Dindi

Women washing clothes in a lake at sunrise

My favorite part of going to India is visiting my grandmother in the rural village of Dindi. I’ve been going since before I can remember and I can think of no place in India I’d rather be than this little hamlet on the banks of the Godavari river. 

Ijjalluru - Hidden Village of the Konda Reddy

While visiting my grandmother in India, my dad and I were able to take a side trip to Ijjalluru, a tiny village of the Konda Reddy tribe tucked away in the forests of the Eastern Ghat mountains in the state of Andhra Pradesh.  I have always been fascinated by the idea of tribal people in this region, given the dense population of India today.  The fact that they still hunt with bows and arrows was more intriguing still.

Diwali: An Interactive Fireworks Experience

Last month, I got to experience Diwali during a family trip to Hyderabad, India.  During this festival of lights, lamps are lit and firecrackers ignited to celebrate the triumph of good over evil.  Every household stockpiles all kinds of fireworks for this celebration and no one seems to bother reading the safety precautions...

And…There Goes 10 Years of My Life (Part 7 of 7)

...continued from previous post

The next morning, I decided I needed to make it back to my water supply at the cabin as soon as possible. I was below the most questionable terrain so I was able to move quickly. Miraculously, I found a trickle emerging from a snowfield that was not contaminated with ash. While I am normally very cautious about water sources in the wilderness, I was out of options. And from talking to a volcanologist in Bariloche, I knew that lab tests had failed to detect heavy metals or other toxins in the ash. While that was no guarantee, it offered some degree of reassurance.

Be Right Back I Promise (Part 6 of 7)

After spending two days on Volcan Casablanca, I returned to Bariloche to spend New Year’s Eve with friends. I didn’t have the landscape photo I wanted, but I still had a week left to work on it. There was another dormant volcano, Cerro Mirador, that seemed worth checking out. Access to this mountain looked fairly straightforward from Google Earth, but this time I decided not to go it alone.

Tell Me, For What Reason Do You Need A Map? (Part 5 of 7)

My time in Jacobacci had gone so well that I wondered if I should stay longer. But the story was about ash and I needed to show where it was all coming from. I needed to photograph the volcano.

Granny With A Gun (Part 4 of 7)

A year earlier, I had driven out to a ranch outside of Jacobacci called Estancia Yuquiche. I knew from Google Earth that the ranch had some interesting canyons and wetlands so I just showed up and asked if I could wander around. After an incredibly awkward introduction, the owner agreed to host me at her ranch house. That’s how I met Carmen Crespo, the 67-year old grandmother of Valentin and Camila. The week I spent there was one of the most memorable of my life.