We attempted another meal in the food circus called Kalopani Guest House. Since Brad hadn't had a burrito yet (about the only thing on the menu he didn't try last night), he ordered one for breakfast. This meal failed miserably. We waited a long time and both had hot porridge (is that how you spell it? Porridge, like omelette, is spelled slightly differently on each menu we see. There are no rules other than if it is phonetically recognizable, it is correct).

After the usual breakfast we set out on a long, but downhill journey to Tatopani (hot water). The hike itself wasn't very memorable. We had good morning views of Dhaulagiri behind us and reasonable views of the other side of the Nilgiris, Annapurna, and our first views of Annapurna South later on in the afternoon. Photography is a bit trickier on this side of the pass because we are generally hiking into the sun, whereas on the other side, the sun had generally been behind us, making everything that came into view a perfect subject. Now we tend to plan our morning views and afternoon views, and things tend to work out well. The absolute absence of clouds certainly doesn't hurt.

The most exciting part of the hike was a brief uphill staircase which projected out from the cliff that wound down the valley (a spectacular and deep valley, I might add). These stairs had been extended out from the cliff by wedging logs between the logs. It didn't look very safe, so I stayed as close to the cliff as possible.It is hard to imagine that horses go over this portion, but they must.

As we came down the valley, the vegetation became lush once again.We saw the first rice terraces on this side, orange trees, banana palms and even an occasional cherry tree. These were conspicuously out of place, a blotch of pink in a green and brown landscape. As I passed under the second cherry tree, with a nice chautara built around its base, I happened to pass a Japanese guy going the otherway. He looked at me looking up at the tree, smiled, and said simply, "cherry blossom." Also, once again, bamboos became common.

Today we descended from 8300 feet in Kalopani to a mere 3900 feet at Tatopani. The thick air was positively stifling. This is the lowest we've been since the third day of the trip (this is the fifteenth day).

Tatopani lived up to its name and had hot springs for our bathing pleasure (yes, again). They were not world-class hot springs, but after a couple of weeks of cold weather you can't complain about a 15 minute soak in a private hot tub. Even if it is filled with silt and gravel and you have to contort yourself to fit into it. It was grand. There is a large public bath on the edge of town (which apparently had been the middle of town before part of it slid into the river), but it was crowded so we walked about ten minutes north of town, crossed the bridge and found the smaller ones described in the book. It was worth the walk, and much better than the hot showers available at our hotel.

We stayed in a building rented by the largest Hotel in town. Their outdoor patio was quite a hot spot. We dined on burritos, lasagne, pie, and beer. The food was good and was even recognizable as its namesake (though more by sight than by taste, all the spices were wrong). We were joined by a British-Canadian woman who amused us with colorful descriptions of relatively ordinary events.

We discovered the next morning that that evening a Swiss fellow had been arrested for possession of hashish (which is sold cheaply throughout the bigger villages in Nepal). Apparently the usual bribes didn't work this time and he was to be carted off and tried in Pokhara. This is the first instance we have heard of anyone being hassled for drugs here, although the British-Canadian woman said that her bus to Pokhara was searched twice. The rumor mill claims that these busts have been a frequent event in Tatopani, but that a 1000 rupee bribe usual takes care of things. Tough luck for the poor Swiss guy. I wonder if the owners of the Hotel tipped off the police.