Annapurna

Namaste,

Once out of Katmandu Valley the roads thin but not the cars and trucks - they all just fit into a smaller place. Large and slow, the cargo trucks carry everything from fresh produce, rocks, wet sand - why wet?, and food cartons. We settle in for the 5 hour car ride to Pokhara. Trucks pass other large trucks and the mini vans whiz along side us as we all pass everyone else. It's every vehicle for them self as assistants on buses wave their hands frantically to get other vehicles to move out of the way. Hours of hectic passing gets us to Pokhara where clouds loom low, keeping the mountain peaks covered. We cruise the town, buying ponchos and gloves for the upcoming trek through the Annapurna's.

The road  winds through "hill country", switching back and forth along the deep valleys and balancing along the ridges. The views are beautiful and the mountains haven't even come into view yet. We stop at the beginning of the trail and begin the trek along the valley floor. The village is the last stopping point for the road and locals use it as a marketplace to supply all the goods that will go up the trail to outlaying villages. The trail we're on is now the highway where everyone and everything passes. 

The "hills" and "hill people" are the farmers for the region with their produce moving up through the mountains by human and animal transport. The "mountain people" buy the rice, corn and millet at ever increasing rates the higher the elevation. The rice fields are a month away from harvest and the seeds are beginning to bend the plants low.

The kids are enjoying the views above and below. The granit path is filled with whites, golds and greens. The girls begin picking up loose stones that catch their eye. Hannah begins filling her empty Pringles container with the rocks. She'll be carrying them a long way.