rafting in rishikesh!

our boss is a little bit crazy. the good kind of crazy. the kind that says, 'so what if the (ganges) river is 40 degrees? let's raft it anyway.'

and so, we did. thankfully, wetsuit and splash jacket rentals were included in our trip. i might have frozen in a 'ready to paddle' stance without them.

husband and bossman taking on the rapids with gusto. (... though not in this photo. i'd be a bad paddler if i were to try and take photos during a big rapid.)

bossman taking a turn at guiding. he and his wife (who we adore) worked for years guiding trips in our home state of colorado. a chance to raft on the ganga (and guide a boat, even for a few minutes) had him grinning!

the ganga in rishikesh is blue-green, beautiful and frigidly cold. the river cuts through the gorgeous, quiet gharwal mountains and if you plan it right, your trip ends at the fairy kingdom of rishikesh (you know, the part inhabited entirely by tourists and holy men- not the part where real, average indian people live.)

don't worry, mom. the ganges here is not at all like the ganges in varanasi. no rotting corpses or partially cremated dead bodies here!

more on rishikesh after i recover from this particularly nasty case of delhi belly. in the meantime, we're sipping on lemon-ginger-honey tea (another reason to love rishikesh! as if i needed more), listening to christmas carols, finishing our laundry in preparation for our christmas travels beginning on thursday and trying really hard not to think of the giant cockroaches that turned up dead in our bedroom in our absence (at least they were dead, right?).