Bungee Jumping √.............Paragliding by the Annapurnas √.........Motor biking through the Himalayas √ .........Recovering from a tick bite __.....

I should first clarify that my extracurricular activities here in Nepal are merely for research purposes…... The Waterfall family, who I met on a Choice expedition last year to Africa, will be coming to Nepal in a few weeks so I need to be able to offer educated, first hand information on all that Nepal has to offer. I have to say that the paragliding and the motor biking were absolutely amazing. The paragliding takes off from a place called Sarangkot, which sits high above Pokhara; you then fly high above the foothills with phenomenal views of the Annapurna Mountains. You end by flying over the lake then landing on the shoreline. It was an experience to remember and I will try posting some pictures.

At the recommendation of my friend Landon, I rented a motorcycle in Pokhara and set out to explore the mountain villages, lakes and country side that surround Pokhara. In the end I don’t know how many miles I traveled on the motorcycle today, but I do know that the sights and scenery were enough to completely overwhelm my all of my senses. Try as I might with my camera, I was unable to even in part grasp the essence of what I saw. I have always known that Nepal is a beautiful country….but today I realized just how beautiful of a place it is.

Late one night after returning from a day hike here in Pokhara I noticed that my left sock was covered in blood. After a closer look I realized that a creature of some sort had dug itself into my skin and had severed a superficial blood vessel. I am not sure how long my foot had bled, but there was a good amount of blood on my sock and in my shoe. It took about 15 minutes to dig the bug out from under my skin and by the time I got it out it was unrecognizable. We are assuming that it was a tick that bored its way in, then got decapitated while I was walking. I am not sure if it was the bug, or something else, but about 3 in the morning I woke up with fever, chills, nausea, vomiting and horrible stomach cramps. That was 3 days ago and the symptoms come and go. When they are gone I feel great, then 10 minutes later I can be deathly ill. It is the weirdest thing. I have talked to several different doctors here and have gotten varying opinions. To make matters worse, I came down with a cold last week and am still recovering from that. So needless to say things in Pokhara didn’t end on the best of notes. But fear not…I am back at it and looking for the next great adventure.