… and lucky we got! Wonderful view. At 6am I found myself in the middle of 7 to 8 thousand meter high, white, majestic peaks, daughters of the Indian subcontinent's massive invasion of land against the Nepali-Chinese territories.
Under such dramatic, historical circumstances, breathless, jumping, shouting and with a wider smile than Alice in wonderland's cat, I made so many pics that my SIM card asked for a time out. My Korean and British new friends were as frenetic as I… well, almost, since they didn't make obscene corporeal movements, neither shouted loud. But their smile was as wide and happy. For sure, for sure!
On the way back I got myself a nice guide. She came all the with me from Annapurna Base Camp to Machhapuchare Base Camp (mexicanos... no confundir con Mas-a-chupare… que no es lo mismo). The lodge manager's pet said good bye with long, wet tongue and bright, wet eyes (maybe I made an impression on her =). I kept walking down with a gorgeous, sunny day. The first day with good weather for a long time during this year's monsoon. Am I lucky? Hanh?. Yes, of course I am bloody-freaking-very-lucky Mexican noisy-bragging boy.
I went back to Chomrong. 9 hr walk. Arrived exhausted and enjoyed 100% clear view of the Annapurna Range at night and morning. On the 21st I left early to Tadapani down the mountains: spectacular valleys, colourful flowers, well-tuned birds and during the last 2 hrs, an amazing multi-green forest (in such wide range from yellowish-green to brownish-redish-green), where the only not-green beings were some insects and butterflies. There were Tibetan people on the main street of the micro-village (2 houses, 1shop and 3 lodges), most of them descendants from the immigrants that live in Pokhara's Tibetan Refugees Camp, selling their art crafts. Always wide-smiling. I met 2 Spanish couples, a gringa and 2 Germans. We saw the white peaks again at night and morning.
Next day I headed to Gorepani, nothing special because there was no good day for the view from PoonHill. Then Tatopani. Gorgeous village in a valley just by the powerful river. Right besides my rustic and nice lodge with an open bathroom with view to the mountains, there were 2 hot springs that really honoured their name. I Bought a big beer, put on my bathing suit and made it, no scales, to the first pond. A baba, quite a character, received me with a wonderful smile and his hand wide open. I gave him mine and said hello. He smiled even wider and said:
-hello…mhhh, it's 20 ruppies
-haha.. sorry. I thought you were saluting me
He lifted his shoulders and kept smiling. Then I started chatting with a girl who was… MEXICAN… yes, Mexican. She was travelling with a French guy through Nepal. People came and left. After 2 hrs I was quite happy with both, the dehydration of 2 hrs of in-out from the hot spring and the 650ml beer.
I promised the Baba to come back that evening with another big beer. Of course by 6pm I had a hang-overing-headache, so went to bed early. Next day, following my grandma's traditional saying: "Slowly, slowly, because I am in a hurry", I went swimming 3 times during the day, each time only half an hour =) (good boy, good boy, I know). I met the owner of the lodge. An erudite philosopher. He knew names of presidents from all over the world. We had a 3 hr discussion about Chile's Pinochet and his contribution to the economic Chilean miracle. Then he had a 2 hour monologue about China's history… I only listened (believe it or not). It was quite interesting. Next day, luckily or not, that you will judge my friends, the erudite and his lodge manager were going down to Pokhara and asked me to come with them.
We got a shortcut. There have been big and constant land slides in this rainy season, so it's "mandatory" to go up the hill and down to avoid the fallen road that ended in the river. The surrounding "mandatory" road is a long, steep, abrupt, ugly and patched kind of path that takes about 60 minutes to walk. But, we went by the river climbing on the fallen rocks and soil. Fuck! This mountain Nepalese people are good! But I am NOT! Haha. I was completely freaked out in the middle of the shortcut. So the lodge manager gave me a hand, literally, in a couple of verrrry bad pieces of nightmare-like climb. When we made it out, after some 15 minutes, even the erudite was freaked out saying: "I promised not to do it again, but… we did it, hah?, how did you like the adventure?
Fuck... I didn't answer, but thought. I was colourless. Then, smiley, I said:
-well, you know. The worst part when the rocks were falling from above and we had to run for our lives hiding under other rocks, I was particularly impressed with a couple of them that exploded a few meters away from me at quite high speed.
The wise man (whom, in my eyes, wasn't that wise anymore) just smiled and kept walking…
