My Way Is The Highway

THE MAYAN RUINS OF COPAN

This blog post is part of of our trip to Guatemala and Honduras in Dec 2012 amidst the evocative Mayan ruins in a lush jungle, a quaint lazy colonial town and a tropical Caribbean beach. Other articles in this series: Tikal Sunrise and Sunset Spots for Photographers | Astronomical Observatory of Uaxactun |Smoking Frog of Uaxactun | Following Frederick Catherwood | The Mayan Ruins of Copán |The Modern Town of Copán |

December 2012

I sit on a boulder besides a dusty single lane road not too far from the Guatemala-Honduras border. A centuries old grotesque statue of an old man lies half buried a couple of feet away. Rio Copán happily gurgles somewhere behind me. In front lies a lush verdant valley with dotted with fields of tobacco and plantation. From a nearby tree, a macaw suddenly takes flight, spreading its colorful wings luxuriously gliding over an unfelt air current drifting away silently into the horizon. A howler monkey crashes through the tree falling freely, hurtling to certain death towards the ground when at the very last moment it pulls itself up by the thinnest of a branch and swings away nonchalantly.

The landscape is shrouded by mist that swirls over two towns within half a mile of each other. On my right, the modern town of Copán is deep in slumber after the late night spent in Christmas revelry. It will wake up in a few hours. But not the ancient town of Copán on my left because it has been asleep for the last thirteen centuries.

But make no mistake. Copán is far from dead. Having witnessed its peak in the eighth century, it rapidly diminished in power sometime after that and was lost to the undergrowth until it was discovered by a dynamic duo of adventurers in the mid-nineteenth century. Befitting the ancient Mayan traditional belief in afterlife, today it lives a another life.

Greek Odyssey: Two Weeks in Athens, Delphi, Peloponnese and Santorini

“Papi, Can I pick our next vacation destination?”

I froze at my 11 year old’s innocent question. Don’t get me wrong. She is a sport all right. She has trampled museums all over the world without complaining. Followed me without protesting to a myriad of dusty ruins. She has braved long flights and longer waits at the airports.

I was still skeptical. “Here comes, Orlando?” I thought.

“Greece?” Her beautiful oval eyes wide open with anticipation.

I must have jumped with joy. I myself was deep in the middle of Iliad and Troy and Alexander and Achilles. I would have picked Greece myself. The trip was signed off in seconds.

* * *

Greece has touched my life on so many fronts. India is the largest democracy in the world, but it all started in Greece. (India is also the largest bureaucracy in the world. That too, started in Greece and still continues.) Pythagoras had me floored  before I was twelve, Euclid before I was fifteen. Ayn Rand introduced me to the Parthenon a little later in her path breaking novel Fountainhead. Alexander, the Macedonian, is a personal hero, his feats – oh, so un-accomplishable. After him, “all was possible.” His teacher, Aristotle has has taught me a thing or two. Achilles is my hero’s hero.

* * * 

Most Greek itineraries are focused on talking you to the islands. The islands are beautiful but the mainland has a lot to offer. People just don’t know about it.  Ignoring all standard itineraries, I setout to design our own. The battle of Troy was high on my mind. I wanted to see where it all began. I want to see the Palace of Agamemnon. I want to visit the Oracle of Delphi.  I wanted to touch the soil that Helen once did.

* * *

Here is how it turned out…

Hampi Photography Trip – Sun on the Rocks

Vitthala Temple Courtyard, Hampi

I have been to Hampi twice - in 2000 and 2008, before I was bitten, respectively, by the travel and the photography bug. The two trips could not have been more different. Not knowing what to expect, on my first visit I was introduced to the evocative ruins of the erstwhile Vijayanagara kingdom, perpetually lighting a spark in me that led to the second, for which I came prepared with a long list of things I had to see. It led to a mad dash through rocks and ruins under a blazing April sun.

Since then, I have been to other places in the world. At first, at a hurried, frantic, fast pace. But eventually, I learned to travel slow. Few flights, fewer hotels, two or three cities in a trip, experiencing more of a place than more places… 

That is when I am not on a photography trip. The sole purpose of a photography trip is to come home with beautiful photos. Relaxation and fun is not on the agenda. In fact, my chances of returning with “keepers” is extremely bleak if by the end of the trip, I am not sleep deprived, fatigued and cranky.

This third trip to Hampi was decidedly a photography trip right from the beginning.