Marjorie-Yi River and caves

At the moment we are having a rare break during the day so I thought I would take advantage of it to add a few photos and let you know how we are doing.  Malissa and I are having a good time, but are beginning to get a bit weary.  There is so much to do and very little time to rest.  Also I am not feeling the best today.  I think the heat, eating so many different foods, or possibly accidentally drinking some local water is playing havoc on my digestive system.  I have been very careful about not drinking any tap water and to not even brush my teeth with the water, but it is difficult to not get any water in my mouth while taking a shower.  I am not bad, but it is slowing me down a bit.  Another mom is experiencing similar symptoms, but fortunately the children are doing fine.

Yesterday was one of my favorite days so far.  We took a river cruise down the Yi River to view the incredible mountains.  It was difficult to refrain from taking photos constantly.  I had to force myself to just sit back and take it all in.  The day was sunny, hot, and extremely humid, so at one point I just sat on the deck under my umbrella with some local rice wine while I soaked in the passing mountains.  

Below is a photo of one such scenery that is on the back of the 20 yuan.  

In the next photo you can see the bamboo boats that are common on the river.  Many of them with the local farmers paddle up to the cruise boats to sell their wares of fruits and vegetables.  We also saw fishermen with cormorant birds tied to the boat.  They have trained the birds to swim under the water and bring back fish.  There are many Chinese famous paintings with the bamboo boat and fishermen with their birds with the Guilin mountains in the background.  

After we debarked off the cruise boat we walked through a local village to visit a widow in her home.  We were able to see how the local people live.  This woman's house was 400 years and was passed down from one generation to another.   The photo below shows the outside of her house with our group.   The woman with her granddaughter are front and center.  

Then we all were able to take a bamboo boat ride for 2 people down another river (I can't remember the name of it) that lasted about 1.5 hours.  Malissa and I were propelled down the river by a local man standing at the back of the boat.  He had a long bamboo pole that was pushed along the river bottom.  Every one was passing us and you could hear the poor guy struggling.  We even offered one of our waters to him since we were afraid he was going to have a heat stroke.  Along the river there were several rapids which were quite fun and refreshing since we got splashed, but once he lost his bamboo pole so we went through the rapids sideways until another boat with a passenger picked it up and gave it back to him.  That was a scary experience, but we survived!

Today we were able to climb Fubo Mountain (or I should say most of the group did since I stayed at the bottom and rested).  The local guide we have has a very strong accent so it can be very difficult to understand her.  It kept sounding like she was saying football mountain.  Malissa did make it to the top and took a photo of the city with a mountain poking out of the middle of it.  Below is the photo.

We also went to Reed Flute cave to look at the formations.  It seems the Chinese like to use their imagination since every time we turned around the guide was pointing out what the formation looked like to them-animals, food, curtains, people, houses, witches, etc.  They also pointed out the shapes of mountains and what they looked like to them.   Below is one mountain that they call Nine White Horses since they see nine horses.  They say the more you see the more imagination and intelligence you have.  She told us Nixon was here and could see no horses, but when Clinton was here he could see eleven.  How many do you see?  I saw 5, while Malissa saw six.  I guess we know who is the smarter one between the two of us now!

Tomorrow morning early we are off to Nanning!  Hopefully we will get to see the Civil Affairs Office where Mike and I met Malissa for the first time.  Then the next day, QinZhou!  

Happy 4th of July!