Great Sand Dunes

Great Sand Dunes, CO

May 6-8 2011

My brother was in US on a month's visit, and was to stay at Fort Collins, CO for two weeks. I decided to visit him and we decided to go to Great Sand Dunes National Park for the weekend. They are the tallest dunes in America and is about 5 hours drive from Fort Collins, or about 4 hours from Denver. I had flown into Denver and taken the 'SuperShuttle' to his hotel Cambria Suites at Fort Collins on friday evening. We drove to REI, and rented a two-person tent, a sleeping bag and two sleeping mats. We also got some food and water to last us for the next day and night. We set out to the park on saturday, early morning, around 6.30am or so. The weekend was supposed to be warm and it was indeed a gorgeous day.

Our drive was quite scenic, and many of the views I have had from previous trips in Colorado came back to me...those during the amtrak journey from Denver to Grand Junction and vice versa, and from Denver to Boulder. My brother was having a good time, though, soaking in the scenic landscapes and taking pictures and videos as often as he could. As we approached the national park, we could see the stretch of the Great Sand Dunes with the backdrop of the Sangre De Cristo mountain range. It was quite a contrast. Imagine a desert-like land right in front of alpine forest. What a combination! We reached the entrance to the park at around 11.30, and hoped that there would be campsites still open in Loop1. Loop2 was fully booked. Luckily enough, we got a site just before the loop ended, site number 41, I think. Having secured a site, we had a bite and set out to the visitor centre to get some information on climbing the dunes. As it turned out, there were two major peaks recommended for climbing - High dunes and Star Dunes. The High dunes was closer, and the ranger told us that the Star Dunes could be seen from the High dunes.

Here is some information from a pamphlet about the dunes-

The sand originated from the San Juan mountains, over 65 miles to the west. Wind and water have been the primary movers of the sand. These dunes are estimated to be 12000 years at the very least. Research apparently still continues. The height of the dunes comes about because of southwesterly and north-easterly winds. The sand deposit apparently covers about 330 square miles. There are two major, shallow but swift creeks that serve as lifeblood for dunelife - Medano and Sand Creek. The national park is unique because it offers a variety of vegetation - desert, alpine and prairie!

So then, at about 1pm, we set out to climb the High dune, which is about 650ft or 198m in height. Well, to say the very least, we completely underestimated the height of these things. First thing, climbing sand is no joke. For whatever effort you put in, the return is maybe a few percent of it...Above a certain height, I was getting scared of going further because we were walking on slopes and I was constantly slipping with every step. My fear was that I would slip and end up at the base of the dune in some valley. Well, with some much-needed encouragement and support from my companion climber, we inched towards the peak. The good thing was that it was windy, which helped in bringing down the temperature of the air and the sand quite a bit. My brother was wearing sandals. The bad thing was, atleast for me, sand was getting into my shoes and after a while, it felt like I was dragging along a small sack of sand on my feet. I was visibly tired, though after getting finally to the peak. What was supposed to take us 1hour and 15min, took us 2 hours to get to the top. I sat down for good for some rest. As I discovered, it was a bad place to rest, since I was on a ridge, and there were strong winds coming in from two directions, alternating with each other. It made things a lot worse, with sand getting into my ears, nose, eyes, clothes through all possible openings. Well, no choice but to wait it out. My brother went on to climb a nearby peak, took some pictures and returned after nearly 20min, I think. If I remained longer, I am sure there would be a sand pile slowly building upon me. And boy, was I glad to start back down. Our descent took us less than an hour, I think. Once I learnt the technique of keeping a steady pace and not giving too much time for your feet to sink into the sand, I was happy to trot down, rather enjoying the views of the Cristo mountains and watching what other people were upto.

It was nearly 4pm by the time we got to the base. There was plenty of time left for sunset, and the plan was to get back to campsite, put up the tent in time for sunset, which was around 8pm. We set out to Zapata Falls, about 2.5miles away from the national park, and had passed it on our way in. It was a good thing we had taken the campsite, since otherwise we would have had to look for a campsite at Oasis Campground nearby, which I believe is about a few miles away from the national park. The ride upto the trailhead of Zapata falls was on mud roads, and we had our fears about any loose rock hitting the underside or puncturing the tires...etc..but then we got there. The trailhead was only about 1/2 mile. It was quite pleasant and it was here that I saw a violet-green swallow in flight. It was this bright metallic green shade and I was pretty sure of the bird. We reached the falls area and saw that the creek was still not completely water, and had plenty of ice. My brother walked a bit further to explore the areas with ice in between crevices and cliffs. I stayed on, listening for birds or wildlife. It was a good place to rest a while. We headed back, and got to our campsite at about 6.00ish. The next adventure was to set up the tent.

Having had some experience in setting up a 6-person tent back in Florida, I thought this was easy-peesy. As I discovered, all tents are not made the same way, obviously. This one had no 'crossing' of the two big poles and that was my first mistake. The air was getting chillier and drier. After battling with the two biggest poles for nearly half hour, we finally figured out how they were supposed to be. The next battle was with the rain fly. I am sure we would have never cursed any other object so much as the rain fly that day. It just seemed totally counter-intuitive. Anyhow, by the time we got that figured out, it was a little after sunset, and twilight had set in. It was nearly 8.30pm and we were starving and quite tired. Had an apple, but being more tired than hungry, decided to sleep early enough. I was in bed by 9.00 or so, I think. My brother had gone to bed about 20min earlier, I think. I was quite cosy and slept well till about 2.00am, I think. The cold woke me up, and I could not find more protection for my toes (they get coldest the fastest and stay coldest the longest). Anyhow, I slept fitfully after that, waking every hour or so...(this was better than Grand Teton, where I used to wake up every 15min or so, thanks to the cold).

I finally got out of bed at 5.15am, and decided to walk around, capture sunrise, and do some birding (this would be the first time I would be birding alone). It was quite chilly, but walking helped a bit. I could hear some bird calls, and occasional fluttering of wings nearby, none recognisable, though. Daylight was slowly coming in. I soaked in the view of the first rays of the sun on the snow-clad Cristo mountains and took some pictures. The sun was lighting up the dunes as well (we had a decent panoramic view of the dunes as well). I watched a herd of mule deer as they came close the campsite, feeding on the grasses. There were many birds, out of which I could identify a few, Scrub Jay, brown-headed cowbird, some swallow, raven, chipping sparrow, turkey vulture...the best part was, the binoculars enormously reduced my frustration of my lack of knowledge of bird names. I could identify features upclose and use it to confirm or search for the bird in the book. The sight of the turkey vultures on the mountain sides was quite something. It was about 7.45 and life was stirring in all the campsites. Since we had some time before driving back to Denver airport, we decided to go for a short hike upto Medano creek, however far we could get. I saw more birds on the way, including some swallows, possibly vesper sparrows and more ravens. We walked till the Sand pit, the view from which was quite good. There was a stream below, with the dunes and the mountains behind it. It was nearly 9.00am and we had walked about an hour, which meant that it would take us that much time to head back. We had already packed everything in our car before we started on the trail. So we saved quite a bit of time on that and could start immediately. Our drive was shorter (we were driving about 5-10mph over the speed limit) and we reached 'Masala', a vegetarian Indian restaurant in Denver. Hungry, we had a good lunch, and headed to the airport. I had about 2 hours at the airport, during which I slept for a while. Well..for a weekend trip, I think we had a fairly good time! I would have loved to go all the way to Medano creek, but anyways, maybe another time!

Dixieland

Trip to Florida - 22nd Dec - 26th Dec 2010

Dixie, Dixieland – (from the Mason-Dixon Line of latitude, the northern limit of legal slavery). The eleven Southern states that seceded and fought against the USA in the American Civil War: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia; still used affectionately by Southerners. Now you know why I chose this sobriquet for Florida.

It was time to gather the Yellowstone trip gang again, this time to Florida. December is the best time to visit Florida, since it is the dry season and mosquitos are minimum (yes, not non-existent). I missed the last trip to Florida (the gang comprised of Ashok, George, Priya and Sreshta then, in 2008), since I headed to the Big Apple. This time, I wanted to make it. Ashok did not accompany us this time. And so here we are (George, Issac, Satya and I), our trip all planned out (almost, actually) and in Miami on 22nd night. Here is a gist of our itinerary-

23rd - Biscayne National Park

24th - Big Cypress National Preserve

25th - Everglades National Park

26th - Everglades National Park + Keys

The above is a very good summary of what we essentially did, and what I am describing below are my own recollections, including somethings which did not go according to plan. I had borrowed Somenath's camera, a Canon Powershot SX10 IS, which had remarkable zoom, (so called 20x zoom and 4x digital), which essentially meant zoom from 28- 550mm and the crop factor is not applicable here (it is valid only for DSLRs). http://www.dpreview.com/news/0809/08091703canon_sx1is_sx10is.asp and http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/cameraDetail.php?cam=1277. Armed with a great compact camera, binoculars, Sibley's bird book (Audobon's bird book would be a addition later on), I hoped to capture quite a bit of wildlife on camera and binoculars.

So here I was, at Miami Intl airpot, on 22nd night, having claimed my baggage (boy, it costs to check in 1 baggage these days, ie 25$) was waiting to secure an airport shuttle to the car rental center. It turned out that all the car rental offices were grouped in the same building, and the shuttle basically drove us there from the terminal to there. I had booked the car with EZ car rental. Things were smooth, met the trio in front of the car rental office. As it turned out, 565$ was the base cost, and the insurance was not included. So with basic insurance (no insurance for people or third party) it came to 700$. Well, there was but little choice to go for it. I had also printed out maps among all planned destinations. So I pulled out my first map from Airport to South Beach Hostel, Miami beach. As it turned out, I printed the instructions from the airport, and not from the car rental centre. So here we were, doomed to follow either the GPS that I possessed or the GPS on Issac's phone. We also had a local map from the car rental place, where the guy showed us how to drive out of the area and head east towards Miami beach. But the trio had other plans. They wanted to go to Walmart to buy supplies. Tired as I was from the journey, I basically wasn't prepared to think too much, and just tried to follow directions as Issac was giving me. Now he is a pretty cool guy, and he tells you 'you can do this, or you can do that'....and is not really bothered about keeping up with any 'plans' as such. Well, when he sat in the front, he tried to give me directions, but his phone was being a bit slow and soon we found ourselves proceeding in the opposite direction (west) we were supposed to be on. And by then, I was against the idea of going to Walmart and so said that I would rather go to the hostel than search for directions to Walmart at that moment. Being the only driver, I had quite a bit of leverage, and they had to consent. We turned around, and headed towards the east and finally reached the hostel. We then found a CVS pharmacy nearby which had quite a number of things we needed, for instance, bread, jam, cookies (note: I voted for Macadamia nut, and Issac voted for chocolate chip and at the moment, ended up buying the latter), cutlery etc...was I glad that we did not have to go to Walmart the next day morning. Having had a light dinner of 1/4 pizza and a spot of dessert, I hit the bed, since we had planned to catch the sunrise on Miami beach the next morning at about 7am and needed to pack up and head out by 6.30am.

23rd- We made it to the beach, it was only a couple of blocks away. And what a beauty! I think the shot with the sailing boat silhoutted in front of the sun was a good stroke of luck. We saw quite a number of sea gulls, in particular the Black-tailed gull, and maybe a couple more. Having taken in the sunrise to the fullest, we left the beach around 7.30 towards Biscayne National Park HQ (Convoy point). I grabbed a couple of sandwiches and suggested that the rest eat on the way, since we had atleast an hour's drive anyway (and there was a unanimous nod). I pulled out my second printed map from South Beach hostel to HQ and hoped that we would not have to take any detours. Satya decided to sit in the front this time, and for the most part, he navigated pretty well. The journey was surprisingly smooth, and we actually reached there around 0850! well, 10 minutes ahead of schedule! That has not quite happened in my life so far. Giving myself a pat on my back, we proceeded to enquire about the reef cruise we had booked (starting at 1000). We could rent wet suits for 10$ or so. Issac, Satya and I rented suits, and George decided to stay behind and therefore, take care of our stuff on the boat. Biscayne NP is the largest marine park and fully underwater park in the US, with mangroves shorelines, a shallow bay and living coral reefs. Well, the current agenda of the reef cruise was to target the coral reefs. We practised putting on the snorkels and the masks beforehand, and I practise breathing solely through the snorkel for a few minutes. It seemed alright, till I actually got into the water. The first few seconds were panicky and I did manage to swallow some sea water (yuck, how salty it is) before I got control of my snorkel and relaxed enough to breathe normally through my snorkel, constantly reminding myself to NOT open my mouth however awestruck I may be while looking around in the sea. The boat had been parked in an area with deeper sea floor and we had to wade through the water to get to the reef area. Once you get over the inital fear of going away from the boat, you forget any sense of what time is like. Each coral, each brain finger or staghorn coral, is actually a colony of thousands of tiny, soft bodied animals. These animals called polyps, are relatives of the sea anenome and jellyfish. Rarely seen in the day, the polyps emerge from their hard stony skeletons at night. It is then that they feed, catching drifting plankton in their outstretched tentacles. Corals tend to grow in shallow waters, maybe in a depth of about 10ft or so...this was an advantage as far as viewing is concerned. I definitely did not want to dive, and did not how to, anyway. So closer it is to the surface, the better. Among the magical stuff that I saw, there were not only the corals themselves, but also the fish! Here is an excerpt from the NPS website, that summarises the reefs part -

"Corals aren't the only reef dwellers though. Sea whips, sea fans, and other soft corals sway back and forth in the current, giving the whole reef the appearance of movement. Bright sponges feed by filtering small plants and animals from seawater. Christmas tree worms burrow directly into the stony coral skeletons, adding tufts of red, orange, and purple to the grooved surface of brain corals. Algae and other plants growing in and around the reef provide an important food source for fish, shrimp, crabs, and a myriad of other animals. For most people though, it is the fish that give reefs their magical qualities. "

I could swear that I counted atleast 15 different kinds of fish, obviously I could not identify them at that point, but I was just awe-struck by their grace, beauty and effortless lives in water. And the diversity in their shapes, sizes, colours and movements! Before I describe anything else, Satya spotted a nurse shark, and he had the fright of his life. He in fact was in a fit that the diver did not mention the possibility of seeing sharks in the waters. On the other hand, when Issac saw the shark, he did not know that it was a shark, and actually started following it! Well, I am sure how I would have reacted with a predator species in front of me. Apparently nurse sharks are harmless and they do not care about humans. Good for Satya (and to some extent, Issac)! I took about 15 minutes or so to get used to the water, and later on when I did reach the coral reefs area, the next 15-20minutes felt as though time suspended itself for me to just float and watch this fragile ecosystem going about its daily life. Some of the fish(images of which I searched online) include the Barracuda, blue tangfish, angelfish, atlantic needlefish, rudderfish etc..(there are 512 species listed in the NPS website- http://www.nps.gov/bisc/naturescience/fish.htm and I am better off listing a few that I speculate to be the ones I saw). Anyhow, that being said, the 1 hour in water turned out to be more fruitful than I expected. On hearing the hoot of the boat, we returned to the deck. I was a little cold and a bit shaky from all the drama in the water. I was also thirsty, and little did I realise how dry my throat had become from the ingestion of salt water and breathing through the mouth. We got back to the docking area around noon. Well, having successfully carried out the first part of our agenda for the day (I had not even expected to reach there on time, hence expected to take the tour in the afternoon), we had the afternoon to ourselves. Close to the parking lot, we saw quite a number of birds- Turkey Vulture, shiny cowbird, Red-winged blackbird, House sparrow and some more which I have forgotten at the moment. We decided to canoe, since we had an upcoming canoe trip on the morning of 25th and needed some practice anyway. As fate would have it, George decided to take his camera, I did not, and instead took binoculars and Sibley's in Issac's bag along with our waterproof cameras. Misfortune set upon us, and thanks to our lack of experience of canoeing and the existing staff personnel's ignorance on general techniques itself, we were not seated correctly. This, coupled with an angular push into the water by that personnel tipped the canoe into the shallow water. Luckily enough, we could immediately stand up, and the first thing I did was to pull out George's camera bag out of the water. I was sure that George could manage standing up and walking out of the water. This turned out to be not quick enough, and soon we discovered that the lens and the body had imbibed a bit of water. The camera bag and other items, including George's cell phone were completely wet. A dim moment, it was. We decided to dry the equipment as much as we can in the trunk of the car. That signaled the end of any canoe ventures, and had decided that 25th morning canoe trip was pretty much out of bounds for our capabilities at present. Sigh. So much for our adventure spirit. We did have another option for the afternoon, which was to peddle. We took out a 4-person peddling boat and this time, wisely enough, just took the binocs and Sibley's. Satya took his pocket-camera though. It was a very good afternoon after that, and we spotted quite a number of birds (of which I have no pictures, again because this time I intentionally did not take my camera) - Little Blue Heron, American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Cormorant, Great Egret, White Ibis, Laughing Gull, Mourning Dove..for a few. It was about 3.45pm when we returned to the dock area. Having had an eventful (ahem..) day and with some more time on our hands for the evening, we decided to go to Walmart to get some supplies for the next couple of days (since we would be camping etc). This was Super-Walmart and what a place. Never go to one, if you can help it. I just got completely lost in it. It was around 6.45ish when we were back on the road to South Beach Hostel for the night. That night we went to the "China Grill", a 'global' cuisine restaurant, which means that the menu though supposedly chinese, has mix-match of cuisines from around the world. For instance, there were Sushis, Madras curry(err..) ! Anyhow, I went for the only veg entree on that menu, a Chopsuey dish. I did order the vegetarian sushi and discovered that it was definitely not one of my favourites (that is putting it mildly...I tasted one, and gave the rest to my companions..:)) The chopsuey was alright for the moment. We returned to hostel, and decided to do laundry. As it turned out, there was only one functional dryer, and two washers. So Issac, George and I decided to play cards. We started off with George's usual, "O what the heck" game (a bidding game), one which we (Ashok, George and I) also played at Salt Lake city airport on our last trip to Yellowstone Lake. I had forgotten most of the rules, but I caught on soon. Issac left me and George far behind (I mean really far behind, by being ahead with points with George and I put together)..and it was left to be seen as to how close George and I were to each other with every 'trick'. We had a great time, with George and I admiring Issac's confidence with every bidding. Soon we had finished two rounds ( I managed to stay a little ahead of George), and then decided to play in the laundry room itself, so that we could keep track of when the last person's dryer would get done. There, we decided to play Uno, a game I suggested. It was much less brain work, which was better, since I was getting tired. This went on for another hour or so, till about 2.30am...when I called quits and went to bed. Issac and George stayed up till about 3.30 till the dryer got done. I was worried about my sobriety next day and wanted to have my 6-7 hours of sleep..that meant missing the sunrise next day at Miami Beach. Well, this or that. I slept peacefully till about 8am or so.

24th- Getting up at 8am in a public hostel is not the best plan. The bathrooms were full, a bit messy and I had to go to the second floor to have my bath. I had to have a head bath to get rid of the salt water and make it less 'wild'. This took time, and by the time I was ready, it was 9.45. We had complimentary breakfast in the hostel, and after adding some time to the parking meter till about 10.30 or so, we had our breakfast, packed our stuff and headed out to Big Cypress (BC) National Preserve, Oasis Visitor Center. BC is located in Southwest Florida between Miami and Naples. US 41 (Tamiami trail ) is the main road that traverses the site. By now, I knew some of the main expressways in Miami, including 836 E, W, 95 N, US 1 (also called S Dixie Hwy) , Florida A1A (also called MacArthur Causeway. which continued as 5th st on the east side, and 395W, 836W on the west side and was part of bridge connecting the mainland and Miami Beach area) and as long as I stuck to a middle lane, I could easily switch to the right or left lane, depending on where the exit appeared. Dolphin expressway looks intimidating on the map, but when you are on it, if you follow directions, it is true to the word, and I enjoyed driving on it. It was only about 60mile drive and we reached the center area at around 11.30 am or so. We decided to go the campground straightaway, since we could set up the tent and then go around. Midway and Monument Lake (ML) were both FCFS, and Midway came first. Since we were not sure about existence of a lake in the Midway area, we drove further to ML. Supposedly, there was supposed to be a campfire program that evening. So we headed to ML. Once we set up our tent around noon, we decided to do the Turner river loop (about 17mi) that afternoon. The drive starts at H. P Williams Roadside park. This is a boardwalk area, and we saw plenty of wildlife here itself- Alligators, turtles, fish and wading birds (Little Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Limpkin, Green Heron, Anhingas, Cormorants, white Ibis) and Black Vultures, Turkey vultures . The sharp beak of the Anhinga contrasts with the hooked beak of the double-crested cormorant, otherwise in many ways they look alike. The Anhinga is also called the 'snake bird' because it swims with only the head and neck visible like a water snake. Apparently both perch with their wings spread. Apparently this posture allows a combination of wind and sun to dry their wings and removes water parasites. As we drove on, we saw ourselves stopping every few hundred feet to spot more birds. These included more egrets, the black-crowned night heron, wood stork, American bittern (of which I do not have a pic), belted kingfisher, Osprey (yes!), American Coot, Common Moorhen and more vultures. There were also many field birds, but we (mostly George and I) have little experience with flight patterns or sharp eye for identifying features of small birds, and so we had to be content with looking and identifying bigger birds that time. Soon it was around 5ish when we were close to completing the loop. We also decided to do the Kirby boardwalk, since it is a very short one, about 1/2 a mile or so. It was close to dark and I could capture sunset in the parking lot area of the boardwalk. We took one flashlight and starting walking. Towards the end, I spotted an owl perching on the edge of the boardwalk. It was a barred owl, and did we feel lucky! I had not seen an owl that upclose, and it felt good. I wish I could have heard it hoot, though. :) . There was another large wading bird in the water, but being dark as it was, could not make out what it was, looked like an Egret, maybe. It was about 6.30ish by the time we got done, and decided to head back to ML, in time for the campfire program, supposedly at 7.30pm. As it turned out, the ranger at ML told us that it was to be held at Midway that evening, but when we drove out there, we did not see anything indicative of a campfire program, leave alone a campfire, or any arrangements remotely pointing to it. Well, so much for the research online. We headed back to ML. That night, George and I had a good chance to experiment our star-gazing skills. I searched quite a bit for my star map, but no luck. But I still had my compass and the astronomy handbook. After changing spots a couple of times, we consented to sit on a picnic table close to the entrance, where there seemed to be less trees and more open space. Clearly, our sense of direction was not still right, and we were not seeing stars in the expected positions. We had confusions about the horizon on the map, and as to the directions pointed by the stars. Added to this, the moon was coming up on the east, and brightly. It was creating enough light pollution that we could not make out the usual stars to a lesser extent and so decided to call it a night after that (also there was some rustling in the bushes behind us, that spooked me out first, the reaction which I passed on to George and also spooked him out). We would try again next night, at Flamingo campground.

25th- I slept fitfully, thanks to the opening on one end of my sleeping bag and my feet being constantly cold. I did get up finally in the morning before sunrise. Satya awoke with me and we decided to go and capture the sunrise (I also wanted to do some birding). I only took my camera and no binocs or bird book. Over the lake, it was a very beautiful sunrise and I tried to capture the 'mist' over the lake with my camera. The birds were all coming out now, and were they active!! They hardly sat for a couple of seconds. Capturing them was no easy task, and pretty soon, I was zooming in and out without many clear shots. Among some of the birds that Satya and I managed to observe together were- Broad-winged hawk, Northern Mockingbird, Red-bellied woodpecker, Killdeer and many smaller ones. We returned to the campsite, and after freshening up a bit, I went for a second round of birding with George, this time he carried the binocs and Sibley's. Now the birds seemed to be more 'stable' and perched longer than just a few seconds. That enabled me to take some pics of the above mentioned birds and also others, like Gray Catbird, Eastern Phoebe, Yellow-rumped warbler, perhaps orange-crowned warbler, northern mockingbird and some others which I have not been able to identify yet. Anyhow, having spent the better part of the hour on birding, we returned to the campsite, packed up everything and started to Everglades National Park (which is south of BC). Our initial plan had been to go to Gulf Coast Visitor center from where we had planned to take the Ranger-led canoe trip. Now that our canoeing dreams were destroyed, we decided it would be better to proceed towards the direction of the campground for that night, which was Flamingo campground.

Shark Valley (SV) visitor center was on the way and we decided to stop here for a while and then just proceed to Flamingo. Apart from waiting at the entrance of SV (because the entrance booth ran out of printing paper...haha) we got there in time for a tram tour around the valley. The tram tour is 15miles long and it was to last about 1hr 45 min. The tour turned out to be better than we thought. We spotted alligators (all along), cormorants, great egret, pied-billed grebe, wood stork, roseate spoonbill, little blue heron, great blue heron, green heron, purple gallinule ( did not take a picture of this till we reached the Anhinga trail), common moorhen, turtles, male and female anhingas, glossy ibis and black vultures..We got done at about 3pm or so, when we decided to go to the Anhinga and Gumbo-limbo trail (if possible) near the Royal Palm visitor center in Everglades. The Anhinga trail is only 1/2 mile, but it is rich with wildlife. There we spotted Anhingas(ofcourse.....I had grown tired of it by now..its like watching crows in chennai), black vultures, purple gallinule, alligators, all the herons, egrets, wood stork, possibly grackle, american crow...I am not sure if I have a complete list...there were other small field birds which we obviously saw, but could not identify. It was almost dusk by the time we got done with the Anhinga trail, nevertheless, we decided to walk a bit on the Gumbo-limbo trail. It is much more wooded and longer. It grew dark quickly and we could hear some bird calls, but did not stick around for too long, since mosquitos also started making their appearance. We drove over to Flamingo campground, which was 38 miles south of Royal Palm visitor center. It is a much more 'posh' ground, with shower facitilites and some electrical outlets in the bathrooms. I took a good shower and had some lentil soup for dinner(cold). The tent was up and ready. It was around 8pm and George and I decided to give star-gazing another shot, this time following our theory of 'local directions', which is that since we were having our maps down, the directions were all opposite and we went by what is called 'local directions'. The Milky way was visible, for starters. For the next 1 1/2 hours or so, we made quite a bit of progress, and identified, starting with Orion and Cassiopeia by George and then onto Perseus, Camelopardus,Andromeda, Pegasus, Ursa Minor, Ursa Major in the vicinity of Cassiopeia and Taurus, Gemini, Canis Minor, Canis Major and Monoceros. This was quite a bit of achievement, considering how confused we were the previous night. I strongly felt like we had done our 'school homework' properly and all said and done, the feeling of wanting to go out and play surfaced and we had a good laugh about that. :). George then decided to take a shower and I decided to curl up with Sibley's and Audobon book to recall some of the birds that morning and make notes of some features to watch out for next time. George did some more star gazing after he took his shower, but now the moon had started coming out, and he was soon losing the clear skies. We had also stopped gazing earlier because of a big sheet of clouds moving across the sky. Well, not too long after, George joined us in the tent, and went to sleep.

26th- About 4am or so, Satya woke us up. It was very windy and raining outside. Water was seeping in between the fly and the tent thanks to the wind, and was dripping at the center. Issac and I were at the center and George and Satya were towards the ends. The corners of the tent had started accumalating water and judging by the ferocity of the wind, we decided to be ready to run in case one of the clamps holding a corner gave away. I packed all the papers into George's bag and kept only the flashlight with me. After a few minutes, 'bang'...it was the tripod head (Satya's I think) that rolled over and hit my head...that's it. One of the clamps indeed had given away, and it was time to get out, fold up the tent and run to the restroom area for shelter. We put our sleeping bags in the car, and rolled up the tent and the fly. For the next 1.5 hours or so, we were standing in front of the restrooms trying to play '20 questions' posed by the rest to guess a movie thought by one of us. I decided to go first, and thought of 'Twister'...well..it is not my fault if I thought the movie was made after 2000? I remember seeing it in theatre during college..which is after 2000...hmm..Issac was pretty mad about that. (It was made in 1996) So finally they did not get it....(heheh)...and then you know, the usual nitpicking started...saying..you misled us...etc..etc..thankfully it was nearly daylight by then.The rain had stopped and it was just slightly windy. We felt that most of the water that came through the tent might have been from the water dripping from the leaves, since we had set up the tent under a tree. We decided to walk to the shore or the bay area where we can capture sunrise by the water. On the way, we saw some birds- Ibis, brown night heron (I do not have a picture of this, since my camera batteries had run out and I had to wait till we got to some visitor center), vultures, a flamingo (I am almost sure of this, since I saw the very long neck, and sharp beak as opposed to the spoonbill)....sunrise was gorgeous. It was around 7.30am already and we decided to pack up and leave soon to catch the boat tour from Flamingo Visitor center. There were 2 boat tours, one was a backcountry cruise in the bay area among the mangroves, whereas the other was on the open sea. I chose the former, since we did not canoe the previous day and hadn't seen much of the mangroves at all.

No regrets on choosing the backcountry cruise. I had still not seen any manatees and hoped to see atleast one that day. Luck was not to be on my side. The naturalists on board were most informative, telling us quite a bit about the vegetation around us. They pointed out 3 types of mangroves (one of them being 'walking' type possessing 'prop' roots that aid in this), an invading species (forgot its name) and the Manchineel tree, one of the most toxic tree. It is said that if you sleep under the tree and it rains, you will be bathed in battery acid, and ingestion is fatal. Well, not a good way to die, eh? Here we spotted some of the birds we already saw- yellow-crowned night heron, blue heron, american coots....as we entered white water bay, coots were present by the thousands! Oh my. There were in all directions. I must admit it was rather amusing to see them bob up and down with the waves and some of them smashing into the rising or falling waves rather clumsily. We then entered an area where migrating manatees come year after year traveling hundreds(?) of miles. The captain on board said that we humans often lose our way in the bay area but the manatees never fail in their sense of navigation. Something to learn. We came across dead mangrove trunks that were almost 300 years(?) old...and also make out the difference in the level of water between the dry and wet season. The captain also mentioned the devastating effects of hurricane 'Wilma' in year 2006 (?) and how the ecosystem was under threat ever since. It was about a hour and half cruise. The captain mentioned that manatees are shy of the boat motors and stay away from them, else it is common to see them near the docks. We returned around noon. We were yet to visit the keys. Driving all the way down to Key west would take us about 4 hours and more time would be needed to get back to South Beach hostel. It was going to be a long drive. We decided to drive to the nearest key, Key Largo and then decide from there. But as we drove down US 1S, it was nearly 2.30pm and I was getting tired. We decided to stop at Curry Hammock State Park where there would be beaches and can capture the last sunset of the trip. An important difference between the seas we had seen so far and the one on either side of US1 S was the colour...my god...this sea had absolutely stunning clear green colour seen nowhere else so far. And it stretched to miles and miles. I literally felt like we were driving up into the sky on some stretches when the flyover kept rising! And the wind...it was pretty strong and kept giving a strong sideways drag on the car. I was driving at about 55 mph, but we could easily feel the push on the car, as it swayed sideways. George and I took a short walk around the beach area and saw many birds here too- Pelicans out in the sea (diving and flying), Cormorants, Wilson's Plover, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, White Ibis, Little Blue Heron, Royal Tern and Egrets which were aplenty in the nearby mangrove areas. This was not unusual, apparently especially in estuary areas where confluence of mangrove and hardwood and sandy beach vegetation is common. We stayed on till sunset and then set back to the hostel. It took us about 2.5 hours non-stop. I was quite happy with myself, for making good time.

My last night on the trip, I wanted to make it to the Italian restaurant that the trio had eaten on the 22nd. As it turned out, being sunday night, it was crowded,and we had to wait about 1.5 hours till we were seated. But it was worth it. I actually enjoyed my spaghetti(it was quite flavourful) and also my red wine and quite a bit of hearty conversation ensued. It was nearly midnight by the time we got done, and I had a bad feeling about the next morning, since George and I were supposed to start at about 3.00am to get to the car rental on time and then for George to catch his flight at 6.00am. I had to get up at 2.30am...after essentially 1 hour of sleep...:(...I was not quite sober..but kept talking to George to keep myself awake. Anyhow, we reached the car rental quite easily, following directions on the highway and I felt proud of myself in keeping up with the directions. :). Finding the correct place to park became a bit of problem, and it was nearly 3.55 by the time we parked and got done to the EZ rental office. Phew. Just in time. George later made it to his flight alright and I to mine. I managed to sleep wherever I sat down (1 hour in the boarding area in Miami, on both the flights, and on the bus from Milwaukee to Madison). There I was, back in Madison after a good time in a warmer part of US, and enjoyed wearing sandals for 4 days (inspite of this, I managed to get my shoes thoroughly wet, when George left his and my shoes out in the open in the Flamingo campground and it rained in the night; shoes were not completely dry when I wore them in the airport.) Arios till next trip!

The Smoke

The Smoke

London, nicknamed as 'The Smoke' plays a role in considerable literature that I have read so far. Maybe it's coincidence, maybe it's intentional, I don't know. Anyhow, I was fortunate to be able to plan a visit to the UK this christmas while returning from my India trip from Dec 29 2009 to Jan 2 2010.

I arrived at Heathrow airport, London on a rainy morning of the 29th of December. I was to spend the next five days and four nights in UK. My friend lives in Cambridge and I caught a bus (National Express Coach) to the Parkside bus stop in Cambridge. The journey took me about 2.5 hours. I spent the rest of the day and the next day in Cambridge. I left for London on 31st morning, and spent the new year in London. On 1st night, I returned to Cambridge and left for Heathrow on 2nd morning to catch a flight to Chicago that afternoon. I describe below the places I visited in Cambridge and places in and around London.

The nickname, 'The Smoke' or 'The Big Smoke' refers to the Great Smog that affected London in Dec,1952. It was a severe air pollution event and enveloped the city for about 5 days. That's about the sobriquet for London.

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire & Oxford, City of Oxford

A nice wiki page exists for some general information on these places- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford . But in my own experience, I enjoyed looking at the 800 year old buildings that included colleges and houses in Cambridge. I had about 1.5 days in Cambrige and 1.5 hours in Oxford, and one would agree with me that it is no good time to do any justice. Nevertheless this period of time allowed me to learn quite a bit about the universities. Oxford is older than Cambridge by about 40 years and legend has it that some scholars moved from Oxford to Cambridgeshire after a dispute between them and oxford townsfolk (the nature of the dispute which I am not aware of). As to how Oxford University was started dates to the 12th century(1167) when Alfred the Great happened to be there and met some monks. Places of monastic order were established which soon grew thanks to the order given by the King of England, Henry II to students of English origin in France to return. Being established as places of religious learning, these places, for a considerable length of time focussed on following religious principles and traditions. The victorian or the medieval period is what gave some modernity to the universities.

Talking about universities, there are really no 'universities'. The university is only a governing body that ties together independent colleges (Oxford has 39 of them and Cambridge, 33). My experience in Cambridge is less guided and I was shown some of the colleges such as St.Johns, Trinity and Kings College by my friend. On the other hand, I had a charming guide by name Mel, who led the tour to Oxford, Windsor Castle and Stonehenge. Other places that I saw on my strolls were some churches. What was interesting was the different architectural styles. I stumbled upon a book at my place of stay that described both Oxford and Cambridge and some differences between the two. Oxford, being a city has more urban planning than Cambridge. This was apparent even in my short visit to the former. The styles include Saxon, Norman, Georgian, Jacobian, Perpendicular, Gothic or medieval etc...there are so many of them. Hopefully the pictures can exhibit the differences between these styles better. One also talks differently about the 'back' of the colleges from being different from the 'front'. The backs face the river and are designed to provide a relaxing atmosphere for students to 'think freely' whereas the fronts are more formal. A feature that probably distinguishes these universities from others is a 1:1 tutorial based teaching for the undergraduates. No doubt, if one is given such an individual attention, it accelerates the process of horning one's skills.

Some of the notable buildings in Oxford as shown by Mel are- Martyr's memorial, Radcliffe camera, Bodleian library, Sheldonian theatre and the colleges themselves. The story of Martyr's memorial is centred on heresy charges of 3 bishops against the catholic beliefs of Church of England in 1550s. They were pro-protestant and highly anti-catholic. The architectural style is Victorian Gothic. The 3 bishops were burnt alive and this operation was apparently issued by the daughter of Henry VIII (another interesting character in English history), Queen Mary. The memorial itself was erected only 300 years after the event. So much for religious faith. Radcliffe camera is a central tourist attraction in Oxford, and houses the Radcliffe science library. The architectural style is English Palladian. It was the earliest example of a circular library in England. Apparently this is a location in JRR Tolkien's 'Lord of the rings'. The Great Hall of Christ College is apparently one of the 250 locations used for the Harry Potter movies. Every college has a Great Hall where the students dine. The Bodleian library is the largest research library in UK, with over 6 million books. Apparently it takes about 6 months to retrieve some of the books! Recently the library has started a process of digitisation as a part of Google project. Maybe it's a good idea after all, atleast for 'book keeping'... it houses the first printed book, Gutenberg Bible. It is also a copyright library, which means that every book published in UK automatically presents a copy of itself to the library. The Sheldonian theatre was built by a prolific British architect, Christopher Wren during the Victorian era. It is supposedly used to confer honorary doctoral degrees to celebrities. Many streets and colleges in Oxford and Cambridge have the same street names like Magdalene (pronounced as 'Modlene') street, Trinity college, King's college etc. So is any one better? There is a light note to the two universities too- The university symbol for Oxford supposedly always has the same page of a book open, whereas that of Cambridge has the book closed. Same difference eh?

All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon

My first stop in London. As soon as I reached London from Cambridge on the morning of 31st, I took a tube to Wimbledon station. This is south-west part of London and is farther away from the central attractions like Big Ben etc. All the more reason to go there first before getting caught in the 'popular' attractions in Central London. Wimbledon 'village' is a high-end area, one for the wealthy. Members of the club have been so for generations. Membership is limited, and according to the guide, the easiest way to become a member is to win the tennis tournament! Sounds rather easy doesn't it? Phew. Anyhow, we were booked for a 1.5 hours tour around the club and ticket to the museum. The club actually started off as a croquet club in 1860s. There are two show courts, Centre Court and Court No.1, which are used only during the tournament. There are a total of 52 courts in the club and have exactly the same type of grass (wry grass) that is cut to 8mm height after allowing it to grow to 14mm. Military precision eh? We also got to see the press room, where all the famous players were interviewed as to why they lost or how they feel when they have won....(humph)..BBC apparently has the sole rights to broadcast the matches and rest of the world media have to purchase rights from BBC. That's called monopoly. A rich history and tradition exists and I will probably run out of space to describe it here. Nevertheless, the tour was fascinating and indeed a privilege to visit the grounds of the most prestigious tournament in tennis.

Platform 9 3/4, King's Cross Station

Now then, do we need a description there? A nice photo opportunity, that's it!

Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Eye and Buckingham Palace

I looked at these only from outside. The sun set at 4pm and there is not much hope of going in them. Again, I mostly took pictures and will skip any descriptions, since I really did not 'visit' them.

Windsor Castle

This is the largest 'working' castle in UK. The traditions in workings of the castle are pretty much the same as what used to be carried out in the medieval times. There are various sections open to the visitors such as the Queen's doll house (no kid's matter, this one), State apartments and St.George's Chapel. The King and the Queen have separate suite of rooms, be it bedroom, 'receiving' room, dining room, bathrooms etc etc. It all seems like a waste, but full justice is done to the phrase 'Live like a king'.. The castle I believe is 900 years old, and has two flags flying above it- the British flag and the royal flag when the Queen is in residence, else it is just the British flag. One of the biggest rooms albeit St.George's hall in the castle is the hall where the shields of all the knights till date are being displayed. The ceiling (as is much of the furniture in the castle) is made from oakwood. The queen has a say in the final choice of the knight (aside- PG Wodehouse died just after he was knighted. The story goes that he was just waiting to be knighted and then passed on..) The Order of Garter bestows knighthood upon an individual. The queen believed in equality of the sexes, and there are 2 shields belonging to 2 women 'knights', one of them being Margaret Thatcher. Also note that women knights do not have swords. The display at the Quire in St. George's Chapel was a grand one indeed.

Stonehenge

Situated further away in southern England, this was second on the list of places in the tour for that day. Windsor Castle was first, and Oxford the third. There are many mysteries surrounding the actual dates of origin of this monument(starting with 5000 years), and many theories have been formulated. They are of religious or scientific nature. A good reference is- http://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/ancient/stonehenge.html . Needless to say, I am not going to rewrite those theories..nevertheless for a 45 minutes visit, I am indeed fortunate to have made it to one of the mysteries of the ancient world and to have gained some knowledge of its mysteries.

The Caldera Experience

Yellowstone National Park,WY,ID,MT & Grand Teton National Park,WY

The oldest national park in the world and youngest of the Rocky mountain ranges

Five of us set out to the oldest national park in the world- Ashok, George, Issac, Satya and myself. The trip was during the memorial day weekend, May 21-25 2009.

This will be a joint description of the Grand Teton (GT) and Yellowstone(Y) National Park. GT is south of Y, and is hard to miss, especially if you are going that far west.

GT is a starking textbook example of land shaped by fault-block mountain building and Y contains the world's highest concentration of geysers and non-commercial hot springs in the world. Areas like Iceland, New Zealand tap their geothermal features to get energy, but those at Y remain untouched and at their natural best. GT and Y are part of the Rockies and represent ever-changing landscapes thanks to volcanic and tectonic activity of the earth.

Lewis and Clark Expedition was a famous expedition in early 1800s that led to the discovery of the areas in the two parks and in the subsequent declaration as a national resource to be preserved for future generations. The discovery of the Tetons and Jackson Hole area is credited to John Colter, part of the above expedition around 1807. He left the expedition that time and explored these areas. I believe he kept no journals, and the accounts present are whatever he narrated to William Clark, of the Clark expedition. Tetons are the youngest mountains in the Rockies, but are supposedly made of the oldest rocks in North America. The rocks are metamorphic, and come from depths of the earth where the earth above exerts intense pressure and are heated by the temperatures of the molten rock below them, thus causing 'metamorphosis'. Metamorphic rocks are some of the hardest and least porous rocks known. The molten rock from below, during movements along the fault, intrudes into this rock layer, to form granite and diabase, a dark volcanic rock. There were streaks of black on the ranges and these are diabase rocks, also called 'black dike'. Movements in the fault causes earthquakes and causes mountains to rise and valleys to drop. The tallest among the Tetons is the Grand Teton at a height of 13770ft (~4000m).

The park is about 40miles in length and 15miles wide. It is the only national park with an airport inside it- Jackson Hole. Makes it rather inviting to fly straight to it, but the layover at other cities and time that would be wasted made us decide otherwise. So we flew into Salt Lake City on the 20th and stayed at a hostel that night. We had rented a Chevy standard SUV, and it looked like a monster for me to drive. Isscac and I were to share driving. That night Issac drove, and I decided one thing- I can do all the driving on the highway and Issac can do the driving in the parks. That worked out just fine. Surprisingly, I found myself comfortable driving that thing compared to the smaller cars I had driven so far. When we reached the booked hostel, we had quite an interesting experience getting the door of the hostel/house to open, trying the combination given to us in the email. As it turns out, the housekeeper sent us an 'updated' email, telling us the new combination, and we knew about it after we called him. George was right in that it does represent one of the 256(?) combinations...:P. Nevertheless, our trials were closer to the right one, we felt. So much for the 'breaking in'... we tucked in and had quite a good night's sleep. Our plan was to start around 8.00am next day, do some grocery shopping at a walmart nearby and then head off to GT campsite that night. SLC was relatively warm, but we reminded ourselves of what was coming in the night, given that the temperatures at this time of the year was still in the +/- single digits(C of course) inside the park.

We reached GT at about 1700ish...but unexpectedly the first campground, Jenny Lake was full! I read now that that campsite is perennially full, but how were we to know? All the campgrounds were first come first served(FCFS). We moved on, towards the east side, to Signal Mountain area. Luckily we did find one, close to Jackson Lake. A good portion of the park is occupied by this lake, and the drive alongside is quite a scenic one. Having gotten to the campsite, we immediately decided to take a walk along the lake, watch the sunset and then return to pitch our tent. The walk was well rewarded in terms of natural beauty, no doubt, but it was getting increasingly colder. The panoramic view of the Teton range was breathtaking and I forgot all the cold air around me as I stood staring at the evening glory of the sun setting behind the mountains. Capturing some of the scenery is possible with a camera, but the feeling of awe in terms of the 180 degree view offered by the eye and the majesty of the peaks is unforgettable. It seems that the signal mountain areas is the best place to appreciate the unusual geology of the Teton area....the abrupt meeting of the valley floor and the mountain range. I did my best to capture some of the sunset nevertheless, hoping the pictures would come out just as fine(I own a film slr camera). It was around 10pm, and it was getting darker and colder. We proceeded back to our campsite. The next step- dinner. I must say at this point that one of the best decisions prior to this trip was to take 10packets of MTR ready to eat Puliyodharai and Bisibele bath. A packet is good enough for a meal, and with these supplemented by groceries from Walmart including bread, cheese, jam, bagels, tortillas and some canned food, we had a pretty good supply of food to last us. We had also rented a stove at SLC REI and had bought 3 propane tanks. Puliyodharai packets were the first to be opened. The cooking experience was not that good, and we could not heat the food quickly (recall, we are at an elevation of about 6000ft) and the first eater, unluckily George, was having the coldest of the lot. The heating got progressively better as the water was boiling in time, and the rest of us had a slightly better meal. The food was oily, but nevertheless tasted good in the cold. The last step for the day, we started pitching our tent. George and Ashok had some experience of it from their florida experience. The night air being cold as it is, we quickly retired for the night, and packed ourselves into the tent. Not a very peaceful night in terms of sleep though, but we knew what the temperatures were going to be.

The plan next day was to spend exploring in the GT park, before proceeding to Madison Campground at Yellowstone that night. A mile from Signal Mountain area is Oxbow bend, where wildlife is supposed to frequent. Apparently an 'oxbow' is formed when a portion of a river 'pinches' of it by intrusion of land into the river, making it meander and flow in a 'U-shape'..I remember seeing the white pelican and the white-crowned sparrow(Ashok is a keen bird-watcher and he identifies the birds for us). We drove to Colter Bay visitor centre area, where the Hermitage point trail originates. In the span of the time we had, this trail is very much doable and requires about 4 hours. It is an 8.5miles loop and starts and ends at Colter Bay parking area. It is a flat trail leading along Jackson Lake,Heron Pond and Swan Lake. We saw many birds (including the Grey Jay, which I was able to capture quite close..) and the uinta squirrel...what seemed to bear tracks (both the parks are bear countries, and we read enough about it to be on guard..) turned out to be horse tracks made by the ranger horses. It was a little disappointing that the pictures of fresh dropping taken by George was in vain. Nevertheless, as Ashok pointed out, the dropping had 'fibre' or grass in it..which made it unlikely that it would be a bear's...anyhow..the little scare of possibly meeting a bear upclose is fresh in my mind. At some point on the trail, we lost direction and I am kind of proud of having the mind to bring a compass along. It did put us back on track and we returned safely to the parking lot. We had about 2 hours of drive to do to reach Madison (looks like we were not done with Madison yet) and were told that we were to be there as soon as possible to get a good camping ground.

Learning from the first night's experience, Ashok and myself decided to rent a better sleeping bag at the Old Faithful basin area. Rightly as forums on the internet said, there are really no renting outlets inside yellowstone. We ended up buying fleece blankets instead. As we bought our blankets and were waiting for rest of the party to come and pick us up(they had gone to locate a good campsite), for the first time in my life, I saw a geyser erupt (the word 'geyser' comes from Icelandic 'geysir' meaning to gush or rage; thinking about 'geezer' was an interesting extension, but more on than later). It was an awe-inspring experience, if you will. I took pictures,no doubt, but I decided that I was definitely going to come back and watch the eruption happen. Apparently, the Old Faithful is very faithful, and has never known to miss it's 33-120minute eruption schedule. We reached Madison campground at about 6.30ish in the evening, if I recollect correctly. We got a good campsite, and this time, we decided to pitch tent first, give ourselves ample time for dinner and making a campfire. Satya was the fire expert and I was aware of the pitching procedure by now and better at lighting the stove. Since we had decided to relax that evening, it was a much better experience overall compared to the first night. Having made a decent plan of how to spend the rest of the trip, decided to call it a day. What also made our experience more warm was the extra set of blankets that Satya managed to get from a ranger. He apparently developed a good rapport with her and she was kind enough to lend us blankets. And warm it was! I had a sound night's sleep. The Firehole river was only about few hundred yards away. I woke up around 6.30am and strolled over to the riverside with Ashok and George. We could see bisons on the opposite side and some birds. What was refreshing about camping experience is that you wake up to call of the birds at about 4.30am and no other sounds. Being close to nature was only tip of an iceberg experience. We had bagels/bread/jam/creamcheese for breakfast (these did a world of good in that cold climate) and set off to the Norris Geyser area.

The human history of Yellowstone National Park is by itself quite a narrative, and I will skip that purely for the purpose of preventing repetition from the sources and lack of justice that will ensue on my part. I would instead, like to relate more of the caldera experience.

Caldera basically means a large crater formed by volcanic eruption, or by collapse of a volcanic cone. The word is derived from spanish 'cauldron' or from late latin 'caldaria'. Collapse occurs because of withdrawal of magma from an underlying chamber some 2–3 mi (4–6 km) beneath the surface, resulting in foundering of the roof into the chamber. The area of the caldera that formed in the Y area is about 1000 sq.miles. It seems the caldera region was south of Y about 600,000 years ago, and is still moving north. The formation of the caldera as such is only of the many recent events. Three eruptions were known prior to that in the south of Y and were spaced about 600,000 years apart. That means we are due for another one. With much anticipation we went, but the earth decided to patiently fume away instead. The caldera is now buried by lava flows, and is no longer so dramatic feature. Well, on the timescale of human lifespan, it's fair to say that the investment in the park is a permanent and well-thought out one. The park was established in 1872, after much backing from the Northern Pacific railroad,members of the 1870s expeditions and became the first national park in the world. Yellowstone has it's own 'Grand Canyon' and it is easy to believe that the name Yellowstone comes from the technicolour walls of the Canyon, when interestingly, the name takes after the yellowish-tan bluffs near the confluence of the yellowstone and missoruri rivers in western North Dakota named by a British fur trader called David Thomson.

A little more on the geology, since that fascinated me throughout the trip and made me severly regret not paying attention to subjects other than Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics at school and college level. Eruptions caused formation of many mountain ranges in all directions in the park. In the northwest direction is the Gallatin Range, in the north is the Absarokas, the northeast is occupied by the Beartooth plateau(exception), the east again contains Absarokas, to the south is the Two Ocean plateau(we did not explore much of the south at all) and to the southwest is Teton Range and Madison plateau. Most of the park is between 7000-8000ft elevation, as you can imagine. Almost all of the areas are accessible by branching off the Grand Loop Road, which is of shape of number '8'. The road itself is 142miles long.

As I said before, we set off to Norris Geyser basin area. This was 23rd May. Y has the world's largest concentration of geysers in about a couple of miles area and this in turn can be divided into different regions. Norris lies to the north followed by the Lower Geyser basin, Midway Geyser basin and then the Upper Geyser basin to the south. Yes...it is quite counter-intuitive to think of the 'Upper' basin to the south, but as it happens, the Firehole river upstream is the Upper geyser area and the downstream area is called the Lower Geyser basin. No connection to the notion of north-south direction indeed. Norris basin is named after Philetus Norris,the park's second superintendent(1877-82) who is notable for constructing some of the park's first roads and for the shameless frequency with which he named park features after himself. It contains most of the acidic geysers. As we walk by the geysers, we can constantly smell the sulphur in its most familiar form- smell after fireworks(Sulphur dioxide),smell of rotten eggs(Hydrogen Sulphide,H2S) and sulphuric acid vapours. Somehow the phenomenon of olfactory adaption did not apply then, and I never stopped smelling them. Geysers are said to have very complicated underground plumbing system as compared to its cousin geothermal feature such as the hot springs and is not still well-understood. Geysers are basically formed by snow percolating to the depths of the earth, where it gets superheated and with hard rocks such as rhyolite(volcanic rock rich in silicon) above it, intense pressuers build up over time. Eventually the superheated water dissolves silica and rises to the surface. As you can imagine, the superheated water suddenly feels a drop in pressure at the surface and hence gushes out. As it gushes out, it brings with it, geyserite or siliceous sinter which deposits around the mouth of the geyser. It is white...and the vapours are white..the land is white...and the sky is also bright with sunlight. I had a hard time taking decent pictures indeed! The crust of the earth in these regions is quite thin, about 2-3miles thick....and in many areas they advise us to stick to designated paths. The pools in the geyser basin also contain Fe and Cu minerals, due to which they attain red and blue shades. As far as life is concerned, this is the ideal place for extremophiles( we did notice a solitary lodgepole pine though) - thermophiles and/or acidophiles. These organisms are also responsible for the brilliant colours. Thermoacidophiles, as the name says, like to survive in sulphur rich environments of 60-80C and pH less than or equal to 2. These organisms can be bacteria, algae or archae, and use sulphur instead of oxygen for respiration and therefore anaerobic. The colours of the colonies are in stark contrast to the white landscape caused by the geyserite. The algae, called Cyanidium are thermophilic, impart green colour. Acidophiles use the iron for energy, present in large colonies in runoff-channels. I have some pictures of those in picasa. There are two basins in the Norris area- Back basin and Porcelain basin. Each geyser has a name, and it was interesting to relate the name to the appearance/character of its eruption. Back basin has Emerald spring,steamboat geyser(world's tallest geyser, last major eruption was in 1988 I believe..), cistern spring(erupts after steamboat for a day or two),Echinus(largest acidic, named after Echinoderms(sea urchins) and erupts every 80minutes or so and has spiny geyserite(silicate mineral, also called siliceous sinter) deposits), Porkchop geyser,Pearl geyser, veteran geyser(geezer is the more appropriate word..:)) and minute geyser( does it refer to the time or size?seemed more like the latter). During our walk, we came across many rocks that looked like rhyolite, obsidian(volcanic glass) and supposedly pumice. The obsidian was very interesting to look at, and I marveled at how sharply it was cut and the mirror like shine. Another geothermal feature is the fumarole. They differ from geysers and hot springs in that they are essentially steam vents and have no water present at the surface. We saw many of these in the Back Basin area itself. Watching them really made me feel like the earth was venting steam through her ears! And what roaring sound it made! Made me feel like my mother was angry with me for some wrong that I did(in this case mankind in general I suppose). Time constraints prevented us from doing the Porcelain basin. I was quite saturated with the gases in my lungs anyway...so I was ready to move on.

Our next stop was the Lower-Midway-Upper geyser basin area. We stopped at the 'Artist Paint pots', a collection of yet another set of geothermal features called mudpots. A mudpot is formed of mixture of clay(kaolinite) and water- these are bubbling,viscous and found higher in altitude than the geysers, reason being that on slopes, water retention is less and hence the greater proportion of clay. The clay as such is formed by dissolution of the silicate minerals by sulphuric acid produced by the utilisation of H2S by the microbes in the water. The consistency of mixture depends on the season. In the spring it's loose and thicker in summer. The consistency determines how the mud pot looks. Many of them looked just like a thick creamy paste churned by the earth, coloured by S(yellow) and Fe(red/brown) and hence the name- paint pots. Eruption of these involves the mixture as such and we had quite a time watching one of the 'active' ones. It was white in colour, and Satya and George must have taken nearly hundred shots of it, to capture the 'eruption' of mud bubbles-escape of steam from the boiling mixture...I took some 6 shots of it, and not with much ambition of getting a bubble bursting. I took a peek of their pictures, and they were really good! So much for the digital camera!

It was about around 5.00pm, we were getting tired. We were to stay at the Old Faithful Lodge cabins that night. We decided to go to the Old Faithful straightaway. I got to watch the Old Faithful erupt this time in full glory, without the distraction of taking pictures. Quite satisfied with the experience, we returned back to our cabins. The cabin was such that you could watch the Old Faithful erupt from the room itself! What a strange feeling! Geysers erupting outside your doorstep! The eruption reaches to a height about 100-120ft (Steamboat geyser eruption reaches to about 300ft- thats about the height of the statue of liberty!) Our initial plan was to go for a campsite in the Mammoth area the next night, ie,the 24th. But as it turned out, we were there for the Memorial Day weekend, and hence the campsites were expected to get full by 7.00am! It seemed very unpractical to go all the way to Mammoth to just book the campsite and then return to see the Midway Geyser basin area(we were yet to cover this). So then, we decided to book a private lodge in the Mammoth area( called Comfort Inn, not among the lodges managed by Xanterra lodges) for 24th night. Having taken care of the accomodation for the next night, we peacefully slept. Our plan for the next day was to cover the Upper and Midway Geyser area, and then possibly go for a trek to peak of Mt. Washburn.

The first thing in the morning of 24th, we set out to walk around the Old Faithful area. Of the many types geysers present (cone and fountain) Castle geyser,Grotto geyser (its opening was like a half-open mouth, more like a cleft-lipped geyser) were cone-type and Riverside geyser (along the Firehole river) and Old Faithful are the fountain type geysers. There are over 130 active geysers in an area of 1sqmile! The above ones are just the ones that lie along the river. We also made a visit to the Morning Glory Pool. Metaphorically called 'Fading Glory'...it is been sadly a target of vandalism. As a result of people throwing coins, trash etc into the pool, the vents got blocked which reduced the water circulation and decreased the temperature of the water. This allowed cooler temperature organisms like cyanobacteria and other algae to thrive, imparting the colour it has developed today. It was remarkable to see images from then and now, and how the pool has developed its colours. The colours in all geothermal features are very much indicative of the temperature, and blue for example is due to organisms in a cooler area than a red-coloured area. Nevertheless, years after the vandalism has stopped, there is still beauty in the pool, in a different way,because of its colours. While walking along the river, we saw the Coyote and bisons on the other side. The view of the Coyote was quite a close one, I was pretty excited and clicked away to glory. The coyote belongs to the wolf species, is slender and has a reddish-grey form. We also watched a pair of Northern Flickers sort of 'communicating' with each other in some way, doing some sort of dance on a tree. It was a pretty sight, unfortunately I had no idea of what they were talking ofcourse.

We had heard of the largest hot spring in Y being in the Midway Geyser basin. It's called the Grand Prismatic Spring. Before that we made a stop at Gibbon Falls area, where the Gibbon river flows. It was the first waterfall we were seeing(not a very deep one though- about 80ft, nevertheless beautiful), and we spent a bit of time here. I saw the violet-green swallow (thanks to Ashok for the name) here for the first time. It is such a beautiful bird, with a shining metallic green body reflected brilliantly by the sunlight. We also managed to take the only group picture(s) here. Reaching the Midway geyser basin area, I was awed by the confluence of nature's different elements present here. Firehole river (liquid form of water), the Excelsior geyser and Grand Prismatic Spring(gaseous form of water) and snow (solid form of water) beyond on the mountains...that was a fantastic view. Ashok has a good picture of all three in one place. Excelsior geyser is(was) the most powerful geyser. It erupted with so much force during 1985 for 2 days that it blew apart its plumbing system and longer can establish the pressure to erupt since, and hence just continues to let steaming water flow into the river. It is quite a sight to watch the hot water meet its colder counterpart. The Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hotspring in Y. Hot springs are different from geysers in that they don't have as much complicated plumbing underneath, and just represents a body of water constantly replenished and peacefully simmering away. Here again, the brilliant display of colours and fogginess in our pictures continued. I very much wish I had an aerial view of the spring. It would have been a grand experience!

Soon, around 2.00pm we reached the Chittenden Bridge road, where our trail to Mount Washburn was to begin. The mountain is named after Henry Dana Washburn,surveyor general of 1870 expedition. Due to construction the road leading upto the trail head was blocked to vehicle traffic. So what? We parked our car at the nearest lookout, had a quick lunch and set out on the hike to the mountain top. In a short trip this is a highly recommended trail, as it offers fantastic views of Yellowstone lake, Grand Canyon, the Teton Range, Hayden valley and Firehole river. What else can you wish for? The elevation of the mountain is 10,243ft. There are two trails leading to the top- one starts in the north, at Chittenden road, and the second, from the south, at Dunraven Pass Picnic area. Both are 3miles one way, and the change in elevation is about 1400ft. So we were roughly starting our hike at 8600ft or so...Need I repeat the jawdropping views of the surroundings? Pictures not worth even thousand words now, and I could just stare at the mountains all my life. Anyhow, there are some pictures to remind us of the humbling experience. We could see the Grand Canyon of Y to the east, the Absarokas to the north-east and the Gallatin range to the north-west and Tetons to the south. It was cloudy and seeing beyond was harder. I found something to do interesting to do on the trail. I started counting 'poles'..these looked like markers placed for the snow-ploughers to note the bends on the road. I got Ashok and George also to do the counting for me, so we were checking our count once in a while during brief periods of rest, to take pictures or to catch our breath. I counted 155 poles in all from peak to the trail head and then 41 poles from trail head to the parking area). I am not going to comment on the intellectual advantage of this exercise since we can infer the spacing between two poles (3miles/155) but then they were not equally spaced, so that's futile.....nevertheless it was a fulfilling one at the very least. The uphill walk to the trail head took us about 45minutes and then the climb up took us about 2 hours. As far as animal life is concerned, we saw squirrel(s), birds(grouse- a most interesting bird, the male performs an elaborate mating dance with erect tail,puffed breast,inflated air sac on the neck and much hopping and stamping. It nests in tall grass bushes; lots of mountain blue birds; ravens; osprey). As we reached elevations about 9000ft, we saw many colourful lichens growing on rocks. Lichens are result of a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae. I learnt a lot about plant life on this trail than anywhere else. Depending on what elevation you are, you see different vegetation. At lower elevations of 6000-7000ft, one comes across douglas firs. These are supposedly taller, more massive than the lodgepole pine trees(found at higher elevations), have needles is in singles. The needles are soft to touch, and learnt that cones are about 3 inches long with conspicuous lobed 'tongue' on outside of each scale. I am sure I did not see these cones, but many of the trees did not seem to have cones yet. From the needles, we could only have guessed. We should have paid more attention to the cones, I feel, since among all the trees we saw George had trouble pinpointing the type based on the needles alone. (7600-8400ft) we could see lodgepole pine( got used to seeing this tree so much in the park). The limberpine also grows at lower elevations, and looks much like whitebark pine and has even 5 needles to a bundle. From elevations of 7000ft to timeberline, whitebark pine grows and form part of the subalpine growth. Needles can be 5 to a bundle, grow to about 3 inches long, and the cones disintegrate before dropping to the ground. The lodgepole pine grows at elevations of 7600-8400 ft and are most abundant in the park. They are dependent on forest fires to melt the resins that seal their cones shut,ensuring that their seeds disperse only when fire has prepared a fertile bed of ash, whereas other lodgepoles disperse during fall like regular pine trees.Needles are 2 to a bundle,about 2" long, tall, staight trunks,small nearly round cones. These cones very much resemble the ones that I see around home here during fall. I collected a couple to keep at home. They grow in places where soil is quite thin, have flat and shallow root systems. That's quite a bit of information on alpine vegetation. When we reached the summit, the view was breathtaking and the cold air did not matter then. There was shelter and a watch tower, showing the various peaks viewable from the summit. The descent was much faster, and got down in about half the time. Tired, we drove to the Comfort Inn for the night.

The plan for next and last day at Yellowstone was to visit Mammoth Hot springs, visit the Canyon area and possibly visit the highest lake in North America, Yellowstone lake. Indeed, the visit to Mammoth Hot Springs was an experience of a different kind altogether. Hot springs, like I mentioned before, are benign cousins of geysers. In Mammoth area, instead of the hard rhyolite rock, we find travertine, a form of limestone. Limestone being softer than rhyolite dissolves more easily in water and does not allow build of pressures required to erupt like a geyser. It is said that the travertine grows about 1 inch a day! Limestone contains Calcium carbonate and when brought upto the surface, decomposed to give off carbondioxide and deposites to give beautiful terraces. Quite regal to look at, I found names such as 'Cleopatra terrace' most apt. The colours on these terraces are due to living and fossilised thermophiles. Some of the springs include Minerva terrace, Canary spring, New blue spring, Orange spring mound, White elephant back terrace,Angel terrace, Cleopatra terrace and Jupiter terrace. The hot spring cone liberty cap(named after hats worn during french revolution) is not a hot spring anymore, and has dried up, but an attraction nevertheless. This took the better part of the morning, and our next stop was the Canyon region.

We saw Pronghorn deers( I would not have noticed it if I was driving..;)) and black bears(this was thanks to a large crowd standing and watching) on the way to Falls. Black bears are primarily vegetarian ,half are black, anomalies include brown and cinnamon.They have more tapered muzzles compared to the Grizzly, smaller ears and smaller claws. We also had a good look at the Elk. The elk/wapiti/red deer is the most abundant large mammal in Greater yellowstone area and males(bulls) have darker throat mane and grow 5ft long multipoint antlers. We also saw bisons at various places, and is apparently the continent's largest land mammal and quite sensitive. Among the birds, the common ones were Canada geese, yellow-headed blackbirds and black-billed magpies and ofcourse, ravens. Interesting fact- Ravens are said to have intelligence equal to that of a dog.

We reached the Brink of the Lower Falls area. We had second thoughts, but decided to stop here, since there are two falls here, and I am glad we did. There are two falls- Upper and Lower Falls. Upper Falls is upstream of the latter, and is a smaller one, has a height of 109ft, is formed by the Yellowstone river as it leaves the Hayden Valley. It becomes the Lower Falls as it goes downstream, which is much taller and has a height of 308 ft(seemingly twice the height of Niagara Falls!) into a 20mile canyon. We took a trail which was about 600ft drop in about a mile length. Getting down was really easy, and I managed to see the Yellow-rumped warbler at close quarters (thanks to Ashok again), got some good pictures of it. Reaching the Brink, I was speechless to see the grandeur of the Falls and the Canyon beyond. A most beautiful rainbow stood above the falls just enclosing the yellowstone river, the canyon and the walls of the Canyon. I could stare at it forever, and never grew tired of taking pictures. I am always wondering about how different elements of nature circulate, especially water....imagining the fury of the river and the amount of water gushing down, seems to go on for years and the source seems to be limitless. Quite a marvel.

Our next stop was to have a look at the Grand Canyon of Y. Not as grand as the actual Grand Canyon(I have been there), but nevertheless with a beauty of its own, the walls of the canyon was interesting to look at. It is carved by the yellowstone river. It is formed of rhyolite and the yellowish hue comes from action of hot gases and water on rhyolite, softening it to a considerable extent. Managed to catch an Osprey in flight here and a good panoramic view of the canyon. On the way to Fishing Bridge, we stopped briefly at Hayden valley where wildlife is supposed to frequent. Here I saw what turned out to be male and female cinnamon teal( Ashok at work again). We had given up any hope of seeing any Grizzly bears, and luckily we found a big crowd at one of the turnouts in Hayden valley, where somebody had spotted a mother and son grizzly about a mile away. We could clearly view them through a scope one of the people had, and boy! what a joy that was! We finally got to see Grizzlies! It seemed like a mission was accomplished. Grizzlies are different from Black bears in that they are a little bigger, and have a prominent shoulder hump and long, non-retractable claws. They are said to have an amazing sense of smell. I wonder if they could smell so many humans a mile away.

Our last stop for the trip was Fishing Bridge and the yellowstone lake. Fishing is not allowed there anymore since it led to dramatic decrease of the cutthroat trout fish which is an important source of food for the bear population, and one can see how the food chain would affect the natural ecosystem. I managed to capture a flying pelican on my camera. Turned out to be a decent shot. Lastly, we( George, myself and Satya mostly) wanted to capture the sunset at the Yellowstone lake. Y lake is the largest alpine lake in NAmerica above 7000ft and the deepest spot is 320ft. That's deeper than the height of the Lower Falls! Gulp..Having happily exhausted almost a roll for just the sunset and put my tripod to good use, I felt satisfied with my photography for the day, and we all drove to Grant Village Lodge to finally retire for the night and end the trip. Quite an enlightening trip, I must say and I definitely have more appreciation for nature and its elements now(not that I did not have before...I have been on treks..but this was more informative than the others..). Hope to make more of such trips in future for sure.

The Big Apple

New York City, New York

Dec 2008

The term 'The Big Apple' was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930's who used theslang expression 'apple' for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple.

There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel. Its hard to believe this, but will take it with a pinch of salt. Thank god this does not list Indians. We would beat them hands down.

I decided to go to New York to visit my good friend, Bishu. He was my batchmate from IISc, Bangalore. He visited Madison during summer and I thought here is my chance to see the Big Apple and also have some fun with friends.

I was in NY for 4 days and 5 nights. We left on the 25th of Dec, 2008 on a direct flight from Madison to La Gaurdia (LGA), NY. Bishu was there to receive us, and soon it was dark by the time we settled in his home. Bishu had cooked dinner for us along with 2 desserts! It was a good meal.

My 'plan' per se for NY was to visit all the prominent places and also sneak in a trip to New Jersey, where I was to meet my school friend, Gowri. Well, I managed to make it and I had a good long chat with her and got to see her toddler son, Hariharan.

The public transport is very efficient and very similar to the one I saw in Paris and Chicago. There are trains every few minutes, express and local and as long as you have a 'subway'( thats what they call their metro system) map, you can pretty much reach any corner of NY you want. NY is divided into different suburbs, Manhattan being the world famous one..with all its building giants and portrayed as the 'American dream'..and then there is Queens, where Bishu lives and is mostly residential..others are Bronx, Brooklyn..these are smaller I think. Manhattan is flanked by two rivers- East river on the east(obviously) and Hudson river on the west. East river separates Manhattan from Queens. The Downtown Manhattan along with the Central Park is pretty much where all the attractions are. The numbering of the streets have an interesting 'structure' to them. There are avenues to start wiith, and they are intersected perpendicularly by streets. So its like imagining avenues running from geographical north to south and the streets are just in an increasing order from south to North. I imagine that the numbering starts from the south as it should in the decreasing order of importance, from 'downtown'. It is very straightforward to go around by walking/bus/train with this structure in mind and so we set on exploring this concrete jungleon our short holiday.

We rested for the night of 25th and decided to start touring the next day. As Bishu puts it, we started the traditional way, to visit the symbol of freedom, Statue of Lady Liberty on Liberty island. The queue to the ferry that will take us to the island is the longest I have seen and I had no idea where it ended till about 1.5hours of waiting in the queue passed by. This is assuming that about 300 people are taken in a single trip every 15min or so. Anyhow, we finally got to the island at around 1.30pm after starting from home at about 9.30am! After the usual picture taking sessions, we got back to mainland at about 4.00pm..boy..its taken almost a day to just see one attraction! The story is that it was given as a gift to America from the French. The French sculptor,Frederic Auguste Bartholdi designed it as a giant 3-D jigsaw puzzle. The statue is made of copper sheets, about two coins thick and it seems about 300 sheets were shipped in to be assembled here. Interestingly, the pieces were assembled and supported by an ingenious iron framework of bars and girders designed by none other than Alexandre Gustav Eiffel! Ah..now I have seen of two of his marvels! Its about 300feet in height...reminded me of the sequoia trees that I saw in Redwood state park at Santa Clara, CA.

Our next stop was Downtown Manhattan. There are some prominent landmarks and represent the well-connected streets. The 42nd street, has a lot of places to visit. Times Square(this is the brightest places I saw after the lights at Las Vegas), Grand Central station, the Chrysler building. The 34th street has the Queen of buildings, the Empire State Building and Madison Square garden close to it. In terms of Avenue, Lexington avenue is our lookout, since it has a lot of Indian restaurants! Our next stop was the Rockefeller centre, where there is an observation deck to watch the night lights of the city. Indeed, from the 69th floor it was a good view of the city scapes. The majestic Empire State building with its colours changing for every day of the year, the Chrysler building, the Met life building and could we miss the Times square? It was this distinctly lit area in the sea of darkness (relatively) around it. Prominent things to notice were the Hudson river in the North, Seagram building on the East, Chrysler building on the southeast , the Empire State building on the south, and Paramount building, which is in the heart of Times square was on the southwest. The Top of the Rock was worth it, to get a feel for how New York would shining as one of the brightest dots on the globe. The largest world famous Christmas tree ( I wanted to see this ever since I saw Home Alone movie) and the ice rink is also at Rockefeller centre. The most disturbing thing was the crowd. It was packed everywhere, and this being the tourist season, we could not expected anything better. With not much time to stand around and watch, I had to be satisfied with catching quick glimpses, taking pictures and moving on. We were walking in the Downtown area, and we decided to go to Saravana Bhavan for dinner. Ah, the best dosa I have had after coming from home. I tasted kaima idly for the first time...and we hogged ourselves. That night, we walked to the Times square and boy, was it dazzling!! Heart of the concrete jungle..not an inch of space is wasted and the bill boards and hoardings are abound. I was very much reminded of Las Vegas and wished to be done with it soon. But I could get some good panoramic pictures. Thats all I have to say about that. (Like Forrest Gump!).

I was planning to visit my friend at Jersey City on the 27th. That morning, we visited the American Museum of Natural history. Crowded as it was, I lost much interest in the exhibits and only managed to watch a space show called 'Cosmic collisions'..it was at the planetorium at the museum and it was good. We had lunch at a Bangladeshi restaurant called 'Angon' and did we eat! Bishu was already friends with the waiter there and they got a special serving of fish that day. I took the local minibus to Jersey city from 42nd street Port Authority station. The bus boards at gate 51. Its about half hour journey and I reached around 7.00pm. I spent the night at my friend's place and returned to NY on sunday afternoon, the 28th. I had lunch again at Saravana Bhavan, and this time I decided to cash in on my favourite..Idly vada and filter coffee. Heaven on earth it was. I was keen on visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well, and had about 2 hours to kill that late afternoon. I rushed to the Met. But as it happens, the museum is always too big to finish in a day and I pretty much could see only selected galleries. I went to the photographic galleries first. After seeing the Vatican Museum at Rome, I have pretty much concluded that no museum can possibly get bigger than that one. I could cover other galleries on second floor as well, and I found some European paintings rather appealing. The Met closes early on sundays, and I had to get out of there by 5.30pm.

I was headed next to the Brooklyn Bridge, where my friends were to meet me. The bridge is old and grand, and it is just like in the movies. I enjoyed the view of Manhattan from there and the city on other sides. The Bridge is on East river. Dinner was at 'Dosa Palace' or 'Dosa Place' ..I can't recollect the exact name now..this was at Jackson Heights. Jackson heights looks more like an Indian town although many of the good restaurants are concentrated on Lexington avenue.

By this time, we had used the metro a lot and Bishu decided to leave us to sightsee on our own for a change on the 29th. I wanted to go Madame Tussaud's museum. It's located in Times square. Off we went, again to Times square. Every single place is so crowded and there is really no time to stop and think. Anyhow, I liked the collection of the wax models, and fancied myself standing next to celebrities like Leonardo di Caprio, Hugh Grant, George Clooney, Robin Williams..scientists like Einstein, father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, tennis player Martina Navratilova....but...I still did not get to see my favourite..Tom Hanks. I feel like I missed a whole section of it..thanks to the crowd. But the visit nevertheless was interesting. I believe it takes them around 8 months to make a single model! The descriptions of how they were made were present, but again, the herd of people made it difficult to stand and look at them closely. We watched a 4-D show called 'Polar express'. 4-D coz 3-D effects + time. As usual we were wearing the special goggles..I felt that there is not much in Polar express to get the 3-D feeling. I enjoyed the shows at Singapore better.

The rest of the day was pretty much open to us. We visited New York University at 8th street. We toured the Chemistry Dept, to Bishu's lab. It was rather unusual for me to imagine a university in the middle of downtown Manhattan. Academics doesn't seem to 'fit' in with the 'Manhattan' look. Anyhow, after that we were pretty much walking around, Bishu showing us his old apartment complex at the heart of Manhattan. Quite a location I must say, with the restaurants just a few steps away. We then walked down to Madison square garden, onto the East River side of Manhattan and then to Grand Central station. There was a laser light show going on there, where colourful patterns were being projected onto the ceiling and the walls of a central hall at the station. It was a pretty sight and I got to take some pictures. Our last stop would be for dinner, at 'Hot pot' in Chinatown. Here they keep a cooking pot with boiling water and a stove on the table, so that you can cook and eat your meat fresh! It is popular and the food is believed to taste far better. We didnt do it, but the eggplant garlic dish that I ordered was one of the best I have had. I have never been able to finish a chinese dish completely because of it's volume, but this time I was able to do it! The dish was indeed tasty. It was then time to go home and pack for next day's flight in the morning. A memorable trip indeed it was and if not for the crowd, I would have enjoyed NY much better. Thanks for hosting us, Bishu!