Lets play catch(up)! Monday July 10

The next day we woke to the usual rural sights of India... train tracks, sarees and cows.

When we reached Siliguri (the train station at the bottom of the mountain to Darjeeling/Kurseong) we had to rent a Sumo at a Sumo of a price (1020 rps!). And I took Hettie out...

And this guy almost clubbed me with her... (She was actually a hit... everyone wanted to meet her!)

This is one of the first pictures of a mountain I've taken in quite a while!
While travelling up, we stopped (our driver and porter were hungry, so they ate while we all waited... India is crazy different from the USA at times!). But we got to see this cute lil'pup (that we almost ran over, or that we thought we almost ran over... the drive was just pulling up to park, as the puppy played in the street)

Bernadette was unfortunately car sick, so she had a time to let her stomach settle and rest while we all waited for the driver to finish lunch.

On the way up we spotted our first monkey... he was sitting on the cliffside of the road eating a bannana or potato... couldn't really make it out... it was really exciting and I barely got my camera out in time, and turned on as we drove by.
After over an hour, we hit Kurseong...
And I said Bye to my friends.
And then had to take a second taxi, because the first lied when they said I was at the right place...
But all was well and I arrived at Goethals (home of the retreat center)
Just inside the gate is a man made waterfall that I thought was for aesthetic purposes, but later figured out that it was a practical measure from all the rain and mist they get... leading to large amounts of constant run-0ff water.
after trekking up the private drive on the hill for a while, and then through the school (and asking for directions a few times in between), I made it to the gate that led to higher up the mountain... and to Mount Carmel.
After crossing the gate I saw my next monkeys... (the next time I'd see them I'd not recognise them as monkey, but as a dinner that I thought was a delicious beef pot roast).
The path up to the retreat center was steep, wet and beautiful... it made the retreat center feel very isolated and peaceful!
After checking in, I hit my room for a rest, and then heard clucking outside my window.

Luckily, clucking is a lot less annoying that motorcycles zipping by and honking outside your window. So I got plenty of rest.