Burning Desire For FIRE

This holiday began the night before my flight. Evan29 was flying into Melbourne after spending 5 weeks away at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, where his show “Man Sings The Same Song Over And Over Again For An Hour” was literally a smash hit.
Rather than miss each other by a few hours, I headed to the airport early, booked a room and surprised him at Arrivals.
Then it was off to Kathmandu, Nepal.
Fortunate Frogdancer was offered to move seats to a full row of empty seats. AGAIN!
This was actually really lucky because I woke up that morning barely able to walk. Somehow, I’d hurt my right knee. Weird.

As it was, I was able to sleep flat for 6 hours and my knee is totally fine now. I was worried… that Tigers Nest monastery in Bhutan has a lot of steps to reach it.

The next morning, I joined up with the whole group… of only 6 people. How fantastic is this? All Aussies, with 2 married couples and another solo traveler from Sydney. Macy is married, but her husband wasn’t drawn to Nepal, so to their credit, she’s come here without him.

Our first day was a tour of some of the sights of Kathmandu.

This city is huge! It’s much bigger than I expected.
Our first stop was the ancient religious complex of Swayambhunath (Monkey Temple.)

The prayer flags have 5 colours for the 5 elements.

Blue: Sky and space (infinite open-mindedness)
White: Air and wind (compassion and purity)
Red: Fire (passion and transformation)
Green: Water (balance and harmony)
Yellow: Earth (stability and grounding)

The more the flags flap in the wind, the more they spread harmony. I bought some for my front yard. Nothing wrong with bringing the neighbourhood some good vibes.

Buddha with a sword. There’s quite the legend attached to this.

Once, there was a big lake where Kathmandu now stands. In the middle of the lake was a huge lotus where this temple now stands. Some guy, represented by the Buddha with the sword, came strolling in and thought that this valley would be a great place for a settlement.

He cut the valley with the sword and drained the lake. 

The first settlement was established in 400 AD.

Archeologically, the story holds true. This valley used to be a lake…

There’s a reason this is called the Monkey Temple. There’s quite a few of them around.

I loved the look of the brooms around here. Just bundles of sticks, but they seemed to get the job done.

The stray dogs, the tangled wiring, the women in their bright clothes. We were heading up to the top of the temple here.

It was quite the view.

The white building at the top of the mountain is a monastery. Our guide said that in days gone by, people would climb the mountain to get there.

Nowadays, they just drive.

Our next stop was an art studio, where I may possibly have bought my art souvenir from this trip. The intricacies of this style of artwork are incredible.

The art for sale starts from very basic student work taking a week or two to do, up to the Professor level, which takes a couple of months and often uses gold dust. I restrained myself and bought a mid-tier one.

The main temple on this site.

Gold pagoda … this is a temple for mothers and grandmothers. They come here to pray for pray to their children and grandchildren.

See the prayer wheels? You spin them clockwise and they get rid of all the negativity. I think we all had a go.

There are 350 steps here. If you start at the bottom, climb up, do some rituals and go down again, all of your sins are washed away.

Look at this cheeky boi, eating the offering!

Grain is scattered everywhere around this temple precinct, to feed the monkeys and birds.

Then we were off to the Kathmandu Durban Square, which is built around a palace where the royal family used to live. There are MANY temples here.

Most were built in the 17th century, but this one, the oldest, was built in the 7th century. All the wood used here was cut from a single tree. Can you imagine how big the tree would have been?

These statues are a blend of how Hinduism and Buddhism are blended here. The tops are Buddhist, while the bottoms are Hindu. With a dog in the middle.

”Sometimes there’s a cat!” said the guide when I pointed it out.

Then suddenly we were being rushed to a house a few minutes away. We raced into a courtyard, being filled with a mixture of locals and tourists.

See those windows behind the scaffolding? We were about to see the living goddess Kumari.

This is a tradition going back centuries, where a little girl is selected from one family to be the representation of the Hindu and Buddhist divine female energy, or goddess Taleju Bhawani.

She lives here in this house, secluded, with her feet never touching the ground outside. Once a day, she comes to the courtyard, where no photos are allowed. They were serious about this, confiscating phones. I decided to refrain from my usual sneaky photos.
Thirteen times a year, she is taken outside and paraded around the square with men pulling a wagon where she’s seated.

In modern times, tutors come for her education, and her family is allowed to visit, but not to stay.

Unlike the Dalai Lama, this is not a lifetime assignment. When she gets her first period, or she has a major injury with lots of blood, the goddess is said to have left her body and she is returned to her family, free to live a normal life, but with a handy government pension for life.

Being selected is regarded as a huge honour. The living goddess must pass strict screenings evaluating 32 perfection traits, including specific hair, eye, and teeth qualities, alongside a test of fearlessness.

The current one is 3 years old. She appeared above us for about 30 seconds, all dressed up and made up, before being whisked away.

Here she is.

This is the Hippy Temple. Back in the 70’s, marijuana was briefly legal. Lots of hippies flocked here, buying their MJ and coming here to sit and smoke on the steps.

Cosy boi.

Janine ended up buying some bags from this woman. On the right, the upper story of the building reminded me of the buildings in Lima with the balconies where women could see and not be seen.

I liked this old crumbling temple.

Black temple. Back in the day, they didn’t believe that people could lie in front of this temple. Otherwise they would be struck dead instantly, so it was a very good way to keep criminals honest. If anyone was accused of doing something wrong they dragged them there and they would tell the truth.

It probably doesn’t work so well today.

Here is part of the royal family’s palace. If you squint, you can see a row of portraits under the verandah roof. It’s the series of kings, ending with the massacred king and crown Prince, with the last one being so incompetent that the Nepalese people pushed him off the throne.
The Nepalese royal massacre was a mass shooting on June 1, 2001, at the Narayanhiti Royal Palace in Kathmandu, which claimed the lives of 10 people, including King Birendra and most of the royal family. 
Our guide was a child when it happened, and she can still remember the shock of it.

Excellent wooden carving, with a close-up below.

How is this even possible? They have a guard here, and I don’t blame them.

I saw this as we walked to the van to go for lunch. I hope she was bringing her washing in, rather than putting it out…

This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Boudhanath Stupa. It used to be the biggest Stupa in the word before Myanmar stole its thunder.

Our lunch location. Are we under observation?

We came down to thundering rain. It was pelting down. This trip, I have only brought one pair of shoes and one pair of jeans, so I was worried about the jeans getting saturated, like they did in Norway when I went sloshing through the rain to get my artwork.
Naturally, all of us had left our backpacks with our umbrellas in the van. Our poor guide borrowed an umbrella from the restaurant and set off to fetch our things. I was so cross with myself for forgetting about the weather forecast. The sunny morning had lulled us all into a false sense of security.

Anne went in here to do a spot of meditation, while the rest of us stayed on the balcony, chatted and watched the rain.
Remember how excited I was to get that rain poncho in Cusco? It was worth its weight in gold.

Marigolds are popular here.

As Max from Get Smart would say: “ That’s the second biggest prayer wheel I’ve ever seen…”

Dad joke of the day:

We had an evening flight, so after breakfast I went for a walk. This time, once I hit the beach, I turned left.

Mornings appear to start late here. There were tourists and people walking their dogs. It was warm… it wasn’t long before I shed a layer of clothes.

I was heading towards the hill to the right.

Look who I saw at the top of the hill! He certainly keeps an eye on everything here.

Now THIS is a sculpture that I can identify with! A book, a dog…

It’s practically me.

The foreshore is littered with statues like this. This one is of a novelist, Clarice Lispector. She and her dog were apparently well-known at this end of the beach.

Am I the only one to get a whiff of a Dune sandworm here?

I saw this bridge, looking like a lay’s leg, as we were going to the airport. I was sitting on the correct side of the bus.

You know those little electric vehicles in airports that take people needing wheelchairs to their gates? Val, Liz and Terry were riding in one. I said hi as they whipped past me, then they stopped. I got a ride to the security screening!!

Santiago airport has been my nemesis for the last 3 times I’ve come through, but the fourth time seemed to be the charm.

I’m home now. Mum isn’t doing so well, and the dogs didn’t enjoy being left on their own most of the time. Scout was well-behaved, but Hazel was a bundle of anxiety. She didn’t make the kids’ lives easy while I was gone.

I guess a month-long trip is too long for my little girlies. So far, I have 3 more holidays booked, but they’re all short hops. That’s probably for the best.

Dad joke of the day:

Today was a free day, so I chose to do the optional tour to Sugarloaf Mountain.

I almost always pick up the optional tours. I figure that they’ll take us to places that we’ll want to see anyway, and it’s a lot less mucking around.

Zero in here. We’re waiting for the cable car. These climbers are making their way up this cliff.

When we came back down again, they hadn’t made much progress.

Charlie Chaplin is alive and well and living in Rio!

A couple of views of the Atlantic as we took the cable car to the first (lower) part.

Look who I saw in the distance. It was perfectly clear today… damn…

I liked the sprinkling of buildings going through the mountains.

The marina. The views were amazing.

And then a plane flew right down into the harbour to land. We had no idea that’s how we got here a couple of days ago.

See the twin towers forming a cross? The whole thing was designed to be viewed from here. The pyramid-shaped cathedral is right in front of it.

It was a sparkling day.

This is the reason why Rio de Janeiro is named after a river, even though it has no river running through it. The mouth of the harbour is so narrow that the first Portuguese explorers thought that it must be a river.

After galloping around the lower part, it was time to ascend to the top. All 396 metres of it.

And here’s why it’s called Sugarloaf Mountain. Back in the day, the ships used to export sugar in these cones… called Sugarloaves.

Up we go to the highest point. Christ the Redeemer is still visible.

The vultures soar very high.

They start to develop a sense of style very young here.

Please excuse the smudge in the middle. It was on the window of the cable car. The curvy beach at the top Copacabana, where I was walking last night.

How wonderful! A marmoset, right beside the path. So tiny.

It was like a last farewell from the wildlife of South America.

Once you know the sugarloaf history, it’s easy to see why they named it.

This is a replica of the Paris Opera House. It was built when all of the cities in the new world were desperate to appear sophisticated and French.

The old aqueduct used to provide the city with water from the mountains. Now, trams run along the top of it.

It’s nice to see that they’re repurposing it, rather than just knocking it down.

The cathedral of St Sebastian. Patron saint of the city and the Portuguese army.

1964 – 1979

Brutalist style. Our guide came in with us because he likes to see the “wow” moment when people see how different the interior is to the exterior.

It’s pretty large. It seats 500, with an extra 1,500 standing room spots.

This is the unfortunate reflection on the building opposite…

This terrifying statue is of Mother Teresa. What a nasty piece of work she was. I was horrified when I found out how she treated her patients in the slums of Calcutta.

However, THIS statue, I love.

It’s called the ‘Jesus Homeless’ statue, by Canadian Timothy P. Schmalz.

What a fabulous idea. It encapsulates so much.

This is what the twin towers look like on the ground. You can see how the cross is formed to be able to see it from Sugarloaf.

This is the Royal Palace.

In 1808, the Portuguese royal family fled Napoleon and came to Rio. They stayed in the house of the Viceroy, so by default, it became the royal palace.

Queen Maria, she was insane. I don’t know if she was afflicted before she arrived in Rio, but that’s how she died.

Her oldest son was John, so he inherited the throne.

His oldest son was Peter. After Napoleon was defeated, he refused to return to Europe.

“I will stay in Brazil. Here is sunshine, soccer and Samba.”

He gave up all rights to Portugal.

So his uncle took the throne. This made Peter cross, as he wanted to put his sister on the throne.

I have no idea what happened after that, as the bus passed the next attraction and our guide switched to talking about that.

I’m going to do some research, though. It sounds like an interesting story.

This is the Olympic flame from 10 years ago. They turn it on whenever the Olympics are on. I like that.

Who knew Utopia was so close?

Street art. This is in a section of town that the city is trying to rejuvenate by creating residential buildings.

This is our last night on the trip. In a few minutes I’ll be meeting everyone in the lobby and we’ll be going to a farewell dinner with samba music.

It’s funny. This was a very long trip, but it’s flown by. We’re all so glad that we chose this one. We’ve seen so much. Who knew South America was so interesting???? 🤣

Tomorrow we embark upon our last 3 flights to get home.

Dad joke of the day:

Speaking as an atheist, I found this religious statue very impressive. This was unexpected.

Aside from anything else, this is an extremely popular attraction. We left our hotel at 9 AM, and it took just on 3 hours to get there, see it, and leave. There were a lot of people there, and by the time we left, the queues to get in were frightening. Thank goodness we aren’t in high season.

As we were coming down the escalator, Terry said,” I think we just met half of South America just then!”

Thank goodness, as well, that we aren’t living in a time where you had to suffer to see the holy thing. A Swiss- made cog train brought us 710 metres to the top.
The big tip… sit on the right side.

There’s lots of this.

Until unexpected gaps give you this. On the right side.

You had to be quick.

Brazil is rapidly winning my heart with its lifts and escalators at its attractions. I think I’d move here, if I could speak Portuguese.

Christ The Redeemer was made in 1931, and is of the New Seven Wonders of the World. It stands 30 metres high and 28 metres across, fingertip to fingertip.

It was sculpted by French-Polish artist Paul Landowski and the face was crafted by Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida.

It looks like carved stone in all the photos, but it’s not. This is a close-up of the sandstone mosaic pieces that cover the statue. There’s millions of them.

There’s a chapel underneath. We poked our heads in, and honestly? I was shocked that such an impressive monument would have such a tacky chapel attached to it.

Seriously, look at the google eyes of Jesus here. It’s ridiculous that this should be connected with the statue outside.

The clouds hadn’t properly lifted yet, but you could still see a good view of the city.

Sugarloaf Mountain. We go there tomorrow.

Obligatory selfie.

This little monkey was hanging around behind the ice cream cart, waiting for the slightest chance to grab something.

A snatched view of the city on the way down. I bought a Christ the Redeemer key ring for my Christmas tree. It’ll go nicely with the angel from the Vatican.

More mate drinking out in the wild. She was sitting with two friends. They all drank from the same mate cup, using the same straw.

Lunch time! We were given an hour to explore the Escadoria Selaron… the series of steps by Chilean artist Jorge Selaron.

In 1990, Chilean painter and ceramist Jorge Selarón began renovating the dilapidated, 125-meter-long staircase directly outside his house. Using bright yellow, green, and blue tiles to honor the Brazilian flag, and red for his home country of Chile, it quickly became his life’s work.

His neighbours first mocked him for “wasting his time “, but they soon changed their tune when tourists started flocking to the area. Over time, tourists and travelers from all over the globe began bringing and mailing him tiles from their own home countries to add to the mosaic.

He committed suicide on the steps when he was 65.

There are some tiles from Australia here, so I kept an eye out.

Little did I realise at the time, but I was sitting right in front of one when this picture was taken.

It was the kangaroo hopping towards the sun.

I couldn’t resist taking a video of this!

Colour and movement.

Literally on the street where the steps lead from.

Back in the bus, a little reminder that life isn’t easy for everyone.

The famous wave paving of Copacabana beach. Our hotel is just one block from the beach. These stones are from Portugal.
Julio, our guide, said that it was only a 2 or 3 kilometre walk to Ipanema from here. After we finished our tour of the city, I decided to go and do that walk.

Copacabana beach in winter. It was around 25C.

They are keen on their beach volleyball here. There were hundreds of courts set up. Later, on my way back to the hotel, big lights were switched on along the line of the footpath and many of the courts were full.

It was a LONG walk. I didn’t realise that Ipanema is on the other side of a little peninsula. Luckily, there was a map at the end of Copacabana beach and I was able to work it out. It was starting to get darker, but I was nearly there.

Mission accomplished!

I would have liked to stay and watch the sunset, but my internet dropped out on the walk. I didn’t fancy walking all that way back in the dark, so I set off again.

It was beautiful.

And the paving is different here!

Every time I hear “ The Girl From Ipanema” from now on, I can smile. I’ve been there.

On the way back, I bought a wrap to take to Egypt. It has the same design as the paving.

Dad joke of the day:

Don’t take a tour to see the Falls if they’re only going to take you to one side. For the Iguazu Falls, you need to see both the Argentinian and the Brazilian sides.

Just after 8AM, we crossed the Friendship Bridge from Argentina into Brazil. Our guide allowed plenty of time for us to get through border controls.

“ There are many variables to affect how long a border crossing can take. How many other people are ahead of you, the mood of the border officer…”

Fortunately, it was only around 20 minutes, and we were off to the National Park.

I don’t know how they arranged the rainbow, but it made my day!

The unexpected thing about this trail is that the waterfalls just keep on coming.

At first, you see the ones on the Argentinian side that were were above, so couldn’t see yesterday.

Then, the Brazilian ones.

There were more people on this side, but everyone was moving along the trail and were so happy about what we were seeing. I mean, how could you not be?

Here was where we were warned about getting wet. The breeze blows all of that water all over you. Today, I wasn’t wearing all of the wet weather gear that I was yesterday, so I walked out as far as I could, then retreated.

You can see how high the water level is.

I have deleted so many photos. I just liked this one, so here it is.

Remember The Devil’s Throat from yesterday? Here’s what it looks like at the bottom.

Isn’t it incredible? How could this be real?

Haha! This was right by the end of the trail. I had to show you just how close we got to the water. But yeah. I got wet.

One last look. Where the rainbow hits on the right? That’s where we were yesterday.

Now this didn’t just make my day. It made my DECADE.

Finally a tourist attraction puts in a lift, so I don’t have to walk up hundreds of steps. I think I’m in move with however had this idea and made it happen. I was so happy.

I don’t mind walking down steps. I simply hate going up.

One last backwards look…

… and then it’s up, up, up we go.

Here’s another coati. It was sneaking around, scavenging food. Tourists, who should have known better, were feeding it until they were told off by the people working there.

You can see how strong their claws are. The little guy on the tree trunk was chilling, just gripping with his claws. It was effortless.

Now comes the story of the 25 minutes that we had to get from one flight to the next. Today, we had 2 flights, with a screamingly tight timeline. Ever since I got the tickets, I was nervous about it.

I was prepared to have to race across the airport with the clock ticking down, just as we did in Taiwan, where we arrived with about 3 minutes to spare.

I was the first one in our group out of the plane. My digital boarding pass told me that our next gate was 222. I sped out of the plane and into the terminal. I turned around to check the number of the gate I’d just come out of…

… to see 222 above me.

I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never seen such efficiency in scheduling ever. We were suddenly in no rush at all. After all the stress I’d been feeling, it was a big relief.

Maybe this was what the rainbow was foretelling?

Overseas, people are allowed to bring their pets to the airport. I took this one for Blogless Sandy. She has a Frenchie.

Liz, Val and I finished the day with caipirinha cocktails… the national drink of Brazil.

Yum!

Dad joke of the day: