YOHANSEN... Hey Callie Callie...
I read your last lil'blog about your hike. It sounds absolutely amazing and Mike he's sounds great! I can't wait until you get home b/c well i'm still in Vancouver bored! haha jk, but I want to see your pictures and I also think that Trevor and I should come downtown and party!!!!!
Miss you...you should be a writer too by the way...
Great writing I am so happy to read about the adventures you both are having! Your writing is so enthusiastic - as though we were part of your trip! Continue the adventure!
sweeeeet Hey Callie!! Glad things are still going well, I thought it was neat reading your journal on the salt place, because I saw the 'lonely planet' on the place, also in that same episode he went on this bike tour (Peggy Howard just did it and wrote about it in her blog) I can't remember how much it costs, but they supply bikes and everything and you go down this mtn. that is a huge rock wall on one side and a huge cliff on the other side, 1km far down at some points. Anywho, I just thought I'd tell you about that, cause it seems like something you'd do :P hahahaha. You may have heard about it already. Anywho, still stalking you and reading all your journals :P I love them, keep 'em comin :D cheers. Love ya :D
My darling Aunty Ok, I dont often respond to posts on here, but I just HAD to so that people know I DONT realllllly think that snakes get their own path - it was the thought of it that I found amusing.
Looking forward to having some great chats with you when I get back!!!!!
room for snakes uh, Cal ... tho the thought of snakes having their own pathway is intriguing, I think the sign was trying to tell you that people need to stay on the pathway in order to avoid the snakes . . . maybe? From your wise auntie.
Wow Seriously, next time you go to South America can you take me and Tony with you?
Aren't you so sad to leave the dogs behind? lol. I'm sad for you...and them.
Love-Hate I really have a love-hate relationship with your blog. I absolutely love reading your entries and seeing all the pics! At the same time, it makes me hate the fact that I am in Vancouver...well, not really...but I wish I was travelling with you! Next time, please, bring me :)
Great Pics! Love all the pics. Your wooden statue is passable, but looks more like you are trying out for the Pepto Bismol ad, travellers version! Can't believe the view of Santiago--it seems to go on forever. Not for me I don't think. Keep enjoying yourself.
Love D
chilito lindo hi! i've enjoyed browsing through your trip so far. just a couple of things. that statue with the disfigured face in santiago's plaza de armas is supposed to represent the loss of identity of the indigenous people, hence the messed up face. the "don't drink the water" fountain is calle "la fuente alemana" and was a gift from the german community to santiago in the early 1900's. nearby, the plaza italia has a statue from the italian community, also from the early 1900s. if you happen to see a mini arc de triumph in valparaiso, this is a gift from the british community to valparaiso. los of communities, lots of monuments. enjoy the rest of your trip.
Orphanage? I'm in! Next time you go back to the orphange, take me with you! I loved reading all about it...makes me want to meet all the little hellians, haha!
Merry Christmas Hey Callie, This is my first time on your blog. I looove it and will show all your pic. to Gabrielle tomorrow. I (we) wish you a great time in Peru. Take care.
Your second family is here in the cold thinkin about you on this fiiiine Christmas morning and wanted to give you a huge MERRY CHRISTMAS and a great big family hug:D You're blogs are great, we can hear you saying it as we read and it makes us chuckle:D haha. So keep 'em comin ;) Love you, take care and have an amazing holiday. Cheers, Love: The Kennedy's
Whaaaaaah, I want to be there: to swim in the warm water, to play in the river pools. to soak up the sun. But... if I don't look at the pictures I'm perfectly content to play in my Shop - getting ready for Santa's visit.
Hey my travelin' girl, Congratulations: first photo of inebriated women. Glad you're taking such a variety of photos. Can you believe the variety of vegetation and geography? And you're only in the first country! What other phenomenal happenings await you? Loves, Mom
Jealous! Wow, even though it sounds mental, I'd love to be there with you right now! Oh, and that little girl in the blue tank top on the right of the picture on the top left of this page, can you bring her home for me?! She's sooooo cute! And so are the rest of them...
Thanks for keeping us updated Callie! I love reading all your entries!
Kali - googled it Devotion to Kali
Doctrines On the battlefield Durga creates goddesses to help her, including Kali and the Matrikas, the Seven Mothers. Kali is Durga's personified wrath. Or Parvati can take on a fierce form by transforming herself into Kali from the poison stored in Shiva's throat. Kali incites Shiva to dangerous and destructive behaviour that threatens the stability of the cosmos, and they dance together so wildly the world is threatened. Shiva traditionally calms Kali and defeats her, though there are few images and myths of Kali in a tranquil state. Kali plays an opposite role to Parvati in Shiva's life. She is the goddess who threatens stability and order. Kali's dangerous role in society outside the moral order is increased by her association with criminals. Not surprisingly, Kali plays a central part in Tantrism, especially the left-hand path, and dominates Tantric iconography, texts, and rituals.
Unlike mother goddesses who give life, Kali takes life. She feeds on death and must be offered blood sacrifices. Kali is the feminine form of the word kala, time. Kali is the energy or power of time. Her blackness represents the supreme night which swallows all that exists. The emptiness of space is her only clothing, for when the universe is destroyed the power of time remains without its veil. Without shakti, expressed as the i in Shiva's name, Shiva becomes inert like a shava, corpse. Kali standing on the inert Shiva represents her standing on the universe in ruins.
Kali's terrifying appearance is the symbol of her endless power of destruction and her laughter an expression of absolute dominion over all that exists, mocking those who would escape. Her arms are the four directions of space identified with the complete cycle of time. Four arms symbolise absolute domination. Her sword is the power of destruction, the severed head she holds is the fate of all the living, and the garland of skulls shows the inseparableness of life and death. Kali as the power of time destroys all and embodies all fear. As she alone is beyond fear she can protect from fear those who invoke her. Thus she has a hand in the removing fear gesture. The pleasures and joys of the world are ephemeral, and true happiness exists only in that which is permanent. Only the power of time is permanent and can give happiness, so Kali gives bliss as symbolised by her giving hand which may offer a bowl of plenty.
By accepting the harsh truths that Kali represents, devotees are liberated from fear of them which people who deny or ignore them must suffer.
History The importance of Kali in Bengal reflects her derivation there from local goddess cults among semi-hinduised tribes. In the Hindu tradition the earliest references to her come from around the sixth century CE, when she is associated with battlefields and the fringes of Hindu society. In South India the tradition of a dance contest between Kali and Shiva, which Shiva won, may reflect Shaiva dominance of a local goddess cult. Later texts give Kali the dominant role in the relationship. By the eighth century Kali is identified with Shiva's consort Parvati. Kali coming forth from Durga's forehead may be a myth to integrate or subordinate one form of the Goddess with another. As the Shaiva and Vaishnava sects were evolving so was the Shakta cult with the worship of Kali and Durga. The Shaivas and Vaishnavas tried to attract these Shakta devotees by associating Kali and Durga with their sects. Eventually Kali and Durga became more closely connected with Shaivism, but traces remain of links with Vaishnavism.
The South Indian goddess Pidari can be identified with Kali. Sometimes she was only a gramadevata, village deity, but we can trace her history through inscriptions of the Cola period (c. 850-1279 CE) in which she has at least six different names, including Kala-Pidari, which is Kali. This shows the tendency towards a proliferation of deities and also the emancipation of goddesses. The influence of Tantrism caused the development of a large number of independent goddesses. Tantrism affected Buddhism as well as Hinduism and was popular in different regions of India at different times. It reached a peak in Eastern India during the Pala period (c. 750-1162 CE). In Tantric texts Kali is praised as the greatest of all gods or the highest reality. The Nirvana-tantra says Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva arise from her like bubbles from the sea and, compared to her, they are like the amount of water in a cow's hoofprint compared to the waters of the ocean. In late medieval Bengali literature Kali has a central place.
There is a long tradition of human sacrifice to the Goddess in different parts of India, and there is evidence that this was practised regularly in some of the main Shakta temples of Bengal until the early nineteenth century when it was banned by the British. Occasional child sacrifices are still reported today. The Thugs strangled and robbed travellers in the name of Kali until the cult was eradicated by the British. Criminal associations continue, though, for Naipaul interviewed a group of murderous criminals in India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990) who were religious and worshipped Santoshi Mata, a form of Kali.
The poem Bande Mataram, "I praise the Mother," by the religious nationalist novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838-94) is in his novel Ananda Math. The poem is a hymn to Kali as Bengal personified that became adopted as the Indian national anthem.
Symbols In Bengal the most popular image of Kali is as a young laughing woman who is jet black. She is naked except for a cobra round her neck and a garland of severed hands or arms and a short skirt of bloody heads. A vertical third eye is in the middle of her forehead. She has long sharp fangs and a vivid red tongue smeared with blood which is sticking out. Blood is smeared on her lips. She can be shown with the corpses of children as earrings and serpents as bracelets. Her black hair is long and wild. She has four arms with hands holding a sword, a severed head, and a bowl of plenty, with one hand in the removing fear gesture. Shiva, her consort, is under her foot and is white and dead-looking compared with her dark dynamism (for the meaning of this symbolism, see Doctrines).
Kali is often depicted on the battlefield dancing wildly while drunk on the blood of her victims, or in a cremation ground sitting on a corpse and with jackals and goblins around her. She can be shown dancing with Shiva, causing the world to shake. There are few images of Kali as calm and docile. Kali is dominant in Tantric iconography.
In the nationalist movement Bengalis and others used the mother goddess, usually in the form of Kali, as a symbol of India. Kali was Mother India.
Adherents These are predominantly in Bengal and are followers of Shakta Hinduism. Kali has millions of devotees. Kali is also worshipped in other parts of India and among Indian communities overseas. For example, there are two Kali temples in Singapore.
Headquarters/
Main Centre The Kalighat Temple, Calcutta, India. Calcutta's name comes from Kali-ghata, the bathing steps of Kali by the Hooghly River.
So lucky Wow Callie, I just caught up on reading your blog. What an amazing (and sometimes scary!) experience! I think I'd be too chicken to do a lot of the things you have done!
Love the updates, keep 'em coming.
Great time Callie, you sound like you are having such a wonderful experience.
I look forward to reading your blogs so I can live vicariously through your amazing adventure.
iiiiiinteresting! Hey Callie, I have to admit I don't really know anything about Government, not even ours let alone Venezuelan!! So I thought it was really neat that you wrote something about what is going on, I'm really trying to pay attention to things and become more interested in Politics, actually if you or anyone comes across a 'Politics for Dummies' book let me know haha. Anyways, good luck on the bus trip, hope it goes smoother than the last one! Take care. Love ya
Money, money, money Hey C,
Well, how nice to think of you sweating your a___ off. Right now Dad and I are holed up in this cozy house of ours continuously feeding wood to the fire, with the air exchanger running to keep the condensation off the windows. It's only -20 out and the wind is blowing so hard the snow is being picked up off the back field and swirling up and away like smoke from a bonfire? Dad was out to the woodlot yesterday. He doesn't mind being cool (well, we can think about that idea a little more), in body temp, I mean, but yesterday he was down right cold and came home after an hour - the work can wait till the temp. warms up a bit!
Just thinking about our/my coin/bill collection. Is there any way you can save a cross section of dollars, etc from each country? Maybe mail some home at some time (along with some neat stuff like brightly coloured fabrics for tablecloths, skirts, etc that would be so nice to look at when the world outside is covered with snow, blowing and -20?)
23 year old female looking to find herself and whatever else may come in South America. Planning an epic journey beginning in Venezuela and spanning every South American country, save for 2 ... all in 5 months!!!... full info
Sarah
non-member comment
YOHANSEN...
Hey Callie Callie... I read your last lil'blog about your hike. It sounds absolutely amazing and Mike he's sounds great! I can't wait until you get home b/c well i'm still in Vancouver bored! haha jk, but I want to see your pictures and I also think that Trevor and I should come downtown and party!!!!! Miss you...you should be a writer too by the way...