Hindi word of the day: सुख (kush - happiness)

This weekend, our Environmental Perspectives teacher took our class on an amazing trip to Mahabaleshwar, a hill station about two hours outside of Pune. We spent our two days hiking, eating amazing food (thali, strawberries, chai), and napping. It was one of the most relaxing, rejuvenating experiences I've had in India, although it made starting classes again on Monday really rough. Luckily, we only had two days of school this week because we leave for Mumbai tomorrow morning!

On our hike to Wilson's Point, we passed multiple sheep herders. They travel hundreds of miles throughout the year. They were currently on their way back to a small town near Mahabaleshwar where they spend a few months in between nomad-ing. 

The view from Wilson's Point.

After our first hike, we stopped for lunch and dessert--delicious strawberries and cream. Abhishek lusts after Anuja's remaining berries.

Mahabaleshwar is famous for its strawberries. I think I ate two full boxes of them this weekend + two glasses of strawberries and cream.

The restaurant where we ate had photos of famous people who'd eaten there hanging from the roof. Apparently foreigners are equivalent to Bollywood stars in fame level, which explains why we always get asked to have our photos taken.

After lunch, we took a nap at the hotel we were staying at and then headed to go on another hike to a bat cave. We passed this amazing viewpoint on the way.

Trekkin'

The field we ended up in before reaching the bat cave was spectacularly beautiful. It was a wide, open plain surrounded by lush green jungle.

I couldn't decide which photo I liked more so I posted them both.

After the hike, we walked back through the village at the trailhead. It's a tiny Muslim village with about twenty houses in total. This family of farmers said that there were twenty family members living in their house.

They sold us delicious strawberries (we took this entire bucket). Another family in the village fed all twenty of us dinner, which was just as delicious as the strawberries were, as we squeezed into their living room.

The view from our hotel.

Our castle-like hotel, which had the most amazing view of the sun rising over the lake the next morning.

On Sunday we trekked to a temple which was currently being excavated. Professor Paranjpe noticed that they were removing trees unnecessarily and stopped in the middle of a lecture to have the men doing the excavation work call their boss. He spent about fifteen minutes telling him that if they didn't stop, he would pursue environmental litigation against them. So entertaining.

The view of a valley reservoir from the temple.

The temple. A natural spring behind it feeds water into the cow sculpture which channels it into the water tank at the bottom.

Preston and Preston-in-training (aka Abhishek).

Our final hike was to a beautiful (and uber-touristy) viewpoint called Arthur's Seat. It was so green and lush--I can't even imagine what it looks like during monsoon season.

Jen chilling with a monkey at Arthur's Seat.

Zach and Josh nomming on some roasted corn at the top of the trail to Arthur's Seat.

We stopped at a rest stop on the way out to buy some strawberries. Stefan used this time to kick a bunch of kids off a trampoline and do some backflips.