it's a sauna here

Greetings from Jenna in Pokhara, I was up at 5:30 am hoping to watch the sun rise over some of the largest peaks in the world-- Annapurna I and II, to name a few. Once in a while the clouds broke and revealed the snowy peeks, which seemed so surreal, because the temperature was already in to the 90's on the roof of our hotel.
Now, at 2:30 in the afternoon it is over 100 degrees. Everything seems even more lush and jungle like than I remember-- lots of banana trees and poinsettias trees (though not in bloom). I look forward to canoeing on the lake tomorrow before the heat sets in.
Today we took a jeep up to Devi falls and Tibetan Refugee Camp-- what a great surprise to step off a market street, through a gate and to the edge of a deep water fall (for all of my river friends-- it's not runnable). We saw beautiful double rainbows and amazing rock formations carved from flood waters.
Ashleigh and I just bought a map of lake side Pokhara. We were going to rent two mtn bikes and try our luck riding to a hill top temple called the World Peace Stupa.

I have really enjoyed seeing Nepal with Ella and Mary's eyes. They bring so much to our experience and they are doing so well here-- bargaining on the streets, trying new foods, and asking the best questions. People respond to our group favorably because we are traveling with kids--- way to go Reba. What a gift you have given to us all.

Jane my not post this, but you should know that yesterday as we were about to board our flight-- we discovered that her backpack with all her trekking gear did not make it to our hotel. The last place we had it was when we put it on the plane to Nepal. Jane was so busy making sure we were all okay and that all the bags with gifts for the nunnery had arrived, she never noticed the missing bag--somehow we all missed this one bag. She did not really need anything from the bag in KTM, but as we prepared to leave the city for the trek, she realized it was gone. We have our friends at Gurkha travels trying to track the bag down, and we are hopeful our porter can bring it from KTM when he comes. Keep your fingers crossed!!!!

more later after the bike ride-- wish me luck-- the bike has no shocks, there are not helmets for rent and I don't have my padded biking shorts, not to mention we have NO idea where we are going. Should be an adventure.