Argentina - The Politics of Economy.

Barring a few countries in the world, like North Korea and China, a majority of the planet has democracy as a way of governing. There can be a lot of talk about how democratic this democracy is in these countries, but at least on paper these countries have an elected government by the people of the land.

Many of the countries in South America, have seen dictatorian politics in the past and there have been years of such rule which still torments the souls of those who have been through it. Chile, had Pinochet and Argentina had its own share of young men suddenly disappearing from their houses and taken in as political prisoners in the early 80’s.  Most of them never returned home.

Well, everything looks fine now until you scratch the underbelly of politics here. In Argentina especially, there has been a president who over the last two successive terms has seen through an economy going from not so good to bad and ultimately hitting its worst patch in the last one year. Its only now that the people here are seeing certain uplift in the economic trend, but offcourse this is the election year.

As a tourist I am more concerned about the exchange rate of the Argentinian pesos to the US $. In 2010 when I first set foot here, to change the $ in a bank was the same as changing it on the street. The peso was at around 7 back then to the US $. Last year in 2014, the peso lost double its value to the $ and though the banks official price was still at 8 – 8.5, the street exchange price or as the say here the tipo de cambio had gone to 14 pesos to a dollar.

Finance has always been my weekness but even I could make out that with the inflation hitting the roof at 40 % the people on the street were the ultimate sufferers. The president by 2014 had already made 3 five star hotels in the name of her family but the people of Buenos Aires who loved to eat out suddenly decided that it was becoming a luxury to go to a restaurant, or to drink the national obsession, coffee in a café. I remember my guide telling me that, in April 2014 she bought a bread, butter fruits and milk for 100 pesos. The next month saw milk being knocked out of the list and the following month saw bread zooming to an all time high price.

Even in the internal flights we took in the continent, the tourists all came from Brazil which is the biggest economy in the continent. I hardly saw any Argentinian taking in the luxury of traveling outside the country. So I was a little surprised, to see this couple from Buenos Aires taking a month long vacation and on board my flight from Buenos Aires to Doha. “We had it enough, they said, we saved for 2 years and at the end of it the cost of the air ticket went up by 150 %. I sold a piece of land in the countryside to take this trip”.

Running a restaurant has always been a challenging thing, but with customers dropping and rents rising, the restaurant business here in Buenos Aires is at an all time low. I had my people eat at a restaurant managed and served by two old ladies, who worked overtime and seemed really tired at the end of the day. I didn’t want to ask them, “why wouldn’t you keep some staff to help you with the cleaning and stuff”, instead for that night I decided to help them with the dishes.. It was not out of concern, but for the pure thought of feeling amongst them working.

Its not a common practice to tip in Argentina, but with the wages not going up, the waiters now not only say. “sir the tip is not included, ya” but also wait at the table after they bring in the change. For some this might be a little rude, but if this is the way they will make the extra buck, then it has to be this. The buck then gets that extra piece of bread at the end of the day or keeps the house warm for a little longer, and it is fine.

I don’t know and I am no one to proclaim that with the coming of the new government here, the economic scene will change. I hope it will but at least the so called democratic government’s mouthpiece, The President of the nation wont be heard saying. “Any person who doesn’t support the policies of the government is the enemy of Argentina”.

I wrote this in April this year but didn’t post it. I am in Norway now and Argentina seems so far away. Geographically maybe only!

Rorbu No. 200 in Nusfjord!

Before writing this, I asked myself, ‘have I already written about this place’. The Lofoten Islands in Norway!

Well if travelling for 5 years to this place and it still feels like the first time then might as well write about it like the first time.

In 2010 when I first stayed in the Lofoten islands in Svolver, I loved it. Then over the years as I traveled more and more in the islands the stay always felt less exotic than the travel itself. For, even the islands have hotels with a glass façade where you look out of the window and see the sea but you cant breathe the waters. The group tour dynamics are different and price and food has to be given importance too with the location or the actual authentic feel of the place.

Personally I have always disliked staying in hotels that belong to a chain, or staying in a ‘hotel’ at all. The uniformity simply doesn’t work with me personally and here is the only difference I make between personal liking and what simply has to be done for work to be smooth. I have to choose hotels with a ‘Scandic’, or a ‘Radisson’ in their name to make sure the rooms are available and at a good price. But out of all the ‘chain’ hotels I have stayed in the Lofoten, one hotel I always remember and it was the Hennigsvaer Brygg hotel, which simply means the hotel on the pier of the fishing village Hennigsvaer. The chain is not even a chain and the locals formed a group of hotels in Lofoten to run them in unity and well keep the local spirit intact.

That morning in the June – July of 2010, when I sat looking out at the sea, someone staff mentioned to me, “that’s what we call Rorbu, over there, they are fishing cabins” he said.

A Rorbu, I learnt later, is a  red colour cabin built at the sea. It is a shelter to help the fisherman get some rest after being at the sea for close to 12 - 16 hours of winter catch.  A lot of sights in Lofoten are decorated by these rather simple looking red color cabins. On a clear summer day, the reflection of the red house on the Norwegian bay makes for a more than perfect postcard view. This is all I knew about the word Rorbu till today.

True, Rorbu was only a word for me till today.

The Norway fjords are over on this tour and the Arctics have begun, and the very first night the ‘Rorbu’ made its appearance this time not as a word but as an experience. As we made the 6 kms in road journey from the E 10, into the narrow road towards the Nusfjord, I began to hear expressions of awe from behind in my bus. Awe and Lofoten go hand in hand I know but it wasn’t before we arrived at our place of stay that the awe was replaced by total exhilaration.

Rorbu no. 200 

The Nusfjord was in front of our eyes and the little red cabins were spread out on it. It is midsummer but the weather was not like that, with the clouds looming over us, the people started taking their pictures even before they got the keys to their rorbu’s.

“No. 200 is a slight off track”, the guy at the reception said to me. “You have to go up the hill and then down and you will find it where the nusfjord opens up to the sea”. I know I couldn’t give it to any of my 60 + yr old tourists and so I was the choice by default to go to this Rorbu no. 200.  After showing the way to the Rorbu’s to my guests I started making way to mine, up the hill.  For a moment I wished I had packed light. After following the road for a few minutes I simply decided to follow the waters that lead to the sea. Then a wooden walkway went inwards to two cabins on stilts. My key went through one of them and that’s how I knew it was no. 200.

The Cod Fish .. Symbol of Lofoten

 At first when I entered my Rorbu, I found myself exactly with the same expressions as my tourists. Then I found myself with the camera. It was only after I checked all the rooms and including the living room opening up to the sea, that I went to sit on the patio. The waves don’t make a sound in Lofoten, the silence has its own sound.

I was in a Rorbu! The owners were the same as the Henninswear Brygg hotel, I stayed 5 years ago at.

As I sat there I remembered the time when an American told me some years back as we both looked a huge cruise ship on one of the Norwegian Fjords. “You will own it one day”, he said. I smiled and told him I am not looking at the cruise but at the little cottage behind the huge mass of steel on that hill. He didn’t know what I meant. But I thought, if I ever do find that, I no longer enjoy travelling so much and want to be in one place, this is the place I would be in.

The morning sun on the living area.

This morning as I open my eyes to a clear summer day, I realize I am living in that thought. The Rorbu no. 200 is as close as I have ever been to living on that cottage on the hill. I started writing this last night, but I couldn’t find the inspiration to complete this unless I actually woke up to the morning sun in the Rorbu no. 200.

Such is Norway!

Someone from my tourist group asked me today, how many tours do you do to Norway? I said four! For a second I thought do I really have 4 tours covering only majority of Norway?

Then I thought about that day in the May of 2009, when I didn’t even know if I would be coming back here more than once or twice.

The Norway Fjords and Arctics, is something that came to my mind as I sat in my chair and toiled with the idea of doing  something more in Norway. I dint know how the itinerary would be, let alone the thought that an actual tour would be in picture in the same year of its initiation, and that too from my chair.

But here I am writing from the train which we got from small mountain town called Dombas, where we are connected with the train from Oslo to Trondheim. The last time the ticket collector was helping the people with the luggage was in Myanmar. He didn’t just help with the luggage but also played cards (gambling) in Myanmar. Norway is Norway and here it stays to the luggage. 

After two days of travel through the Norwegian West Central Fjords, I realized that how a camera is a useless device when it comes to the actual capture of natural beauty around you. I started my yesterday a little late coz I thought “I don’t want to go to the hotel for the evening so early”. I had no idea that the day would turn out be one where people even after being hungry and physically tired say, “ can we just be here for sometime more”.  It was still 30 mins and 11 hair pin bends away from our Hotel Aak, which has rooms named after the mountain peaks of the region.

Trolls Path with its hair pin bends.

Aak in Andalsnes, is known to be the first tourist hotel in Norway. So, we stayed in the first hotel that was ever built in Norway. Do I have to even mention that it had character.

The first two days of this travel took us through Alesund, Loen on the Nordfjord and finally the Geiranger Fjord which even though has 2 – 4 cruise ships coming in daily sometimes cant be taken off the number one ranking fjord in Norway. Brings me to a re thought on touristy places and how maybe I do finally have to go to Dubrownik some day. ;-). Dubrownik, the most touristy and beautiful Adriatic sea place in Croatia which I have detested going to for its sheer commercial nature and crowds pouring in.

                                                                Geiranger Fjord 

We have 5 more days on the tour. I was completely new to the Fjords in this area but for the next 5, I will be in my known world of Lofoten Islands and Tromso. I was a little worried about how the first 2 -3 days of the tour would go, whether it would be as beautiful as above the Arctic circle.

Now I am worried about what if they don’t find the north so much interesting. J

Such is Norway !

The Pulse of Rio

Tourism is very relative.  What people from Germany love, the French might dislike. The Aussies have a different choice when in Bali, that of only drinking and the Americans may do some actual sightseeing with the drinking.

Brazil and India are members of BRICS, which stands for, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. I think within this union, Brazil and India have more close relations in terms of people than the communist China and Russia. Brazil and India . Rio and Mumbai!

Sunny beaches with tropical weather(India without the women),  friendly people  or the multiethnic culture that the two have are a few from the many similarities that we share. This might be the reason that, I as an Indian traveler didn’t find Brazil and especially the city of Rio de Janeiro too different to explore. The past three years of coming to South America and the equation with Brazil has gone to 5 nights in 2010 to only one night in 2014.

As in India we say, Mumbai has not much sightseeing to do like its counterpart New Delhi(yes I personally hate our capital), but a pulse to feel. Only few do feel it and the once who do, want to come back or stay longer.

Christ the Redeemer is the solo-pulling factor to a lot of Indians that travel to South America. That’s the only reason I need to keep Rio in the tour to South America. Well that is what I thought until yesterday.

Last night I asked the Doorman in broken Spornish(Spanish Portuguese) at the hotel in Rio, “Donde es muito bom lugar para comer”, Which might have sounded to him like “where good place to eat is”. To which he said something in his native tongue and pointed me to a direction, “-----dos quadras, derecha----”, I only got two blocks to the right and that was enough from the many words he spoke. It was drizzling a bit and from a distance I could see the words, ‘boitego informao’, which literally meant drinking informally and that’s what I did for the next 2 hrs.

I don’t know whether it was the Caprinha, the local cocktail with vodka/rum cane sugar, soda and lime, or whether it was the two old ladies that were hitting on me, or the three young ones who chose to say ‘I don’t speak English or Spanish’ or the waiter who kept on talking to me about my trip in South America, but that night I felt something in that informal atmosphere.

As the sound of the rain out, mixed with the voices of locals in the bar, I suddenly felt it, I felt the pulse of Rio. The famous Copa Cabana with all those chiseled bodies, the top tourist attractions together didn’t make up for the night in Boitega Infarmao!

 When I walked back to the hotel, (actually it was more of a run), I knew I would stay longer the next time when I come back. For the first time I fell in love with Rio, Brazil!



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Patagonia - al sur del Americas

The Andes are beautiful. They run almost through the entire American South, making a natural border between Argentina and Chile. To the South of South America is Patagonia. A magical region encompassing the majestic Andes, where the foot hills are full of pastures to the North and Glaciers cover most of the south. I have heard stories about Patagonia, have touched only the Northern and Southern extremes of this region. The more the Patagonian air goes into my lungs, the more my mind wanders in its interiors.

I have seen the Glaciers in Antarctica and I have walked the green pastures in the foothills of the Himalayas. Somehow I feel Patagonia is an amalgamation of the two. I have eaten with people in Buenos Aires and had a drink or two with my guide in Santiago. But, somehow I feel the Southern Region of Chile and Argentina doesn’t belong to any country. It is just Patagonia!

Every time I travel to this continent I see the extremes it has to be felt. I love the feel of cold on my skin more than sweat and I am waiting for Patagonia to grow on me.

There are no people to be seen for kilometers together they say. No sound to be heard, other than the river making its way to either side of the Andes, to the Pacific in Chile or the Atlantic in Argentina. The odd ranch with horses running wild or the Alpaca sheep feeding on the grass bed which looks like its been moved over just yesterday. These scenes I can only imagine and as I do the feeling only grows. The feeling to get lost and stay that way for some time, till maybe I get found by a cracking glacier. Do you know the noise that it makes ?

On a day trip in the Northern Patagonia in Argentina, my guide told the people to get down from the coach and stay calm for a moment. To feel the nature she said. They all got down with a camera! I saw a soul however drifting in the distance, and I knew he felt it. Sometimes I feel happy when my people understand what I mean to show. It is beautiful when that moment comes, the moment of connection.

It is distant and you know it exists, but you cant work it out. To connect with nature comes naturally and sometimes there is no guarantee that it comes at all. 

The only thing that I can do is spend good amount of time in it.

In my last 20 days of travel in South America I only remember 2 -3 distinct moments. I remember a lot of scenes, but moments only few. Sometimes a whole tour goes by and the moment never comes. I know it wont happen in Patagonia though.

I hope finally when I do walk in Patagonia’s vast interiors, I will have few scenes to remember but more moments to feel!

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The Peruvian Amazon

In 2010 when I was planning my first trip to the South American continent, the Amazon,  I knew had to be shown to the people. So like all tour organizers, I landed in Manaus, Brazil on one 38 deg C afternoon. From air, 15 mins before landing all I could see was the vast green land. ‘The Amazon jungle is here’, I heard one of my tourists exclaim. However the last 10 minutes before landing got into picture a different kind of a jungle. The Concrete Jungle.

The next day our guide took us from the port of Manaus on the Amazon river to see the confluence of the white and the black Amazon river and that’s all I can remember from that first trip. No Jungle!

When I reached home I struggled to understand when people from around the world spoke about the Amazon, what exactly did they mean?

It took me one more trip to figure out the difference between the Amazon River and the Amazon Jungle. The river only passes through Brazil while the jungle is spread out between Peru, Bolivia, and Columbia and off course Brazil.

If not Manaus in Brazil, then what was the question? Peru had by then already become my favourite country in the continent and I wanted my people to experience the jungle there. 

As I write today waking up to the sounds of the morning birds and to faint voices from the adjacent cabins of people saying, ‘what a beautiful place’. I look back and thank Manaus for being so ugly. It was only due to the absolute and complete hatred of Manaus, was I able to search for Puerto Maldonado and the river Madre de Dios (mother of god). The river is the largest tributary of the Amazon from Peru, and the jungle is much easily accessed and lower in latitude than the Brazilian Amazon which is right on the equator.

The Inkaterra Amazonica 

Our stay for two nights in the Inkaterra Amazonica, in the Peruvian Amazon is the closest I could get my people to living in the Amazon. The lodge has a touch of luxury, which essentially means catering to the vegetarian meal requests, more hours of electricity and 2 guides for my group, which has more +60 yr olds. The cabins are very neat and have the skeleton of wood and the skin of a mesh to protect from mosquitoes.

The afternoons are hot and humid and that’s the only time you wish for some city comforts. Last year it rained during my stay here and although the activities were held back, it felt pleasant to just watch the rain from the comforts of the viewing deck. This time around the weather was perfect for the activities. By activities if one thinks of the Amazon as a place to watch Animals then it’s not about that. Birds and reptiles maybe, yes, but more than anything it is about the feeling. To experience the walks in the rain forest where only 5% of sunlight reaches the ground. The boating in the night under the clear sky with a million stars. The crossing of one tree to another, on a canopy, at a height of 30 mtrs above ground and stopping in between, the swaying bridge to take a moment and look around you.

The Canopy 50 mtrs above ground

The activities happen during the day and till 7 pm, but it is the experience of sleeping to the sounds of the jungle that I love only second to be woken up by the   sounds of the dawn. The sleep is not continuous and somewhere in the night you realize that you need to go under the sheet not due to the mosquitoes but the sudden chill in the air. The wake up call is early with a 100 birds clearing their throats with the first rays of sun.

Today I check out of the Inkaterra Amazonica but I woke up with the same smile as I had last morning. I don’t have to wait for a year to get back to the Peruvian Amazon.

October would be different than the two April’s that I have experienced here.


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Antartica, The Expedition - Landing on Almirante Brown 20th Feb, 2014

The earlier night, we were already briefed on the ‘Landings’ for the 20^th February. There were two landings on a single day and that was the first time ever, since we entered the continental waters.  

The landings in the morning were scheduled from 0900 hrs and those in the afternoon were from 1600 hours. Everyone was now a master of the drill of breakfast – Lectures/ landings – lunch – more lectures/landings – dinner. I could feel that we didn’t even need the announcements to call us to Deck 2, to get in our shoes and life jacket. The Fram’s policy was to give each group out of the seven assigned an equal chance of landing first on the site. It was the chance of group number 6 that morning.

The expedition team went first on land and made a path for the passengers. The Almirante Brown was a small Argentinian base station we were told and had a resident population of 10 – 12 engineers and scientists. From the Fram’s observation deck we could see our expedition leaders wearing red overall’s trekking up a tiny little summit of about 1000 ft. Some of the passengers who saw the two human figures walking at an angle of nearly 60 deg up, exclaimed ‘this is crazy who will walk up there, in all that snow’. There was place only for a few to stand at the highest point of the summit, which was a rock face. In the next few minutes I could already see that the summit is going to be crowded with blue jackets, as the people from group 6 and already begin the ascent in the distance.

To the summit of Almirante Brown

You should slide all the way down, said a woman in her late sixties, as she got back into the ship. I could sense the child like excitement in her voice. She was from Canada and probably did slide down such a height when she was in her teens. I on landing, didn’t wait to talk to the base station residents like I did, when I was at the Chilean base station, and headed straight for the summit. It was not as tough as it looked from the ship. The people sliding down included some of my tourists and I was happy to see them enjoy the snow. The view however kept on getting beautiful as I gained altitude and I decided to just lie down in the snow for a while and take in the surroundings. I could see a lone figure on the top of the summit. It was really narrow up there and after some rethinking I decided to go all the way up.

I don’t know how long I stayed up there. For the first time I didn’t feel like leaving. There were only two of us on the top and we didn’t have a camera. We just stared into the vastness, I saw a smile on her face, and I knew she did on me too. I knew she felt the same way as I did. I knew she said to herself, ‘this is Antartica!’

Before the American’s tried to come up with a digicam in their hands, we decided to leave the top. It was a smooth slide down, which at times felt exciting enough to make us shout. By the time I reached the base, there was snow in my pants. I let that be and just took some time more on the clean snow.  Scotch with glacier ice was a thing some people had done before. I didn’t have the scotch with me, but the snow from the sky made up for it. It felt high enough.

View from the summit, my Antarctica moment!

When I got back to the ship, I felt peace. I felt like I could go back today to Argentina as I had already reached the moment.

The second landing was at Neko Harbour. I don’t know why it was called that. There were more Penguins there than any other landing site. I saw what the instructor meant on day one, as I saw a male penguin picking one stone at a time to build his nest. By this time I was not too excited in taking the ‘penguin pictures’ and so I just saw them doing their thing.

It was sometime during the dinner that we heard the captains voice for the first time on the speaker since the welcome note.

 “We have bad news for you, there has been a medical emergency on the ship. We have tried getting help from helicopter but the bad weather wont let it land till the next two days, so we have decided to sail back to Ushuaia”.  A post briefing about the next day was cancelled and was replaced by a meeting of all passengers with the captain on the observation deck. People were really disappointed that they had to cut their trip a day short. I wasn’t worried about that. I was just happy that I felt Antarctica that day.