having fun in Polara

This is a colorful and interesting mountain town as long as you know where to go to avoid the real touristy areas. Cows rule here, I have a funny picture of a car that has to wait while a cow loiters in an intersection. There are also Himalayan hawks who seem to be flying overhead and calling constantly. Mynas shout at us from the nearby trees, as well as many birds I haven't identified. And yes, there are many wildflowers and butterflies. Poinsettias abound! And the lake is beautiful. We can see the mountains from our hotel.

We wanted to kayak on the lake today, but spent most of the morning trying to find the International Mountaineering Museum. I was a bit disappointed in the natural history section, but they did have an interesting display on current projects to preserve biodiversity and the lives of mountain people. They are doing education on sustainable farming and wood gathering, and are looking at developing sustainable and reasonably paying jobs. These range from bee keeping to textile production to gathering of plants for medicines. I wonder how the recent guerrilla war effected these projects, there was no information on that.


The street festival has been almost too fine for words today. The traditional music and folkdancing have been great. Some has been going on outside of our Internet place
as I write. One troupe finished their set, then played volleyball while their musicians
accompanied the game.

There is also this game where people have to walk blindfolded along a course. The goal is to reach a clay pot and smash it with a stick. I tried it, but didn't get there - it's a lot harder than it looks! Kate has pictures of me, of course. We passed by an hour later and saw a woman breaking the pot.

We plan to get outside of town over the next few days for some hiking, and we do plan to kayak. I'll keep you posted. Oh yes, there are historical reasons for the conditions I described yesterday
I'll share what I know another time.
Take it easy, PG