Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada

Yes, no doubt that Niagara falls are one of the natural wonders of the wolrd, but have we ever ask what's around them? Most probably, one of the less explored and beautiful areas of the country, including the panoramic road which leads to the charming tiny XIX century village of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

@ontarioenespanol.ca

Niagara falls are divided into the American and the Canadian borders. The largest section is that called Horseshoe Falls, mostly visited by tourists. These falls were discovered back in 1678, when a jesuist monk heard a strong and curious deep sound along in the distance which lead him to the streams of water.

Horseshoe Fall @ontario, canada

Despite its natural beauty, the worthest part of the trip is renting a car and taking some time visiting the north area of the falls, driving through the panoramic road of Lakeshore that ends at the XIX century town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, one of the most atractive spots in Canada, and the country's main wine region.

@ontarioenespanol.ca

Best Canadian cellars can be found here: Peter Estates, Inniskillin Winery -believed to have been designed by the famous architecht Frank Lloyd Wright- Chateau des Chames and Vineland Estates Winery, located in an old menonite building.

Manabe and the Inland Sea of Japan

The Inland Sea of Japan is a quiet and remote corner of our planet, rarely frequented by Western tourists. Due to this reason, it is precisely one of the ways to better know the most authentic and inner Japan as well as its the typical local fishermen, wearing their conical straw hats to protect themselves adequately from the burning sun. 


The Inland Sea @ Japan

From Kasaoka to Manabe

We take an old and obsolete boat that transports us back to past in time, to the remote fishermen village of Kasaoka -a loss stop of the JR shinkansen line coming from Hisoshima to Fukujama- in route to Manabe and its smallest neighbour islands, and we begin our navigation on the quiet and serene Inland Sea, approaching villages of no more than 300 inhabitants -many of them barely have inns or restaurants, or indeed even convenience stores, we only find a vending machine in all the way.

Manabe @ the Inland Sea, Japan

A journey to the ancient Japan

On the way we meet our two travel mates from Hiroshima, who have come to visit his friend fisherman in one of the island and kindly help us acting as our interpreter-guides inside this unique vessel that resembles us that we are for an instant out of real time, glancing at the frayed and dusty curtains that hang slightly from the boat's cealing and which seem to have standing there in the same position for many decades. Nearby the curtains, a parasol fights its way out through the tiny windows that protect us from the sun outdoors.

Ferry @ Kasaoka, Japan

And once again I experience the same feeling that I had for the first time since I landed in this amazing country, facing at the awesome Fuji: the inmensity of silence, the infinity of nothing. For the first time in the last two weeks, we are traveling throught the more authentic Japan, which is not described by the guides and in which the language of signs becomes the only means of communication with the worldabroad.

Sunset @ the Inland Sea, Japan





Key West, the secret place of Hemingway

Former refuge of pirates, fishermen, traders and treasure hunters, Key West is today a secret piece of paradise on earth where time stops still to celebrate the magic moment of sunset. Talking about Key West is talking about Hemingway, who lived on the island from 1941 to 1950, and its bar Sloppy Joe's, which every year holds a competition on the character more like the writer, whose picture hangs One of the walls. Given its proximity to Cuba, to Key West have migrated in boats and rafts thousands of Cubans who are still waiting from the other side of the end of the era that keeps them away from their homeland for more than four decades.

Sunset celebration, Key West

Better known between locals as the the Southernmost point of the United States of America, Key West (Cayo Hueso in Spanish) is at the most southern US, where you can see the still today mythical and nearby island of Cuba. Despite its close to 32.000 inhabitants all is quiet here, as if time had stopped in a remote part of this site -known as an extension of the Florida peninsula- surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. The American writer Ernest Hemingway adopted it as his beloved Finca Vigia and lived there for nine years of his life, in which he wrote some of his most memorable novels, among which are To Have and Have Not, The short and happy life of Francis Macomber or the more famous For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Duval St @ Key West, Florida

The Overseas Highway

Over 120 miles of the Overseas Highway, a four hour drive through the narrow neck of land that joins all the keys of the peninsula of Florida, make up this archipelago of about 1,700 islands leading to the Seven Mile Bridge, known for being the longest engineering project in the world built over the sea.

Overseas Highway @ Key West, Florida

Sunset celebration

Once on the island, Duval Street welcomes visitors. This is the only street that runs along the Key West fell from top to bottom, from the vast Atlantic Ocean to the cozy Gulf of Mexico. This tiny street is famous for its Victorian-style mansions overseas, exclusive boutiques, restaurants with typical local food (fish, lobster and tropical exotic dishes) and their drag queen shows at night.

Gulf of Mexico @ Key West, Florida

Key West is one of the few places on earth where time stops still to contemplate, evening after evening, the magical sunset. Best known as the Sunset Celebration, the thriving community of artists currently living in this small and unique town and visitors are there, they meet at the dock of Mallory Square to watch spectacular sunsets over the Gulf Mexico. Jugglers, acrobats, fire eaters, clowns and all kinds of tourists mostly from Europe awe at the celebration of this unique show, one of the most beautiful prints and postcards collected in the Americas.

Benares, the city of life in India

There is a place in India where all the fervent Hinduism devotees go to in the last stage of their lives. That place is called Benares, Varanasi in Sanskrit, and is one of the seven sacred Hinduists cities.




Benares, India

 

Benares is in the confluence of the rivers Varuna and Asi, at the shores of the sacred river Ganges. There, at one of the seven sacred cities of Hinduism in India, hundreds of sadhus, ill and aged people who are in their final days pilgrim in the same direction do do their last prayers and ablutions in the sacred waters of Mother Ganga, between buffalos, fishermen, women doing the laundry and children playing and laughing happyly while they bathe in the river, apparently without noticing what is happening around them.

The most ancient city in India

Benares is the most ancient city in India and presumes to be one of the ancentral cities of the world. There have also been some speculations that point to the water of the Ganges, one of the most contaminated rivers and less appropiate for human use, as one of the possible origins of the mad cow disease. Actually, in the other side of the water, deep inside, there are hundreds of death bodies that are deposited in the river every day from the city's main crematories.



Manikarnika ghat @ Benares


Lotus offerings through the Ganges

Benares is a magical city during the night, when tons of little lotus offerings with floating candels slide softly through the water of the Ganges and are carried away by the flow of the sacred river, meanwhile the priests celebrate rituals in honour of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction, and the sound of sacred chants and mystical offerings of fire. At daytime, the panorama becomes overwhelming, when the spectacular sunrise over the Ganges reveals the real meaning of the fires, and transforms them into authentic funerary pyres, where you can still gaze at some of the bodies burning since the previous night.



Lotus offering @ river Ganges, Benares

 City of life, city of death

No other city in the world lives, each day, so close to death. Neither does it seem possible for a human being to resist the awesome vision of walking through tiny lanes full of dead bodies, while the strength of something real called life, continues on its way, with even more intensity than ever, on the other side of the same road customized in the forms of silk merchants, autorickshaw drivers and all kind of food stalls that sell local specialities like samosas, thalis, chapattis and paneer. The mixture of smells is undescribable.



Ghat @ Benares, India


In Benares, the intensity of all that you have seen , smelled, heard, touched and tasted in India reaches to its maximum, not knowing exactly if it is due to the extreme heat that envolves the city during the month of August -where temperatures can easily rise over 40ºC- or because the five senses of the body are more sensible than ever, and any detail is capable of putting the entire nervous system in alert.

Pilgrimage through the Ganges

6.00am in the morning. A small fishermen boat takes us by the shores of the Ganges through the morning fog and a surreal landscape to which, daily, more than 60.000 devotees reach to do their prayers and ablutions, to purify their minds and bodies and to expiate their sins. In this scenery, between life and death, our guide explains us that an average of 130 bodies are cremated each day, lasting each cremation around 3 hours and with an estimated cost of 3.000 rupees (around 50 US dollars). And all of it under the rules: it is forbidden to take pictures of the cremations, it is allowed to sit in silence and watch the ritual. It is forbidden to cry.



Ablutions @ river Ganges, Benares


Benares is the city of life and the city of death, the city of light and the city of darkness. India, once again, breaking all the schemes of Occident and taking contradiction to its maximum extent. We leave the city walking along the last funeral procession, transported to the Ganges by the untouchable cast. They accompany the deceased with chants, transporting him to the definite closure of his life cycle and allowing his entrance to eternity, letting his soul free of guilt and able to rest in peace forever.