Tihaar

Tihaar, the Festival of Lights, begins today. It's a five day festival and includes various activities --honouring different animals, preparing your home with decorations of flowers and lights for a visit by the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, carol singing and Bai Tika (brother blessings). Hopefully we'll have some good pictures to share of the various celebrations. The city is in a festive mood--lights are decorating shops, businesses and homes in the city, the Tihar shops are open and we heard firecrackers and saw fireworks last night. Here is a picture of the shopping crowd on the Friday afternoon before the holiday.

Bhaktapur

Bhaktapur is the third (after Kathmandu and Patan) major town of the Kathmandu Valley (it once was it's own kingdom). The town is very well restored/preserved and traffic free! Except for motorbikes.... It's really nice to walk around, narrow brick streets full of shrines, beautiful old homes with ornate wooden windows and balconies, courtyards, communal taps and several squares with huge Hindu temples. The town is also known for it's clay potters and woodcarvers.

Bhaktapur es la ciudad mas grande del valle de Kathmandu. Esta ciudad esta muy bien conservada. Se dedica al trabajo de madera y barro. Las calles estan libres de traffico, una de las favoritas de Omar.

Esta escultura (Hindu dios Durga) fue hecha 1701, y rey corto los brazos del escultor para que nunca se hiciera una replica.

Nagarkot

We spent one night in Nagarkot, a village on one of the hills just outside Kathmandu. We watched the sunrise from our room and then had a lovely breakfast on the veranda before heading to Bhaktapur for more sightseeing.

Pasamos una noche en Nagarkot, una villa en las montanias a las afueras de Kathmandu. La vista del amanacer estuvo muy bonita. Despues salimos hacia Bhaktapur. Al parecer el monte Everest se veia, pero no supimos cual era.

Dinner at the Jesuit Residence- Jawalakhel

Fr. Boniface, who was the principal at St. Xavier's-Godavari when Amy was teaching there, is now principal at St. Xavier's Jawalakhel. He invited us over twice--once to a party at a friend's home and the second time for dinner at their residence. We enjoyed both!

Padre Boniface, quien fue el director de la escuela St. Xavier's-Godavari donde Amy ensenio. Ahora el es el director de la escuela St. Xavier's Jawalakhel. El nos invito a una fiesta y a cenar en sus residencias.
Fr. Boniface, Rabin (former teacher in Godavari, now living in the D.C. and home in Nepal for a visit), Fr. ----, Fr. Augustine(standing), Fr. Jiju (another former Godavari teacher) and Amy.

Padre Boniface, Rabin (fue maestro y ahora vive en D.C.), Padre ---, Padre Augustine, Padre Jiju y Amy.

At the party - Fr. Augustine, Amy, Omar (sipping the local "wine" called raksi) and Fr. Boniface.

En la fiesta -Padre Augustine, Amy, Omar (probando el vino local, raksi) y Padre Boniface.

Swayambhunath

Back to sightseeing in Kathmandu we walked up to Swayambhunath, a buddhist temple on a hill just west of Kathmandu. It's known as the "monkey temple" because they are everywhere--stealing peoples guavas and popsicles! It was a busy Saturday --lots of Buddhists and Hindus (there is also a Hindu temple) visiting to worship there.

Regreso a los sitios en Kathmandu. Caminamos hacia el templo Buddha llamado Swayambhunath. Tambien es llamado el templo de los monos porque hay muchos y se roban las guyavas y paletas de las personas.
Omar comiendo su paleta.

View of Kathmandu

Golden Buddha in a small gompa on the site/Buddha de oro
Offerings left by worshippers/Ofrendas

Swayambhunath stupa- under renovation--looks like they are painting new eyes. In the foreground is the Hindu temple and many small shrines.

The gateway to the stupa at the bottomof a long flight of stairs.

Entrada de la stupa.

Jungle Safari - Chitwan

De Pokhara fuimos a Chitwan para nuestro safari en un area protejida por el gobierno. Estuvo muy divertido, fuimos en canoa por el rio, montamos elefantes y nos interamos en la selva y vimos varios animales.

From Pokhara we went to Chitwan National Park. We went on a canoe ride, a jungle walk and an elephant back safari. We spent some fun time with elephants, saw rhinos, deer, lots of birds and a few leeches-- no bites though....

Returning from the elephant safari, riding through town and back to our hotel on an elephant.
Regresando de nuestro safari hacia nuestro hotel.

Amy and Omar riding an elephant. The elephant "driver" is standing on the elephant's head to get this picture!

Amy y Omar arriba de elefante.

Rhinos! Rinocerontes!

Rhinos with an elephant -- we were riding on top of one just like that.

Deer. Venados. We also saw wild boar, peacocks and monkeys.

Omar went swimming with the elephants! Omar nadando con los elefantes!

Baby elephants at the Elephant Breeding Center.

Despidiendonos de los elefantes.

Omar on the jungle walk.

Our dugout canoe ride--we saw a crocodile and lots of birds.

Omar in the garden of our hotel.

Omar en el jardin de nuestro hotel.

Relaxing in Pokhara

After our 17 day trek we spent three days relaxing in Pokhara. We had rainy cloudy weather so not too many mountain views, but the lake was beautiful and the eating and relaxing so nice! This was a view of the lake from the "Elegant View" restaurant one evening.

Despues de nuestros 17 dias de montania nos relajamos en la ciudad de Pokhara. Tuvimos un dia lluvioso, asi que no estaba clara la vista hacia las montanias pero la vista del lago estaba muy bonita. La comida era muy buena y nos relajamos bastante. Esta es la vista desde nuestro restaurant "Elegant View."