The Three Gorges

I think my timing is off. We didn’t go through the first gorge after we saw the hell temple. After the hell temple, we didn’t do a whole lot. We had dinner, which was a whole issue in itself. While breakfast and lunch were buffets, dinner was served in the style we have been accustomed to for the last month: dishes in the center, share with your table mates. This concept wasn’t really clear to the other seven people at our table. They were ravenous and greedy. Oh, well. We just kind of laughed at them and watched them scrambling to pull a new dish close and shovel as much as possible onto their tiny plate. Jeez…

Anyway, the next day I opted for an optional tour, which was a mistake. I was too tired at my 6:20 wake up call and sort of zombied through the tour, sitting and nodding off at every opportunity. Not money well spent. When we arrived back on the boat, we went through the first gorge. It was really magnificent, though the fog sometimes obscures my photography:

I was still feeling very tired, so before the second gorge I went to take a nap. Another mistake, as I slept through the second gorge. There are no pictures from any of our group, as Freddie lost her camera in Xi’an and Anne’s died right before we passed through. Oh, well. In the afternoon we had a very interesting excursion. We boarded a ferry and moved up a tributary for an hour. The water and air were exponentially cleaner.

You may notice a ring of dead fauna around the bottom of the mountainsides. This is where the water level was last year (naturally) due to heavy rains. After a while, we passed a most mysterious “hanging coffin.” It is very high up a mountain and no one is sure how ancient peoples got them up there.

at which time we transfered to small “pea pod” boats, which were manned by a variety of local men. There were four paddlers, three in front and one in back, and two “captains,” one on each end, helping to steer.

The oldest was in his 70s, the youngest in his teens. After paddling us upstream for a while, it became very shallow. They got out of the boat and pulled our boats using ropes from dry land. I can’t say I was completely comfortable with this. They are very strong but very skinny, which makes me think they are not well nourished. I suppose, though, that this is their job… I always feel rather awkward in situations where a person is “serving” me, much less dragging my large American bum up a river. Anyway, here they are. I couldn’t whittle down my collection of photographs any further:

Once again, I must wrap up before finishing. I am days and days behind and I am beginning to think I will not catch up until I return home.

I only hope that everything doesn’t become distorted and blend together in my memory. I will have to rely on photographs and the notes I make at night to battle this inevitability.

Oh! I wanted to share the blog of the most adventurous couple! They have been traveling the world since April, I met them on the river cruise. Check it out:

http://realtravel.com/member-m2041942-wandering_spaulls.html

as always, well wishes and love. And please prepare diligently for my return.