The curious case of the helicopter
We had aligned to the runway and was dropping altitude very quickly, skimming over very clear waters of what I believe is the Flower Bay. And then I saw something very incongruous. See if you can notice it – there is a helicopter submerged in the water!!
From the position of the helicopter, it is clear that it did not crash there. What is it doing there? Remember a few months back, I had posted the picture of the submerged airplane off the coast of Jordan? The idea was to make it a diver’s spot there.
What could this be all about? All my searches in the internet has yielded nothing. Need to ask some locals here.

Approaching Roatan from the West side
Crossing Cuba
Here is a country I so badly want to visit… Looks so beautiful from the air. If what I hear and read in the media is correct, then the disparity of the beauty of nature and poverty of citizenry can match the memories of India I have from half a century back. But just like then, I have to believe that the people, though poor, are very nice.
Need to put this on the list and find ways to go there with all the complications of a US passport.

Scenic US Hwy 1
Left mainland USA
Off to country #52
Somebody is laughing at my blog from eSwatini?
This morning I woke up to realize that a reader from the 168th country has visited by blog. That country being eSwatini. Many of you may know it as Swaziland. About 5 years back, the king (the only monarchy left in Africa, I believe) got tired of people confusing his country with another landlocked country – Switzerland – and changed the name to eSwatini.
What caught my eye was the region of the country that the reader came from – the notification said “Hho Hho” !! And I was like what did you find so funny?
A little research later, I learnt that the capital Mbabane (good luck pronouncing it) is in the region called Hho Hho. That made a little more sense that the first reader to my blog from that country would come from the capital.

From the bartender’s corner – Kairi Panha Caipirinha
This is a personal concoction. Hence the difficult to pronounce name. Well, this has two parts.
The first is “Kairi Panha” – also known as “Aam Panna“. “Aam Panna” is a juice made of raw mangoes with some cumin seeds, rock salt, sugar and mint leaves added to it. This is a very refreshing and popular drink during the tropical summers of India.
Added 2 parts of that to one part of Cachaca. This is the most popular distilled spirit in Brazil made from fermented sugarcane. It is also the base alcohol for Brazil’s national drink – Caipirinha.
And to that I added some “bhaja masala” made by Sharmila. This is cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and then a bit of cardamom – dry roasted and then grounded to powder.
That was a perfect pick me up for the evening.






