Wednesday, March 9, 2011

mountain of pink clouds


mountain of pink clouds
higher than the highest peaks
hiding them from view

Rain in the mountains, so we stop early on our first day trekking in the Annapurna region. I go for a walk in the “jungle” with Yuba and Lama. “I have a guide on both sides,” I say. Yuba responds with a Nepali saying: “Bitter on either side, sweet in the middle.” He has been showing me native edible fruits, nuts and berries. His father taught him to write with ink made from one of these berries mixed with soot. He climbs a pepal tree to pick a white orchid for me, which I tuck behind my ear. We turn back when it starts raining, mixed with small hail. A gorgeous sunset highlights the mountains. One huge cumulus cloud, twice as high as the highest peak, obscures the range to the west.

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