Glen Eyrie Castle (Part 1)

Glen Eyrie is a 67-room, 24-fireplace, English Tudor-style castle, in a 800-acre (3.2 square KM) estate, built by General William Jackson Palmer (founder of Colorado Springs) and his wife Mary (Queen) Mellen. This 1881 remodeled house was his dream home and is hidden on the north-west foothills of the Garden of the Gods park.

The castle was well advanced for its time, featuring a primitive telephone and intercom system, electric elevators, fire sprinkler system, a pasteurization plant, and a chimney system that would hold the smoke until the wind was blowing in the right direction to take the smoke out of the valley.

The castle is now owned by The Navigators (http://www.navigators.org/us/). The general public is allowed on its grounds Monday through Thursday (9-4) to visit its bookstore, located at the Carriage House, or to hike its many trails. Tours of Glen Eyrie Castle are available to the public and require an advance reservation. Here are some pictures of the Glen Eyrie castle.

A window in the horse carriage house, now converted to a library.

A long tunnel from the horse cart house to the castle, used to transport luggage when the guests arrive.

A stream and bridge in front of the castle.

Pictures of the castle from outside.

The Chimney.

One of the 24 fireplaces inside. This is believed to have built in Europe back in the 1500s.

A view from one of the bedrooms.

After the tour my family decided to play :-).

A Trip to Pikes Peak

If you visited Colorado Springs, two land marks would come to your mind. The Garden of the Gods Park and the Pikes Peak. The Air Force Academy and NORAD would be next.

Pikes Peak (named after Zebulon Pike, an explorer who led an expedition to the southern Colorado area in 1806) is one of the 54 fourteeners in Rocky mountain range with a height of 14110 ft (4300 meters) above the sea level. To reach the top, you can leisurely take the cog railway from Manitou Springs or drive the Pikes Peak highway(19 miles one way) or hike (like my wife) to enjoy the sheer pleasure of unending physical torture.

The hike to Pikes Peak is by Barr trail, approximately 13 miles long with a 7300ft (2225 meters) elevation gain. The last three miles above the tree line are treacherous with rocks, frequent thunderstorms and lightning.

Last weekend, I drove to the top to pick up my wife after her hike. Here are some pictures.

Cog rail and the train

Crystal Lake from top

Garden of the Gods park from top of the peak

A brave hiker, my wife

On our way back, a lone fox stayed staring at its shadow, blocking the traffic

And later, it got bored and decided to leave

India Trip (part 5)

Kerala (where I am from) is on the south west tip of India. Kerala means “land of coconuts” and the language we speak is Malayalam (the only language name that is a palindrome if written in English) means "speech from the mountains". It is interesting to note that India has more than 25 languages and 2500 dialects.

Kerala has a tropical climate with greenery everywhere. The long nine summer months are difficult with temperatures reaching 36 degree C (97 deg F) and relative humidity more than 90%. At the end of summer in March/April all  trees have their fruits fall so that the seeds are ready. By then, everyone is longing for the rain. 

But once it begins, it doesn't stop. It is the land of south west and north east monsoons, dumping an yearly average rainfall of 311 cm (122 inches) mainly  in the months of Jun, Jul and Aug (info taken from http://www.kerala.gov.in/knowkerala/generalfeatures.htm).

During my last visit, the monsoon started when we were in the Malampuzha reservoir.

Partly dried reservoir

We even rode our bikes deep inside the reservoir

Monsoon clouds building up above the mountains

After raining cats and dogs we had visitors from down under

India Trip (Part 4)

In my last post you saw the roads to Malampuzha dam. Here are some pictures of the countryside taken on our way to the reservoir.

Paddy fields

Backside of the reservoir

Mountains by the side

A bird with prey (200mm, F/5.6, ISO-200, Shutter 1/320)

Time for a bath in the reservoir

India Trip (Part 3)

A few of us drove bikes to visit Malampuzha dam and reservoir near Palakkad. I was sitting behind a bike to photograph the roads.  The traffic is in both directions and you can see people walking and riding cycles on the road. The houses are very close to the roads too. For foreigners it's a nightmare to drive there.  

National Highway - 47 (similar to the interstates in US)

The country side

Photo with a lower shutter speed

Festivals (India Trip - Part two)

Sabarimala (Lorad Ayyappa is the deity) is a Hindu temple located amidst of 18 mountains and thick forests in the Western Ghat mountain ranges in Kerala. It is considered to be the largest seasonal pilgrimage center in the world as per Wikipedia – 40-50 million people visit every season (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarimala).
 

In olden days, a trip to this temple was so dangerous that many didn’t even return. As a result there were lot of preparations required to visit the temple. Traditionally one had to restrict  food habits, grow hair and beard, wear black cloths, wake up early in the morning, take bath and pray for 41 days and no women in the menstrual age group was allowed to visit.

On the previous night of the trip, the group gathered in the local Ayyappa temple and performed prayers and offerings. Later this became a festival in those temples. Here are some pictures from our local temple, the night before such a trip. All the pictures are taken at night with a lot of people moving around. So pardon me on the quality. I have NOT visited Sabarimala yet.

Entrance to the temple decorated with lights

Huge deity decorated with lights

A decorated elephant ready for the festival

A replica of the original temple is made using skin from banana plants and tender coconut leaf. Those people take a few hours to make the whole replica.

Some trained pilgrims get kind of hypnotized listening to the fast music/songs (these music tell the story of lord Ayyappa) and can do things that you and I can't even imagine. They can dance perfectly to the beats for hours (I have seen them dance for 4 to 6 hours non stop).

India Trip -- Part One

In my last post I had my stop-over at Singapore. When I reached my native place Kerala, the monsoon had already started. Everything around was tropical green. Here are some of the plants and fruits typical to my place.

A coconut tree

A fallen coconut under the tree

A banana tree

A banana leaf with rain drops

A Jasmine bud

Mangoes almost ready

Leaf of a (black) pepper plant

A custard apple

Air potato plant (its root is a vegetable, scientific name Dioscorea bulbifera)

Can you tell what this is?

It was the closeup shot of Jack fruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)