We are indeed back home safe and sound… having survived a yak attack, maneuvered windy mountain roads in a tour bus, and camped in a tent for three nights!! Siguniang (Four Sisters) Mountain is a beautiful area! We were consistently above 11,000 feet in elevation, which brought its own set of difficulties (particularly when hiking) and some chilly weather! We set up camp in the “valley” (11,000 ft) and were well taken care of by the owners of a local guest house. We pitched our tents in the middle of an open field, which didn’t please the yaks all that much. They were pretty skittish, so we never got really close… except in the middle of the night! We got up to make our way to the bathroom, came around the corner to meet a yak that was just about as scared of us as we were of him!! He definitely lowered his head and came charging past us, causing us both to flatten ourselves against the woodpile. Brief moment of panic!
We spent a couple of days hiking around, playing team-building games, honing our compass skills, and in general enjoying the time with the high school students outside of class. The final night in the valley, we moved our things inside and slept in the guest house, which ended up being very providential. We awoke to a good 2-3 inches of snow on the ground! It was absolutely breathtaking!! The kids had a blast pelting each other (and their good, innocent teachers) with snow balls and forgot for awhile just how cold they were. 😀
Pictures will be up soon in a new format, so keep an eye out!