Between the Devil and the Deep sea (Boulder Trip) - Part 1

'Hey, unakku coffee okay, la?', Huthas asked and I looked up from the laptop (his laptop, in fact). 'Yeah, fine…. Errr… by any chance, filter coffee seyya poriya?' He stared at me, dumbfounded. A highly profound silence followed this simple question. After 5 whole seconds, during which he was obviously struggling to find speech, he finally found his voice – 'Ennadhu? Filter coffee-ya? Madam, idhellam too much-a therla?' Oh, damn! 'Nooo! I thot you were going to make filter coffee and I wanted to tell you not to take the trouble. Instant coffee…', I faltered, what if he was using the coffee machine? '… or from the coffee machine… anything's fine…', I finished. He looked at me suspiciously. 'Sure?', 'Yeah, I drink instant coffee all the time.' Pacified, he disappeared into the kitchen and I returned to my browsing. * * * * * It was day one of my trip to Boulder, having reached the place the previous night. Huthas had, of course, picked me at the Denver airport and driven me to his apartment where I was to stay for three days. The poor chap had actually cooked dinner for me and had packed it so that I could eat it during my 1-hr drive to his place. Aaarrrrggghhhh!!! Touchings of India…. I don't remember what the time was when we reached his apartment - probably past midnight. His roommate had gone to sleep by then. We yapped for sometime as I hogged the chappathis he had made. Later, he offered me his mattress and slept on the couch instead. *Sniff* I was awake for sometime but drifted off to sleep soon. The next morning, I woke up early but was still rolling on the mattress. Heck, avangalum avanga day-light savings-um. Enna oor pa adhu? The sun rises around 5 or something (dunno for sure, as I was obviously never around to clock the occurrence) and sets at, like, 7:30 to 8 PM. Kashtam. Anyway, what with daylight streaming in at that insane hour, and the sounds of his roommate who had woken up and was bustling around the place doing God-knows-what, I was up too. Well, how long would can you simply roll about in the bed even after you're fully awake? Indefinitely, would be my answer under any normal circumstance. But here I was, having flown out some 800-odd miles to this beautiful city and I was not going to spend my time sleeping! So, I finally woke up. As if on cue, Huthas did too. It was some 15 mins later that I had settled before his laptop, checking my mails when the question of filter coffee popped up. (For those of you who are wondering if this is the pace at which I'm gonna tell the story, ye, baby, this is the pace.) Ah! There's nothing like a good coffee in the morning to awaken your system. As Huthas and I happily sipped through our coffees, we continued our yapping from where we left off the previous night. And then, he filled me in on the plans for the day. Soon after, we were ready to go. And while I was getting ready, Huthas packed lunch for all of us. (Awesome host, he was turning out to be.) We then hopped over to his car, where we were joined by his friend and college junior Manju. After the initial intro, she rattled off to Huthas in hindi. Huh… I can't speak hindi (and don't try.) So, I merely listened as Huthas drove on to pick up Gopi, his collegemate. He turned out to be quite an interesting and amusing guy, full of energy and zest. The next to join the gang was Aditya, also Huthas's junior. After everyone was safely tucked into the car, we set off to the destination for the day – a place called 'Sand Dunes', a national park. Throughout the journey, I could view snow-capped mountains at a distance and kept 'Oooohh'-ing and 'Aaaah'-ing. Finally, Huthas told me to relax. 'We are visiting the rocky mountains tomorrow, and will be going to the same mountain range you're looking at.' Woooowww!!! I couldn't wait. After quite a long drive, we reached the place. It was, well, exactly as the name describes – Sand Dunes. But right in a place it doesn't belong, ensconced between greenery on one side and snowy mountains behind. Interesting. (Those tiny dots in the stream towards the right bottom of that pic are, of course, people.) * * * * * After parking the car and assembling the necessary gear (hehe… I, of course, refer to water, goggles and digicam), we trekked. It looked real easy – didn't seem too high – but trust me, it was anything but easy. Halfway thru the trek up, I declared my innings and sat down. So did Aditya. Huthas was plainly disappointed - 'Ivlo dhooram vandhutu, idhuke tried aana epdi?' I turned him a deaf ear. Aditya turned him another. Meanwhile, Gopi had covered three-fourths of the distance by then and Manju had gone ahead to join him. I urged Huthas to go ahead but the friend that he was, he wouldn't leave me. Fine, as you please, sir. (Guys!!) So, we spent time some time just sitting in the sand watching people, the sand, the scenery and the likes and, of course, yapping. Huthas kept complaining about our lack of stamina and we kept complaining that he planned to kill us. ('I didn't travel this far to die on a sand dune out of exhaustion, give me a break!'). Actually, I was tired but I could have surely made it after that loooong break we took. The problem was I hadn't worn my sneakers and the sand kept getting into my footwear as my feet kept sinking into the sand. It was not hot on the surface, but when your foot slips into the sand up to the ankle, that's when you realize how hot it is. I had actually asked Huthas that morning if I needed to wear my sneakers and I distinctly remembered him answering no. And he distinctly remembered answering yes. *Shrug* So, we kept arguing for a little while longer and then, decided we could as well make better use of the time and shot a few more photos. Gopi and Manju later joined us, Gopi having scaled the heights. He declared it was an awesome sight on top, much to my envy. Someday, I told myself, some other day in life…. The trek down was much easier and there's this smaaaalll stream at the foot of the dunes, no more than ankle deep at any point. Having developed blisters on my feet, stepping into the cool waters was bliss. Truly. * * * * * Uh-oh, this is turning out to be a much longer post than I intended. So much so, that I'm tired of writing. And all I have covered is only half of the first day! Gosh! I can only imagine your plight. Anyways, me takes a break now. Will be back with the second half of the day soon.