When I had stuffed myself with enough streetside potato empanadas, I flew from La Paz to Santa Cruz. My dream was to see the wild jaguars in the forests near Santa Cruz, amongst the many other things to do in Santa Cruz Bolivia.
Drifting off through a one-hour flight and waking up to chew upon the dry fruits that the Boliviana de Aviación attendant served, I landed at the Viru Viru international airport and hopped onto the airport shuttle to go to the central plaza. My travel friend was staying in a fancy hostel there.
As always, I had not read much about Santa Cruz. But my curiosity to talk to the local people makes up for my lethargic online research, mostly. In a casual conversation, the manager of the Santa Cruz airport shuttle told me that Bolivia was still furious about losing the Pacific coast to Chile. He added that the elite businessman and politicians of that wealthy city we were in had stopped caring as they were busy securing their bank balances.
And that is how I was introduced to Santa Cruz, a city where you would forget that you are in Bolivia, if not for the cholitas selling sinful salteñas on the roadside.
Covid-Related Travel Update, January 2025/2026: Chile is open to international tourists. Visit the Chilean government’s official website for travel-related information and regulations. Don’t forget to read the government’s rules to be followed in public spaces here. My guide to Chile visa would be helpful for Indian citizens.
Hyderabad Travel Memoir and Places to visit in Hyderabad in 3 Days
In 2018, I had to travel to Hyderabad twice to get my US visa. Back then I decided against writing a Hyderabad blog.
I didn’t want to write down places to visit in Hyderabad in 3 days because Hyderabad city seemed orthodox to my free spirit. Men ogled women freely while their wives roamed around the city fully clad. Hoards of men crowded the corner shops and streets while the women were nowhere to be seen. I even saw an old Muslim man pointing to me and later telling his son my clothes (a pink short-sleeved top and three-fourth jeans) weren’t decent. Though every corner of this Nawabi town was fragrant with delicacies, we had a hard time finding vegetarian food in Hyderabad.
Then I decided against my intuition of not writing about Hyderabad places.
Covid Update Jan 2024/2025/2026: Indonesia is now open for all travelers.
Nyangnyang Beach Bali – One of the Best Beaches on the Island
We descended the stairs on the hill shadowing the Nyang Nyang beach. And all we could see was the turquoise Nyang Nyang rolling ahead of us into infinity.
As I move onto a new journey that takes me outside India for a couple of months, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the places I have lived in and visited in the last one year in India.
India-a country with distinct religions from the ancient Hindu to the declining Zoroastrianism, with a myriad of languages and dialects from Konkani to Jarawa, with a plethora of geographies from fathomless deserts to treacherous glaciers, with a vast network from modern sea links to old hanging bridges, with a wide assortment of food from homely dal roti to mouth-watering, overnight-cooked chicken biryanis, with a range of commutes from rusted Hero bicycles, serene camels, and obedient bullock carts to fancy Rolls Royces, from peaceful Tamil marriages held for two hours during daylight to exciting Punjabi wedding functions sprawled over many days in luxurious hotels spread across India; we have it all.
This large and miscellaneous congregation of people-that India is-sometimes makes me proud, but sometimes the restrictions of this collectivist society suffocate me.
White roses, pink bougainvilleas, golden marigolds, and red hibiscuses bloom throughout the day in my parent’s garden, but then comes night, and the queen of the night takes over. These memories from SA waft through my being as the scent of the queen of the night drifts through my parent’s garden and settles in our wistful dreams.
Hope you enjoy these amazing memories from the time I was traveling in South America.
As we approached the Ranganathittu National Park, we could see big birds flying above us in groups. That part of the Mysore city felt like a forest. Soon we would see crocodiles basking on rocks and islets full of young chicks chattering incessantly for food.
Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary is a natural reserve in the Mandya district of Karnataka. The reserve is three kilometers from the historic town of Srirangapatna (another important place in Karnataka) and sixteen kilometers (10 mi) north of Mysore. The drive to Ranganathittu bird sanctuary from Bangalore took us about four hours.
Ranganathittu islets were formed when an embankment across the Kaveri river was built between 1645 and 1648 by the then king of Mysore. These islets, originally numbering twenty five, soon started attracting birds. Once upon a time, ornithologistSalim Ali observed migrant birds nesting in huge numbers on the islands. Upon his suggestion, the King of Mysore declared the islets a protected area in 1940. Now the sanctuary is formed by six of these islets on the Kaveri river.
As soon as we arrived at Ranganathittu, we purchased a ticket and went inside. As we went inside the sanctuary, we could see the Kaveri islands below us, and above us in the sky flew painted storks, ibis, pelicans, and herons. At least those were the birds I could identify. When we took the special boat ride that takes in seven people and goes around the sanctuary for forty minutes the boatman told us that the Ranganathittu reserve hosts at least one hundred seventy bird species. Some of the common birds found are painted storks, Asian openbill storks, woolly-necked stork, pelicans, river terns, egrets, cormorants, herons, and varieties of kingfishers.
The best time to visit Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary is from December to February, and we were well within the time frame. During these months migrant birds come to Ranganathittu from as far as Siberia, South America, and the Himalayas, and they all nest in the bird sanctuary. You can also spot crocodiles, otters, mongooses, and flying foxes there. Just keep your eyes open and binoculars in focus.
I penned down my experience in Ranganathittu National Park in a poem. After all, what is better than nature and poetry?
Writing down that poem here. Hope you enjoy it 🙂
Painted storks in Ranganathittu
As we entered the sanctuary, painted storks glided above us in the clouded sky,
and with our heads tilted towards the heavens,
we walked by the side of the muddy Kaveri,
to see flocks and flocks of white and grey birds just perched onto the canopies of the Arjuna and the Acacia on the islets.
The crisp air buzzed with their songs and shrieks,
though I couldn’t identify even one of those notes.
We gazed at the distant foliage to recognize the winged-ones,
but our eyes instead discovered three crocodiles who rested on the rocks with their powerful jaws wide open,
as if they were waiting for a fish to dive into their mouth.
Their stillness made us wonder if they were real or fake,
and then we saw one of them gracefully gliding into the coolness of the water,
Once upon a time, a little girl lived in a house which had an empty land in front of it. A brown cuckoo lived on a red-berry tree in that land. Every morning, before going to school, the girl used to stand on the balcony and listen to the songs of the cuckoo.
The cuckoo flew from one branch of the tree to another to eat the wild berries that decorated the tree like stars on a starry night. One day, when the little girl woke up, she saw that the tree had been cut down and the cuckoo was nowhere to be seen.
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