adventure in Chile which was so much memorable.

Rendezvous @ Pucon -2

The city of Pucon is the home of the 2,847-meter-high Villarrica volcano , one of the ten most active volcanos in the world, which has permanent fumaroles that may be observed from the urban shell. From the moment we stepped down from the bus the following image of Villarrica volcano kept following us where ever we went.

Straight away from the bus stand we rushed to our youth hostel ‘Hospedaje M@yra’. Youth hostels are really convenient place for all back packers in Pucon where the stay and food arrangement is offered at very nominal rate. They offer stay, cooking facility and free internet. We could meet so many backpackers from different part of the world here. Thanks to lonely planet from which I could get address of this youth hostel.

Even though I had done online booking of accommodation for only me, on request the hostel owner provided accommodation for Mani as well. This gave us positive thrust to just run for de tour of Pucon as it saved lot of time of searching good hotel accommodation.

Within no time we got ready and straightway headed towards the travel agency offices on Main Street of pucon. Luckily we could find one English speaking receptionist there. He helped us out to plan our itinerary for our stay at pucon and made necessary bookings for all guided tours.
Day :1

1. Caburgua Eyes, Magnificent Water Pools

Just 17 kms from Pucon there is magnificent scenery of roaring waterfalls coming through underground paths from Lake Caburgua. They gather in the middle of the lush forest through several small waterfalls and form little sparkling pools and transparent streams. Breathe taking place....

2. Lago Azul

The serene blue water of this lake made us speechless. We just stood there for 15 minutes in silence. Feel of eternal peace near this a divinely blue lake recharged us completely ....

3. Villarrica Lake

This beautiful lake is famous for its calm waters and water sports. This is the only place where we found crowd in Pucon. It is known as family hangout place. It is said that every summer an approximately 70,000 tourists arrive to its shores.

4. Hot spring Resorts

Most Volcanic Thermal Springs are nowadays part of hotel premises or resorts in Pucon. However you can find it convenient to stay in the not-so-cheap hotels, and have it as a base for more activities. There is no doubt the locations are excellent! Some of the names are Huife, Menetue, Palquin, Panqui, and San Luis. Others are in wonderful natural locations such as Termas Geometricas at the foot of a gorge.

Almost all resorts here have various thermal pools with different temperatures. An authentic place to relax and get rid of stress. We couldn’t afford to stay in such costly resorts but at least we could visit it for few hours…


Day-2
1. Villarrica Volcano hiking

The Villarrica Volcano is one of the biggest attractions for visitors to the tourist city of Pucon. Its original name is Rucapillan, which in the Mapuche language means "House of the devil". Its cloud of smoke, subtle though steady, makes the many tourists that visit the area to watch its explosions of magma from the proximities of the crater feel astonished. One of the most active volcanoes in Chile; the Villarrica has had 82 historical eruptions so far. The most tragic was in December 1971 and the last one was registered in 1984.

Volcano hiking a different, challenging and unique activity; that’s what climbing the volcano Villarrica meant to me. Pucon has this one peculiar view: a big and beautiful volcano that seems to be just a few blocks away.

Most of the agencies at the main street can take you to this trip. Rain and bad weather could ruin the whole activity. The money is not refunded because of weather circumstances if the climbing has already begun. I would suggest who ever goes for Volcano hiking in Pucon should have check on weather forecast.

The climb begins in the morning and it takes 4 to 5 hours to reach the summit, depending on the weather and mostly on your physical conditions. I and Mani started our hiking early in morning around 4 am with fellow 12 team members coming from various countries. We were given entire set of equipments which were needed for hiking from the travel agency itself. 3 guides were accompanying us to take us to the summit. Amongst them only one knew English.

As I explained in my previous post my father already warned me no to try any trekking adventure due to my injury. But marvellous beauty of Villarrica volcano tempted me so much that I couldn’t control myself. I preferred to try my level best to triumph this Volcano and reach the summit.

The sunrise view amidst volcanic range was one of the most unforgettable moments of my life. Those days another volcano of Chile named Lliama had recently irrupted. Lliama volcano can be seen from villarrica volcano as well. After reaching to considerable height we could see spectacular view of Lliama volcano. That moment i cannot describe in words here. The following photo clicked without zoom shows Lliama volcano in upper most part.

My ligament injury in left knee started to irrupt again before I reach the summit! Unfortunately, I wasn’t in a very good shape either so that I sustain my stamina to climb higher. After 6 hours going up, I finally had to start my way down.

After we reached base camp all i had to do was to wait for my friend Mani to come back. Suddenly the guide who came with me down to the base camp asked me to listen to the message on his wireless instrument. The reason behind that was the person was speaking in English :) and no need to mention that the guide hardly could understand English. Message was addressed to me and they told that my friend Mani is coming back!!!! That’s it... nothing more.

I was so much worried as I was completely unaware why she is coming back. Thoughts of she might have got sick or fallen made me so anxious. My anxiety made me behave strange a bit. Every 2 minutes I used to go to my guide and ask in my poor Spanish only three words ’Me Amiga… Informacion…’ [My Friend. Information...]

He was getting so much annoyed but he fully cooperated and helped me to get information... I could only hear Spanish voices sent over wireless... 'Dos chicas... Hindu chicas... %%%$$$$&'. There was no sign of her return even after 1 hour ...guide also got tensed that why she is taking so much time to come back....

I literally started now shouting on him why you guys are not able to locate her and tell me when she will return. Even though he couldn’t understand my English cries... but he interpreted my expressions... He took out his high zoom camera and started searching Mani through it. Luckily after 5 minutes he could locate her... and asked me to see her through his camera... a big sigh of relief that she is fine.

On her return she gave me this reason that she lost motivation to climb up once I came down half way so immediately after 15 minutes she also decided to come back to base camp. That ghanchakkar girl was posing for photos in all directions there and it was the reason of her late return.

A funny and freezing experience for me! Well, my left knee remained swollen for 2 days after that, but it was the most unforgettable part of my trip of Pucon.

Day-3

1. Villarrica national Park and Volcanic caves

First agenda of the day was an excursion to the interior of a volcanic cave forged by the lava during one of the eruptions, which lies on the foothills of the volcano Villarrica in Villarrica national Park .

On arrival the authorities supplied us with safety elements like helmets and torches. We entered the house of the volcanoes, where we were given a lecture on volcano logy. Lava flows, eruptions and a chronology of all recorded activity of the Villarrica are presented in this place.

Although our guide who claimed herself as English speaking guide, her English speaking ability was equivalent to our Spanish speaking/understanding ability. So the end result was we gained very minimal information from her lecture :). But looking inside the core heart of mother earth and to have closer look at few of the minerals, solidified lava inside the caves gave us very unique experience to cherish for the lifetime.

The very fact of thinking that we were inside an underground lava river very close to the volcano was a fascinating experience hard to forget. Our guide asked us to keep quiet and turn off our torches. The impenetrable darkness invaded me completely. I could see or hear nothing at all. Utter darkness gave me feeling like I am almost in a black hole.

2. Horse back riding to Salto claro waterfall

We came back from volcanic caves tour around 1.30 pm. Our return bus was at 8 pm in night, so we had still 6 hours with us to explore pucon more. As per our itinerary we finished all excursions around pucon. We were supposed to take rest after lunch till we pack our bags and go to bus stand for our return journey.

We had it all but still one thing was remaining which was horse back riding and waterfall. We both never wanted to go from Pucon without exploring these two activities. Within no time we decided to dump our rest session. Real pain started now to search for guided tour operator for that.

Almost all tourist agency offices were having fewer staff members as their fellow colleagues were off for lunch. Who ever we could find on reception desk was turning out to explain only in Spanish. Our funny Spanish conversation as it goes...

Me: Hola Senora..Otro tour.. Pucon...informacion porfavor...

Receptionist: Hola Senorita...%%%@@@######..

Mani: Hetal you go back I will handle her Spanish... [And she goes on... ] Senora... Agua.....hmmmm...

[Actually we knew word Agua in Spanish--which means water.. but no idea of Spanish word for 'Waterfall'. Receptionist gave two glass of water to both of us!!!!!! Thanks to Mani's Spanish attempt to explain that lady waterfall.]

Mani: Hetal let me try again to make her understand. Today our luck is not in our favour like first day that day how easily we found the English speaking receptionist. But never mind we will not lose courage... here I go... 'Gracious Senora, Water fall... Agua..Agua...Agua....[and she does acting for rest of the 'fall' word waving her hands down to explain her water coming down.... Receptionist had to interpret that we mean waterfall....:)]

Receptionist: $$$$$$$%%%^^^^^^!!!!!!!*****

No doubt why we are not in acting career.... we couldn’t enact simple Waterfall word and make receptionist understand the same.

After struggling for 10 minutes we decided to wait in reception area till English speaking receptionist comes back and helps us with finding our best deal for visiting waterfall and horse back riding. I picked up tourist magazine lying on a nearby table to just pass the time. And ahhh we found beautiful picture of waterfall on it. We were very much delighted as now at least we could show this lady a picture of waterfall and ask for information.

She finally understood what we wanted and straight away showed us her quotation for Waterfall tour on her computer. Immediately she arranged one driver and cab for us to reach the place from where we could hire horses to reach the ultimate destination.

On the way our driver told us that he is taking us to one of the beautiful and serene place of Pucon Salto Claro waterfall. Only way to reach there was through trekking or horse back riding. He helped us to hire 2 horses for us and a horse guide as well. But unfortunately as we didn’t book in advance we couldn’t find English speaking horse guide there...

Initially we were frightened to go for horse back riding with a guide with whom we will not be able to communicate in case of emergency. But our driver assured us that it will not be troublesome at all. So we decided to try our luck and headed on towards Salto Claro waterfall. After riding on horse about an hour our guide asked us to get down and start trekking into forest.

It was the steep Claro River ravine which ended in a spectacular water fall. A far-away beam of light caught our attention. A wonderful waterfall hidden amidst the native forest of Pucon. This fantastic waterfall hypnotized us with its sound. I am not able to find any word to describe the beauty of flora and fauna of the particular place... may be the photo will make for it...

As we moved farther from the city on our return journey in bus, I turned round to see the Villarrica for the last time. Such a satisfying experience… I could finally visit one of the most beautiful Mother Nature’s creations in the world. Truly Pucon is amalgamation of heavenly beauty of nature, quality tourist accommodations, efficient tourism agencies, hundreds of tourist activities and excursions.

Rendezvous @ PUCON-1

I was getting too much exhausted by long tedious software implementation working hours at office in Chile. Day by day our office timings kept increasing and so as my frustration. I wanted a break badly. That’s how idea of visiting PUCON, awesome tourist place located in Southern Chile got highlighted in my ‘Ghanchakkar’ mind.

Even after making so much of advertisement and efforts of luring my colleagues to join my trip of Pucon; nobody agreed to come with me. Going all alone on a tour of 3 days in Spanish speaking country where you are totally stranger was not at all a comfortable idea. Above all hardly could I communicate a single sentence in Spanish. But my irresistible ‘Ghanchakkar’ mind was pushing hard to go ahead and accomplish the tour alone.

Next sequences of events are narrated as follows:

Scene: 1[Telephonic conversation with my parents—Wednesday night]

Me: “Mummy I managed to get one day leave from my work so I have finalized a trip to southern Chile this week end.

Mom: “Great. I was telling you that don’t work like donkey there. Find out at least sometime for yourself. Explore the countryside and roam around. I am happy that at last you have executed my words. Go beta have fun.”

Me: “Thank you ma.”

Mom: “How about your food? Have you enquired whether vegetarian food is available there? Who all are coming with you? How far that place is from Santiago?.........” [Long list of motherly questions kept on flowing from other side of phone… for next 5 minutes…]

Me: [Intruding my mother’s questions session] “Ma please stop all these questions… I have planned everything. I am going to stay at one of the youth hostels in Pucon. There kitchen facility is also there, if I will not get vegetarian food outside I will make vegetarian noodles and will have it. I have bought many of it.”

Mom: That’s good. But you have not answered my question. Who else is joining you on the trip?

Me: There is little catch here ma, actually I am going alone. Nobody has time or interest from my team to come with me. Above all our boss is not ready to give leave to all team members at the same time as work will get hampered. But I have planned everything. I will take bus ticket from nearby station. I will do youth hostel booking online for my stay there. So all arrangements are well in place and I will not have any trouble even though I will be alone. You just don’t worry.

Mom: [Speaking to my father] Look your daughter has gone fully mad. This Ghanchakkar wants to go all alone to a place which is around 800 km away from Santiago. How is she going to manage it? She has never gone to that place ever in life, not knowing local language as well. You better strictly stop her right away.

Papa: “What I have heard from your mother is true? If yes than all plans you need to cancel right away.

Me: ”Not fare at all. This is not fare at all. You both were teasing me that after coming here I have seen only my hotel room and office. Tell mom when once we went to market and saw one young foreign lady roaming around, how nicely she told me that she is proud of youngsters like this girl who has the courage to explore unknown land and ability to go beyond horizon on their own, I want my daughter to inculcate these abilities… now what happened…. why you and mom are stopping me.. ”

[Bingoooo…right words at right time… and it worked.]

Papa: When are you going and coming back from your trip? And when will you send us photos? Can’t you extend your stay beyond 3 days? As this place seems to be far away; make sure you visit all the important tourist attractions there, don’t miss any. But yes send me itinerary and your hotel address of Pucon as well. Don’t go for any trekking adventure else ligament injury of your knee will get worst.

Me: “That’s like my father papa….I will email you my itinerary…”

[That night I kept on dreaming about my trip. Now I had only 2 days in my hand before departure. ]

Scene: 2[At office—Thursday morning]

Mani: What are you doing Hetal?

Me: I am booking my hotel stay in Pucon. In lunch time will go to book bus tickets as well for Pucon.

Mani: Ohh… so you have finalized you trip is it? Are you going alone?

Me: Yes...I will start on Friday night from Santiago and I will reach Pucon on Saturday morning. I will check in to youth hostel same day. Then for 3 days will roam around Pucon leisurely. I will start return journey on Monday night will join all of you in office on Tuesday.

Mani: Great plan. I wish I could have joined you. But go ahead have fun and take care.

Me: Thanks Mani.

Scene:3[At hotel room—Friday evening around 7.30 pm]

[I was packing my bag and having last look at itinerary suddenly phone rang it was Mani on Phone.]

Mani: Hey Hetal what time is your bus?

Me: It is at 11.30 pm. I will prepare dinner and quickly rush to bus station. How is your health Mani? [Mani was suffering from severe headache since morning that day and had to go to doctor for the same.]

Mani: Oh... I am extremely alright. Doctor gave good therapy so I am absolutely ok now. Where you bought your bus tickets from? Till what time those ticket counters are open any idea?

Me: Well I booked it from Universidad De Chile Metro Station. But I have to board the bus from Terminal Alameda located at Metro station Universidad de Santiago. No idea on till what time the bus ticket booking counters will remain open. What happened but?

Mani: No nothing happened. I was thinking that if we can get ticket for me as well then I want to join you on tour.

Me: [Screaming at top of my voice out of sheer happiness] what??????????????? You are coming with me? I can’t believe it. Now whatever will happen we both will go by hooks or crooks. I am so happy. Frankly speaking even though I was showing off that I will go alone and I will manage but I was also so nervous from inside about this trip. You have exactly 30 minutes to pack your bag. We will go early to bus station to grab your ticket. I know being a week end it will be difficult to get last minute ticket but we will surely take chance. Hurry up girl….

Mani: I have already done packing. We can start within next 15 minutes. You don’t prepare dinner, I have already made for you come to my room and have it here itself.

Scene: 4 [At hotel room—Friday evening around 9.30 pm in the Metro]

Me: Mani I think our metro station has come, we will get down here and will enquire from where we can board the bus for Pucon. We can get tickets from boarding point as well.

[Station comes, Metro’s doors open, and I am about to get out from train.]

Mani: Hetal stop wait for me. One of the flaps of my bag is stuck in the seat here… it is not coming out.

Me: Come fast train is about to depart we need to get down at this station itself. If we will miss this than getting down at next station and coming back to this station will eat away 30 minutes, which surely we can’t afford. Wait I will come there and will help you.

[We both started pulling bag out of the metro’s seat but it was badly stuck. Our efforts went in vain. Our struggle with bag was a means of free entertainment for fellow passengers in train. Bipper of metro’s door closure started to ring…we had exactly 5 seconds to get out...]

Mani: Ahhh here are the scissors; leave the flap in metro only if it does not want to come with us to Pucon. I will cut it right now. Nobody can stop us to escape…

[She cut the flap and we rushed … literally jumped out of the metro at last moment of door closure.]

Scene: 5 [At overcrowded Alameda bus station, Santiago—Friday evening around 9.40 pm]

Me: Who says that India is only crowded place? Look at this bus station; it is just similar to Mumbai’s local train station during pick hours. There is no place to stand also here Mani. At every ticket window such a long queue how we would manage our tickets?

Mani come this side I can see tour bus Pucon counter there and queue is also bit smaller as compared to other counters. 

[Rushing towards the counter…. To the clerk] I have got one ticket to Pucon for 11.30 pm bus. I want one more ticket in the same bus can you please check availability?

[After 10 minutes of pause….]

Ticket booking Clerk1: @@@@#####%%%%%%%% [All in Spanish.]

Me: This guy does not know single word of English Mani. Decoding his Spanish answer would take longer time. It is useless to talk to him. Why government here can’t make Basic English knowledge mandatory for all citizens?

Mani: Right now we don’t have time to discuss this stupid proposition of yours for Chile government. Come we will go to next counter and try our luck there.

[She rushed to next counter snatching my bus ticket from my hand. The bus stand was so overcrowded; I couldn’t find Mani anywhere nearby. Now another pain started along with ticket we need to search each other as well in that crowd. After 10 minutes of running here and there I could locate her.. Sigh of relief on face of both of us]

Me: Where were you? Ok no time for that question now we have got only last one hour. Hurry up could you get any information on ticket?

Mani: I enquired at other counter all the buses to Pucon for today are fully booked. No chance of getting ticket. Are you carrying your passport with you now? Flight rate for Argentina looks cheaper shall we drop idea of Pucon and head towards Argentina? What do you say? They are telling no need of visa and all, we can get on arrival visa after reaching there.

[Now this was a real ‘Ghanchakkar’ mind of Mani showing its presence.]

Me: Ok I don’t mind going anywhere in the earth apart from our office and hotel for next 3 days if Pucon tickets are not available for you.

[Meanwhile we heard one English voice passing by. From this person we got information that apart from Alameda Terminal there is another bus stand called ‘Terminal Los Héroes’ as well for buses going towards Southern side of Chile. It is at only 15 minutes walking distance. We decided to try our luck to get ticket for Pucon there. We started to run towards Los Héroes Bus stand thinking that if we will get two tickets for Pucon from there then we will come back to Alameda Terminal and cancel my single ticket.]

Scene: 5 [At Los Héroes Bus station—Friday evening around 10.40 pm]

Mani: [To ticket counter clerk] Two Tickets for Pucon please.

[Clerk didn’t understand. Now it was our time to exhibit our so called working knowledge of Spanish without single grammatical correctness. I took out my ticket to Pucon and showed it at counter.]

Me: Otro ticket.. Dos… Dos..Dos… [Other ticket…2...2]

Ticket counter clerk2: Senorita… @@@@#####???????

[Looking at our strange looks towards each other, a fellow tourist standing next to us in the queue came to rescue us. He knew English and told us that booking clerk is telling us to go to directly platform no. 10. One of the tour operators’ are planning to put extra bus at 11.45pm for Pucon looking at rush. If we were lucky then we may get ticket in that bus.]

Mani: Otro ticket... dos… dos...dos… Pucon…

Bus conductor: Si Senorita….@@@@####??????

[He kept on speaking something but along with that he gave us two tickets as well. Our joy was out of the world. At last we conquered the Chilean crowd and got the ticket to Pucon around 11.15 pm. Bus was destined to depart at 11.45 pm.]

Me: Mani I can’t still believe that we have the tickets with us. We have still 30 minutes with us. How about rushing back to the Alameda Terminal and canceling my spare ticket?

Mani: Ok let’s run again. Come this side; we have to take left to reach to that station.

Me: No Mani we have to go straight. I think you forgot the way to that station.

Mani: Ok than run fast…not much time left.

[After running for 3-4 minutes]

Mani: I sense that we were running in wrong direction… actually both of us have lost the way to Alameda Terminal.

Me: [I am still running though…] No no Mani we are in correct direction only….

I kept on running towards unknown direction carrying in one hand a bag full of food items and in other the water bottle. Mani had no option but to chase me.

Suddenly the plastic bag in which I was carrying biscuits, chips and other food items got tarred. Whatever Mani had stuffed inside it at last moment all went down on the road. Now it was compulsory for us to collect all the things as without those food items our stay at Pucon was going to be miserable. So we withdrew idea of cancelling my spare ticket and happily returned to our Bus Platform.

Although I lost around 70000 Chile pesos by not cancelling that spare ticket, but sheer joy of our triumph on all the hurdles of getting Ticket to Pucon never allowed me to repent for it. May be destiny never wanted us to withdraw our plan. Two crazy girls started their journey towards Pucon finally with lots of excitement. More on our Pucon trip… in subsequent posts…