Masks of Costa Rica

Throughout the Costa Rica trip, we kept seeing elaborate and amazing masks..

Finally we got some explanation for these at the airport just before reaching our gate. The masks cost around 100 to 150$ (list price).. we did not try to bargain. 

They were beautiful.. here are a few we saw.. I have touched up the masks and done some HDR work on them in Photoshop.. 

There was a room full of these masks on display and sale at the Super Compro store in the town in Monta Verde... the most beautiful ones had the Quetzal bird on them with snaky colorful tail. We missed seeing this bird on our walks. There are only 500 of them alive and it is critically endangered. It was not our luck. Our guide told us that they a group of five, just the previous week. The birds are considered a god in Costa Rica.. but the habitat loss has endangered the gods.. things we venerate as gods are almost extinct? why is that? 

The Quetzal is expected to be gone in 20 years or less. Maybe in this lifetime (mine or the Quetzal's, whichever comes earlier), will get to see the bird.

Loved this trip!

Peru Day 3 - Fourth stop - cooperative store

Previous post on this series is here ...

There was one photo of Urubamba river that I missed in previous posts.. so here it is! We did not go back through the same route we came. It was more like a loop from Cusco to Ollantaytambo to Chinchero and back to Cucso!

The last stop on day 3 was a workers co-operative of sorts where a group of ladies do wool products, arts and crafts that are ethnic and sell it to tourists. As an added service they provide free restrooms in an otherwise desolate place.. it is a win win.

They also tried to make it interesting for the adults and kids by having a few stalls.. the first one was a display of a jillion potato varieties. Did you know that my favorite vegetable came from Peru?! For that alone, I owe these people. If someone gave me an award just for living this long and I had to give a speech, it would start with Peru for potato and move on to the folks who came up with Noodles  and that would be it.. if they gave me a three minute time limit that is..

My mouth is suddenly watering for things like sambar and soan papdi because of my recent sickness, not that I can taste a thing.. where were we? Potato! 

 Then there was an Alpaca pen.. the kids got to feed the Alpaca's

San got to pet them..

then we got to see this lady carrying a baby on her back and keep weaving the wool..

That was one incredibly cute baby..

 Then we had a demonstration of how the wool was sheared, cleaned using a local root, colored using different natural colors.. (she pulled a parasite from a cactus leaf, crushed it and used its blood as the red coloring.. that was bizzare)! 

She made some jokes about how it is too late for me to use that root to get strong hair as I have lost it already. At least that is the one thing that the kids remember from that whole stop! Showed this picture to the little one and asked "rememeber her?" and she goes "she made that joke about your hair.. ha ha!"

After the demo and some shopping we came back to Cusco. It was our second night in Cusco. The first night dinner was a disaster. We asked our guide to just drop us off at the Plaza de Arma and he obliged. We found an "Italian restaurant" and asked for Vegetarian items. There was a Nepolitano (cheese) pizza and Spagheti with tomato sauce (not marinara.. just tomato). We got that and ate what we could and crashed. It was better than the previous night, but we felt something was missing. 

The little one was pale and she barely managed to eat anything. The altitude sickness somehow hit us hard from 7 to 9PM.. we went back to the hotel room and crashed.

The next day was going to be interesting.. the most interesting.. Machu Pichhu was beconing.. 

Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur

The previous post on the Jaipur trip is linked here!

On the last day and a half we managed to see many more places.

We visited Albert hall, which was touted as the local museum. It was a gloomy looking place with not enough lighting, but it did have a lot of interesting pieces in it ranging from 800 AD to the early 1900's, from all over the world. Things that were originally collected by Kings and later curated by "Abert"! 

Going through a museum that is not air conditioned, is dark and dingy on a hot summer day, is not a good idea. The kids refused to move past the first two rooms and sat down on the floor to strike! They said "we will pass on this one appa! please see what you want, and pick us up from this room!"

Here are a few things that I thought were either interesting or unique to this museum.. 

The kids stayed put in that room with the mummy while my FIL and me wandered on..Tons of laquerware, other utensils and decorative vases that occupied a few rooms. If you are into Vases, this might be your place to visit!

Then there were the statues from the late 700's to 1300's. If you are into anything "Tantric"... this might also be the place for you to visit!

This door jamb thingy in the picture below the sign was massive and intricate. Would have loved to see the entire temple though.

I put two and two together after seeing this panel and visiting Abaneri later on. Could not comprehend what the size of the real structures have to be till the next day..

These statues with gold plating were tiny but exquisite. If you have all the money at your disposal, you can patronize such arts!

Talk of beheadings! I could not get the full story from this miniature figurine but the godess seems to be very happy to have slain the buffallo which apparently is symbolic of the bufallo demon king. Good thing the kids stayed in the room with the mummies. I would have had to explain a lot of things without any "konaar notes"!

Finally, there was a display of musical instruments from 1700-1800 and this thing was called a Guitar! Thought that was funny. The guitar surely evolved in the last few hundred years.

The biggest draw though, was the pigeons outside. Thousands of them! We watched a man feed them and a kid chase them around every 2 minutes. Took a slow-motion video of this on the iPhone 5S and had lost the slo-mo effect. Thanks to some edits on iMovie have gotten it to look close to the original.. 

 We went on to see the Abaneri wells. That has to be a post in itself! 

Our walkway aka Art Gallery

Most of the artistic creations of Jr. and the little one from their school work are displayed on the doors of our cabinets in the garage. Granted it is not organized neatly but it is a treat to pull into the garage and stare at some of their early work. Brings back memories and makes you forget long work days at the same time. 

We do update the garage drawings on a rotational basis, once a quarter or when daddy feels like it.

The inside of the house is another matter. The walkway is reserved for work they do in art class and we are adding to the collection every month or so. 

Here is the little one's latest work .. 

and our walkway as of today

The display helps motivate them because everytime someone visits our house, they go to the walkway to see the additions and ask the kids questions and encourage their work. 

In the process, I am also learning how to improve the "display" by spacing things out right on the walls and re-arranging pictures in portrait vs. landscape format etc.

They do have other works on glass and on "rocks". They are both painting rocks now. Those are going to be tricky to display. Planning to buy little ledges that go on the wall and put the rocks on top. 

That will have to wait for a few weeks!

Remembering China..

San came home with a lot of goodies which did not apply to me.

However, there was one item. It was a bunch of cute masks she got. 9 of them. Apparently the hotel where she stayed would put a new one in her room as a memento of sorts every day!

Each one is around an 3cm by 3cm and today's project was to glue them on black velvet and put them on a frame.

Came out nice. Now San can reminisce about her China visit everytime she looks at the wall with the TV on it.

That is a lot of reminiscing...