Had a super great day… So informative!

But before I forget to put this current dump of a hotel, with the disgusting view of mountains, spacious, modern interior, and front desk clerk who seem to get giddy and fawn in me any time they see me? Well it wasn’t cheap. $141.75 for three nights… compare that with, hmm was it 110? Or $120 for a night at that rundown hotel in Pueblo next to a highway with kleenex stuffed in the peephole!

oh, but that $141.75 is for three nights….

Anyway, “Lanping” is actually Lanping Bai and Pumi Autonomous Prefecture. So in addition to a visit to a cute pocket-sized Tibetan Buddhist temple, we visited a Pumi village, and a Bai village. Along the way we stopped off to see the most O-mazing greenhouse farm demonstration site! Can’t wait to show you everything about that!

Our “wheels” for the day’travel was Sixth Sister’s ” buggy”. In addition to my two homies, today we were joined by a new third person: Li Zitao, who was sixth Sister’s junior high school classmate, and is now working in the tourism bureau. In other words, not just a nice person, but a totally real guide.

Our next stop was the Pumi village, whose economic redevelopment includes a B&B (with a bazillion succulents!) and a coffee shop where they did a magnificent job on the milk swirl patterns. Each of the four lattes had a different pattern, although two were hearts which are fairly common. The other two were designs I’d never seen before! (BTW, full disclosure – only two of the phots in this rando are mine. The rest were sent to me by the homies!)

oh, I didn’t take any direct photos of any of the ethnics wandering around. It isn’t a zoo

there were tons of these tidy “Mar de plásticos”…

This pic was inside the demo greenhouse farm. In addition to other cool stuff, I loved the way viney plants, including tomatoes, cling to a string hanging down from the ceiling. Maybe that’s something common, but I’d never seen it!