Lose Yourself in Varanasi’s Ancient Alleyways

January 27, 2015 Nick

There is one moment that stands out when I conjure up images of my gap year journey through South Asia. During my five month trip I lounged on empty Sri Lankan beaches, cruised the crowded streets of Dhaka in colorful rickshaws, and conquered the Thar Desert by camel, yet it was the crooked alleyways of Varanasi that left the most vivid and lasting impression.

Flower vendor in narrow old city alley at night. Photo by Q.T. Luong.

It was hottest time of the year because monsoon season was just around the corner. The pungent 120 degree air was thick with humidity, spices and smoke. Gusts of fiery wind did nothing to cool my scorched face. Walker and I found our way to the Ganpati Guest House located deep within the labyrinthine Old City near the banks of the River Ganges. From the rooftop terrace you could see smoke billowing up from the Burning Ghat and hear the clamor from the Main Ghat a bit further up river. The debilitating midday heat made it impossible to do anything other than spent hours on the terrace sipping bhang lassis, an age old Sadhu yogurt drink infused with weed, chatting with grizzled backpackers, and taking in beating heart of the Hindu universe from above.

The view from Ganpati Guest House overlooking the old city as a sand storm approaches. Photo by Nick Neumann

Almost inevitably, every time I left the hostel I would get lost in the maze of ancient alleyways enveloping my hostel. Initially, I was overwhelmed, hot, and claustrophobic, however after a few days passed I began looking forward to getting lost. I realized that in the serpentine passages of the Old City, strewn with trash, cracked clay chai cups and the occasional dead animal, I could avoid the onslaught of beggars and touts who were more persistent and annoying than anywhere else in India. These alleyways were home to impossibly small silk, ivory, brass and gold shops. Many of the storefronts were simply small windows in thousand year old homes; in my favorite such window was a chai shop I often stumbled upon.

Chaiwala pouring his goodness. Photo by bnilesh

When I close my eyes I can immediately transport myself to the wooden chai shop bench. In my hand is a warm cup of delicious, sweet chai. I would sit for hours simply watching Raj, the chaiwala, mix and pour chai while life unfolded in the alleyway. Every so often the relative calm would be broken by stampeding water buffalo heading toward the Ganges for their cooling afternoon bath. As I finished my first cup of chai, I was not ready to leave just yet, so I tossed my biodegradable clay cup and asked Raj for another.

Buffalo cooling off in the Ganges. Photo by Nick Neumann

The buffalo were followed by a more solemn procession headed in the direction of the Burning Ghat. A group of elderly men shuffled past with a body draped in colorful silk, billowing beautifully in the breeze resting on their shoulder. The silent procession soon faded back into the maze. As more time passed, and more sweat dripped, I zoned out to the lonesome movements of Holy cows and Sadhus until the buffalo returned triumphantly.

While observing life ebb and flow in the unrelenting chaos I imagined myself being transported back in time. Varanasi is one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities and it feels like it. It occurred to me that I could have sipped chai in this very same alleyway thousands of years ago and my experience would have been very nearly the same. I wondered how many cups of chai had been drunk in this very spot and how many pilgrims had passed by to wash away a lifetime of sins in the sacred waters of Ganges.

My favorite Indian sweet, Jalebi, deep fried wheat flower with sweat, lime juice and rose water syrup. — My favorite Indian sweet, Jalebi, a deep fried wheat flower with sweat, lime juice and rose water syrup. Photo by Nick Neumann

Varanasi is a enchanting city, but it is not for the faint of heart. If you can handle the dirt, smells, and chaos, then go lose yourself in the ancient alleyways of Varanasi and you’ll discover a strikingly beautiful amalgamation of Hindu and Muslim faith, man and animal, and above all life and death.

Peru, Pictures, South America

Mining Gold In The Highest Inhabited Place On Earth

Gallery January 24, 2015 Nick

The mining section of La Rinconada with Mount Ananea in the background.

As the city continues to expand, shacks spread farther across the mountain side.

The majority of residents live in small tin shacks. Given the extreme temperatures, daytime weather rarely exceeds 40F all year around, with nighttime temperatures reguarly in the teens.

A recently formed toxic lake has formed at the bottom of the hill. A miner who has worked in La Rinconada for over 40 years said “this whole part was covered in snow [pointing to La Rinconada], and now there’s no more snow. There was no lagoon before. Everything was ice”.

Miners returning home from their shift in the mines.

The enterence to the mines cuts through a shrinking glacier.

Miners hauling gold ore to La Rinconada to be crushed.

Most residents chew coca leaves which supresses hunger and exhaustion. The consuption of coca has been widespread in Andean cultures for centuries, siting its effect in alliviating altitude sickness.

Mercury is heavily used in La Rinconada to break the gold from the gold ore. Many residents suffer from mercury poisening, which attacks the nervous, digestive, and immune system. The entire city is reported to be contaminated in high levels of mercury and cyanide.

Many residents suffer from mercury poisening, which attacks the nervous, digestive, and immune system. The entire city is reported to be contaminated in high levels of mercury and cyanide.

For many miners, stricking gold is unpredictile. Some only find a few cents worth in a days work.

A woman forging metal spikes that are used to keep the tunnels inside the mines proped up.

Woman are not allowed to work in the mines in La Rinconada. “They say that if the women enter they won’t be able to find gold” says Maria, a woman who has worked in La Rinconada for over nine years. “They [the men] say the work inside the tunnels is difficult, especially with the gases and everything else that comes out. Men are different you know. But if we are allowed to enter, we would”. The main reason they can’t enter the mines is the local superstition that woman will anger Pachamama, an ancient Andean goddess who resides over the mountains and causes earthquakes.

Maria continues, “It’s pretty difficult to to live here. Everybody thinks gold is easy to find, that living in La Rinconada is easy and rosy, but it’s not”.

“Sometimes when people are lucky they find a lot of gold” says Maria. “But you need to know how to value the work and take advantage of it. Most of the men go to bars with girls to drink. They don’t know how to take advantage of what they are earning”.

Sewage, cyanide and mercury run through the muddy pedestrian streets.

One of the many restaurants serving hot quinoa sope for the hungry miners.

Playing on the highest pitch in the world, the miners of La Rinconada have put together a rag tag soccer team.

“I came to better my life. In our homeland, there is no work. We live with a lot of contamination because of the mine and the trash. It’s how we live, there is no community here”.

Peru is the fifth largest producer of gold in the world, and roughly 6% of its economy is based on it. Ever since the time of the Incas and the early Spanish Empire, Peru has had a conflicting relationship with gold. As Peru’s economy grows, and its citizens continue relying heavily on jobs created by the gold mining industry, it appears Peru will continue to be both blessed and cursed for the foreseeable future.

Photo and Story by Nick Neumann

They warned us about going to La Rinconada, “it’s so dangerous, you will get robbed in broad daylight,” said one man at the bus station near Lake Titicaca. Another man chimed in, “so many people are taking gold out of La Rinconada, that young men are beginning to rob people on the road from here to there.” I asked if any of them had visited the city, they said no.

La Rinconada, Peru represents the most extreme lengths people are willing to go in pursuit of money and a better life. At 18,000 ft above sea level, it is the highest inhabited place on earth. Living at these altitudes seems nearly impossible, yet 60,000 people call it home. Most work long hours in hazardous conditions deep within the gold mines. It’s entrepreneurial in the most brutal sense of the word—it’s unregulated and unsafe. Many people’s lives are cut short from contamination, tough working conditions, and alcoholism. Mercury, cyanide and human waste flow openly down its unpaved streets and alleys.

The process of gold mining in La Rinconada is conducted by small companies and individuals—rather than large multinational corporations. Miners hike every day over 30 minutes at 18,000 feet to the entrance of the mines, which are carved into a think glacier. They walk 1,500 ft into the dark tunnels of the mountain where oxygen is even more scarce and toxic fumes are overwhelming.

Once the ore has been extracted from the mountain, individuals break it down using stones and a crusher driven by donkeys in their homes and back alleys. Water from the glacier mixed with mercury helps extract the gold. The gold is sold to middlemen working in pawn shops, who bring it down the mountain to be sold again into the global market. Most of it ends up in India and Asia. Many times, armed men with ski masks rob merchants traveling along the one road leading out of town.

Instability in global markets has caused the price of gold to triple in the last 15 years, pushing many lower-class Peruvians to seek their fortunes in the mines of La Rinconada. Most miners come from the surrounding Puno region, a poverty-stricken province of the Peruvian Andes.

The story of La Rinconada is similar to that of Williston, North Dakota, where oil workers have been drawn to the harsh plains by the allure of high wages. Williston’s boom has affected the local environment and created a demographic shift and a strain on public services.

Similar to Williston, La Rinconada’s population has exploded—an increase of 230% over the last 10 years. Like a lawless frontier, the residents of La Rinconada have pushed back against the efforts made by the Peruvian government to bring regulation and some sense of law and order to the region. Many fear taxation and regulation that come with government oversight, thus the degradation of the environment, pollution, crime, and corruption still reign.

Articles, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, São Paulo, South America, Top 5's

Off the Beaten Path 2016

January 9, 2015 Walker Dawson 3 Comments

TOP 5 OFF THE BEATEN PATH DESTINATIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA FOR 2016

By Walker Dawson

While in no way a comprehensive list of the continent (Venezuela, Ecuador and the Guayanas are missing), these are our favorite off the beaten path destinations for 2015. Most of these destinations are a bit rough to say the least, but whoever is willing to forgo some basic comforts will be rewarded with a lifetime of great memories.

#5 La Rinconada, Peru

La Rinconada is the highest inhabited place on planet earth. At a staggering 18,000 feet above sea level, this gold mining town shows how far people are willing to go in pursuit of money and the allure of wealth. The city of 60,000 sits perched on the edge of a cliff, with glacier covered peaks at a touching distance. You can walk with incredibly friendly locals, who will be more than happy to show you the gold they’ve extracted that day, and they may even invite you to their house to meet their family and have a cup of tea.

La Rinconada should come with a word of warning; this is rough travel. 18,000 feet above sea level is no joke and the piles of trash lining most streets will turn many people away. If you are willing to look beyond the trash and brave the extreme heights, La Rinconada may be one of the least visited and most fascinating places of this planet.

#4 Goiás, Brazil

This is cowboy country, Brazilian style. Goiás is a giant state in the interior of the country and it is marked by an arid savanna like landscape, great colonial towns, incredible traditional Brazilian food, and quite possibly the friendliest locals in South America. Many travelers make it to Brasilia (which the state of Goiás surrounds), but those looking for another side of Brazil, one far from the hoards of tourists in Rio, should go to Goiás and get lost in this amazing land of red earth and cowboys.

#3 El Alto, Bolivia

El Alto, located high above the city of La Paz, is the largest indigenous city in the Western Hemesphere, as well as the highest city in the world (13,600 feet above sea level) with over a million people. The city is a chaotic place where massive open air markets flood into the already crowded streets, where one is met with curious stares and friendly smiles. You should come to El Alto if you are interested in indigenous South American culture; this is the modern day epicenter of it all. With the indigenous Evo Morales government, Aymara natives are rapidly beginning to embrace their indigenous roots which were for so many centuries suppressed by the Spanish and Mestizo elite. This cultural renaissance has transformed El Alto into a modern, 21st century indigenous metropolis.

#2 Paraguay

Getting wild after an incredible afternoon in the Chaco. Guns, beer, and nature.

Paraguay is lost in a bygone era. It’s a flat, hot, landlocked country in the middle of South America, whose charms come less from cobblestoned streets and old churches, but more from its people and their hospitality. There may not be many sights to check off, but that doesn’t matter when you are warmly invited to a restaurant opening complete with a fantastic blues band, taken to photography exhibitions or hosted by a family for four days for free. Most travelers skip Paraguay completely, but that’s their loss. Let them have the hordes of tourists and high prices, I’ll take my Paraguay the way it is.

#1 São Paulo, Brazil

Barra Funda is an up and coming industrialized area northwest of downtown, characterized by art galleries and music venues of all types. This display was at Galeria Fortes Vilaça, which recently hosted an exhibition on the world famous São Paulo graffiti duo, Os Gemeos. — Check out an exhibition by the world famous São Paulo graffiti duo, Os Gemeos.

São Paulo is in the midst of a renaissance. Forget Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Aires, this is where you need to come if you want to see a true South American metropolis. With 32 million people in the metro area, there is no denying that São Paulo is somewhat intimidating. Yes, its expensive, the public transportation is crowded, and it doesn’t win many points in the architecture department, but get beyond the initial shock, and you surely will begin to fall for its dynamic energy.

São Paulo is about diversity; it has the largest concentration of Japanese people outside of Japan, there are millions of Arabs and Italians inhabitants, as well as neighborhoods where orthodox Jews rub shoulders with recent Korean and Bolivian immigrants. São Paulo’s diversity is best experienced through the gastronomic boom that is currently happening in the city. Burritos, shawarmas, curries and sushi can all be found within 5 minutes of each other.

São Paulo also has an incredibly vibrant underground culture and some of the best nightlife in all of South America. Brazilians play Mexican mariachi, jazz, blues, reggae and rock, the alternative art scene pops up everywhere across the city, old alleyways are transformed into canvases for artists, old factories are becoming galleries, and museums are constantly highlighting local Paulista artists. After a day of feasting on delicious food from around the planet and enjoying alternative art, you can finish off the night in an underground bar, where people perform improv theater, a faint scent of weed lingers in the air, and locals sip on dark Brazilian microbrews. São Paulo is hot, and you’d be crazy to miss it.

Peru, Pictures, South America

Land of the Incas

Gallery January 9, 2015 Walker Dawson

We spent over a month in Southern Peru, starting in Cusco, the ancient heart of the Incan Empire. From Cusco we visited Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world where indigenous tribes live on floating islands and ancient communal living structures are still in use today.

After Lake Titicaca we endured the grueling trip up to the gold mining town of La Rinconada. Everyone had warmed us that road was the most dangerous in all of Peru because of frequent roadside robberies, in fact two people were shot for their gold on the night that we left, but this did not deter us. At 18,000 ft. above sea level La Rinconada is the highest inhabited place on earth. We spent two days recording a short documentary about life there, talking with locals, exploring the glacier and getting far off the beaten path.

Next stop was Arequipa, Peru’s second largest city, and the perfect place to begin an adventure to Colca Canyon, which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and home to the Andean Condor, the largest bird in the world, as well as many distinct ethnic groups.

We ended our journey through the South of Peru at the magnificent Machu Picchu.

Bolivia, Pictures, South America

El Alto and La Paz, Bolivia

Gallery January 9, 2015 Nick Leave a comment

It is begining to sound like a cliche in South America, but La Paz really is a city of contrasts. Imagine local folks drinking espresso while checking their iPhones on a sidewalk cafe, then imagine dried llama fetuses being sold next to indigenous healers and soothsayers who can whisk away your problems with a prayer and a dime.

The socialist Evo Morales government of Bolivia has attempted to tackle many of the cities problems by building a series of gondolas connecting the many disjointed parts of this city. The popular gondola system whisks locals from deep in the valley to El Alto on the valley’s rim. It connects the have and have nots and most importantly eases the horrendous traffic.

High above La Paz, sits an even larger city called El Alto. El Alto is the largest indigenous city in the Western Hemisphere, with well over 85% of the population claiming indigenous roots. El Alto is as close to the intensity and chaos of India as one can get in South America. Mini vans turned into public buses fight for a space to pick up riders and young men and women shout out their destination at the top of their lungs.

Some visitors may never leave La Paz, and locals may tell you not to visit El Alto, but if you are ready for an adventure and willing to take a few steps off the beaten path, take that teleferico up the hill and give El Alto a chance, you won’t regret it.

Breaking Borders

Lose Yourself in Varanasi’s Ancient Alleyways

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Mining Gold In The Highest Inhabited Place On Earth

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Off the Beaten Path 2016