Cue the "Rocky" Theme Song

Yesterday we spent much of the day on Weibao Shan, a mountain that is considered to be sacred by the Taoists. There are 22 temples on the mountain. We visited three. It took a while to get to each because we were, after all, covering vertical terrain, with lots of steps. The first was a very impressive structure with many ornate altars. The second had a beautiful pond in the courtyard. The third almost killed me. To get to it, we headed down the mountain. It was a long walk down which, of course, meant there would be a long walk back up. Several times along the way I thought about turning back, but our guide kept saying that it really wasn't much farther and I decided it would be a shame to stop when I had come so far. Boy, did I regret that decision!

As many of you know, I had open heart surgery 4 months ago to repair a bad valve. I have been going to cardiac rehab, and the therapists have been helping me toward my goal of being in good enough shape to make this trip to China, but nothing I did in rehab was even close to climbing many hundreds of stairs at an altitude of 6500 feet, covering a vertical distance of 1000 feet in less than a mile!

After we looked around the lower temple, I steeled myself for the upwards journey. I fixed my eyes on a step that was a reasonable distance up ahead of me and started walking. When I reached that step, I sat until my breathing returned to normal, usually less than a minute. Then I would stand up and locate my next goal. Walk. Gasp. SIt. Breathe. Repeat. In this manner I was able to make it to the top in a reasonable amount of time. After resting at the top for a few minutes, I realized that I felt GREAT!  I was amazing, a champion, a world-class climber. Nothing could stop me! (Cue the music).

Today we were on a different mountain visiting a tea plantation. At one point our guide suggested a little side trip up to a small waterfall. I joined the group that was going up and we started on our way. We had not gotten very far when I looked up ahead and saw quite a lot of steps. It appears that I am neither world-class nor unstoppable; this 'champion' spent the next hour sitting in a rocking chair on the terrace. It was lovely and I didn't get out of breath once!

We will be heading into more remote villages starting tomorrow, and I don't know if I will have Internet access there. I will keep writing these posts and publish them when I am able.