This morning Pat and I arrived in Hampi India after the most ridiculous bus ride ever. Enough said.. As we arrived we hired a rickshaw to take us into the bazaar. A bustling area with lots of shops carrying jewelry, textiles, and delicious Indian food. Amongst it all looming above is a beautiful set of ancient temples and ruins. Words cannot describe the detail of its stone carvings. We quickly took a boat across the river to the quieter end of town. Many guesthouses and restaurants line the dirt road, in which could satisfy any budget. After some looking around we found a nice cottage overlooking the rocks and the river with a hammock in front. So sick!
After we settled in we took a hike to scope some of the boulders in the vicinity with a Canadian named Colin, and we stumble across the famous Baba Cafe boulders which are featured in the Big up film "Pilgramage" starring Chris Sharma. Most of the problems are really hard but there is some warmups as well. Tomorrow I will return to try a couple and move on to some other areas nearby. We continued our walk up to the Rishyamuka plateau which has some good bouldering circuits as well.
There we took a turn to Sahdu Baba Caesar's Ashram up in this nook between the rocks. The structures were very well built. It was a Shiva worship spot. We blessed the chillum and Caesar preceded to tell us an old history lesson about the foundation of Hampi and its dieties. Pretty crazy start to the trip. Also at Caesar's we saw a sun-bathing snake that looked pretty mean. I'm still reseaching the type. Will let you know tomorrow. After being enlightened by Baba Caesar we headed back to the cottage to seek shade from the blistering afternoon heat. We then headed back to the bazaar to get food and scope the scene. We got marsala dosas which are very tasty bread rapped around potatoes and spices with onions as well. Delicious!
To end the day we headed up to Hanuman temple for the sunset. The birthplace of the monkey god. We got there just in the nick of time due to our speedy rickshaw driver. Good work kid!! There were monkeys all around the temple climbing double digit boulder problems with ease.. I guess it comes with the territory. Anyway, the sunset was over fast and we sped back to Shanti cottages in a flash. I was very satisfied with the day. We couldn't believe how epic this greeting was from this amazing place. I haven't even climbed for real yet... More to come soon about the climbing including pictures. Stay tuned..
After we settled in we took a hike to scope some of the boulders in the vicinity with a Canadian named Colin, and we stumble across the famous Baba Cafe boulders which are featured in the Big up film "Pilgramage" starring Chris Sharma. Most of the problems are really hard but there is some warmups as well. Tomorrow I will return to try a couple and move on to some other areas nearby. We continued our walk up to the Rishyamuka plateau which has some good bouldering circuits as well.
There we took a turn to Sahdu Baba Caesar's Ashram up in this nook between the rocks. The structures were very well built. It was a Shiva worship spot. We blessed the chillum and Caesar preceded to tell us an old history lesson about the foundation of Hampi and its dieties. Pretty crazy start to the trip. Also at Caesar's we saw a sun-bathing snake that looked pretty mean. I'm still reseaching the type. Will let you know tomorrow. After being enlightened by Baba Caesar we headed back to the cottage to seek shade from the blistering afternoon heat. We then headed back to the bazaar to get food and scope the scene. We got marsala dosas which are very tasty bread rapped around potatoes and spices with onions as well. Delicious!
To end the day we headed up to Hanuman temple for the sunset. The birthplace of the monkey god. We got there just in the nick of time due to our speedy rickshaw driver. Good work kid!! There were monkeys all around the temple climbing double digit boulder problems with ease.. I guess it comes with the territory. Anyway, the sunset was over fast and we sped back to Shanti cottages in a flash. I was very satisfied with the day. We couldn't believe how epic this greeting was from this amazing place. I haven't even climbed for real yet... More to come soon about the climbing including pictures. Stay tuned..
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