Tiger Leaping Gorge

April 16-18 - Tiger Leaping Gorge

We had a rough couple days at the gorge as Matt has been hit by something nasty. He's been really sick and I haven't been feeling great either. I'll keep it brief - basically we had a terrifying drive into the gorge on a one and a half lane road with two way traffic, no guard rails and a sheer drop to the river below. Really, really scary stuff. You definitely have to have faith that the bus driver knows what he is doing. Our first day there we hiked 2 hours up to the "Half-Way House" (not Matt's first time in one of those) where the rooms were very basic and the bathrooms were open air public facilities. The toilets were nothing more than a trench with a 2 foot wall in front of it. It was possible to give the guests a full moon when pulling up your pantaloons. As if the facilities weren't bad enough, imagine how it is when you're sick and make several visits in the cold night. So the following day when we arrived at the next Guest House we opted to upgrade to the room with it's very own private, western-style toilet. Such luxury was well worth the $15.

While Matt and I slept, Giovanni and Dad took a nice walk along the gorge and stopped at a bar for a beer. Mom was in charge of nursing Matt back to health and stood guard outside our room. He is doing better today and seems to be over the fever so let's hope the rest of it gets better too.