Technical Difficulties :(

I haven't been able to upload any pictures this week- big bummer. I'll keep trying!

Secondary Trip Day 6!

Day 6: Last day of Field Trip in Songpan!

OK, so I just got back from Hong Kong. Super tired and going to bed :) And maybe y'all are tired of reading about this trip by now, so enjoy these pictures from Songpan. Again, I had an AMAZING time! I highly, highly recommend a trip to this area. The pictures are in order and describe our free day about the city... Soon to come: HONG KONG! 

Princess Wencheng Statue 

Muslim Mosque
Songpan has a very diverse culture!

The Old City Wall

Yak Butter
(still untouched in my fridge, don't know what I was thinking)

I snuck a peek of this private garden.

We had a nice cup of tea here.

Too bad I had already eaten or I would have tried the "bowel" noodles.

Secondary Trip Day 5!

Day 5: Songpan Horse Trek and Erdaohai Park

So, I missed out on the horse trek, but no big deal- gives me a reason to go back! My fellow teacher who was going ahead with a student (he has horse allergies) fell ill, and I went with him in the car up to the campsite instead. We ended up being about 4 hours ahead of the others, but we were not ones to sit around and twiddle our thumbs. We started off down the road to hike up one of the surrounding mountain ridges...

The Summit

It only took us all of 4 hours (okay, really just me) to drag ourselves up to the top and slide back down to camp. And, it rained pretty solidly for the last 3 hours. We were absolutely soaked and covered in mud! I had some pretty cool battle scratches from the brambles, as well as an embarrassing bruised tailbone from taking too many unwanted breaks on my butt. 

After our hike, we met up with the rest of the group to explore Erdaohai National Park and the hot springs. Another gorgeous area, I felt like I was in a fairyland. And my favorite part? There was so much beautiful algae and other aquatic plants! The bright green swirled together with the cool turquoise mineral water, I was so distracted that I didn't get a good picture.  Erdaohai is not a popular tourist scene and is a sacred place to the local Tibetans. I really enjoyed walking under the prayer flags and picking up a few wind horse papers in this quiet and serene little valley. 

Wind horse papers scattered about.

I did get to play with the horses for a bit!

Secondary Trip Day 4!

Day 4: Huanglong Park

We said goodbye to our Tibetan homestay hosts (pictured above) and drove two hours on winding roads to our next destination- Huanglong Park!

Huanglong translates to "yellow dragon", which the pools are said to resemble (confirmed). The shallow, calcified pools and mineral deposits give each section a unique color and picture op- I seriously have hundreds of pictures from this day. By the way, travertine is my new obsession... dreaming of a visit to Badab-e Surt.

Lucky for me, we started the hike with a cable car ride up most of the mountain, leaving only about 2 km of hiking up stairs, which was a good stretch for my legs but resulted in a lot of "picture breaks". We had a picnic lunch at the top and explored the temples and caves.  Then, hiked down the valley to complete the 10 km. I enjoyed Huanglong a tad more than Jiuzhaigou because there were less tourists!

Look! I'm really here in China!

Sunny Day at the Top

Temple Plank!

A Bit O' Spelunking 

Trying out some popular poses!

Secondary Trip Day 3!

Day 3: Jiuzhaigou Hike

Our journey to Jiuzhaigou started with a packed and dangerous bus ride. When I stepped off the bus at the top of the valley, I stretched my limbs, inhaled a gigantic breath of FRESH air, and tried my best to ignore the students for a few moments to reflect on just how awesome my life is. My life is awesome! And it's awesome that I can see over everybody's head to enjoy this beautiful scenery. For the rest of the trip, I can't shut up about how excited I am- I'm sure to everyone's annoyance, but I don't care. I love my life!

Snapping back to my surroundings, a student's voice pipes up, "It smells weird!" I look around- no public toilets, no pooping babies, no burning oil from restaurants, nothing. I politely return, "That's the smell of pine needles, fresh air and nature! How can that smell weird!?" Not phased, she still thinks it smells "weird". We discuss the different smells of different places and decide that we've been in the  Chengdu smells for too long.

We hiked 17 km through Jiuzhaigou Park! The student's were real troopers, and boy was I a little sore that night.  Jiuzhaigou is absolutely breathtaking with its many colorful lakes and scenic views of mountains and waterfalls- one of the most beautiful places that I've ever seen! Parts of the hike reminded me of home in the pines of Bastrop. No giant pandas were spotted (no bamboo = no lazy bears), but we did eye a cute, little ground squirrel moving some dirt on the opposite bank of one of the smaller lakes. I also saw quite a few interesting species of birds!

My pictures are nothing compared to the real deal. Google image the park and you will find some amazing photos of the park that do the park a little more justice than I can!

Sorry for the lag in posts... I've tried to post this twice but my internet cuts out, and I stupidly hit "publish" and lose the whole thing.