In the Mountains

We ended up staying in Rishikesh for about 6 days. We didn't really do much but we walked around a lot. That was interesting enough and it is easier to walk around in the streets there. Skyler took a cooking class from a mother of 5 girls, in their small two room house. I took some yoga classes for free. I learned a little about yoga therapy. It was really interesting. We did exercises for back problems and stomach problems. We did breathing exercises for head aches, breathing problems, and meditation. It is all about balancing out your body as well as your mind because most physical problems come from emotional stress. It felt great but you look really funny doing it. It was strange going from a quiet relaxing room, out to blaring horns and cars racing by, with people begging along the street. It rained on us for the first time in three months and that felt great. We walked up to a nature reserve and checked out a couple of waterfalls one day and saw a village up in the hills. It was pretty laid back and easy. We wanted to go rafting but a bug bite that left a hole in my back is still healing and Skyler found out that he has been hosting a parasite. We had the cure for it the whole time and didn't know it. Our malaria pills are antibiotics and help with all kinds of things, we just hadn't been in malaria country so we weren't taking them. Anyway, the ganges river is not the cleanest and after watching open sewer pour directly in it, we said no to rafting. We planned on going trekking but we decided to wait until we got closer to the mountains. Yesterday we left for Manali. We took a local bus and that was interesting. It was 15 hours of curvy roads, crazy driving and stopping and going. We were cramped because of our huge back and sometimes the bus was full with the isle filled. Sky got a lot of ass in the face. When we arrived it was cold and raining. Our room didn't have heat so we had to adjust fast. We found out that this is not a good time to go trekking because there is to much snow and the weather is bad. Bummer. We came just a little to early. The town is really nice and the traffic is low. We saw some temples that look like carved up log cabins. There were yaks to ride, huge rabbits to pet and snakes too. It was sad. We saw our first leper. It is really beautiful and there is a park you can go three wheeling in and tomorrow we are going rock climbing ( I'm going to be so soar) and to a hot springs. We think that we might not stay to long and try to make it to Darjeeling before we have to leave, in 16 DAYS! We only have a few more spots to hit.