I hired a driver, Xie, who brought me to Lugu Lake, and afterward, down to Dali. He brought his family (shown above) along, and they vacationed independently. Although we had no words in common, we communicated well during the trip and had fun. Above, they are waving out the minibus windows. But to Lugu, it was a rough mountainous ride, often on unpaved roads. I taught "little Xie," the 11 year old some harmonica and penny whistle to the delight of his parents. See my blog for 22 August.

 
In Ninglang we had a grand lunch in a one-table restaurant in a home (farm) with a garden view behind.

 
We crossed past the second bend of Jinsha Jiang (River of Golden Sands, the western Yangtze) and up a tributary into the mountains, the Mianmian Shan, with 4400m (13,000' peaks). There had been frequent landslides and boulders dropped across the road from the heavy rains. Many roads we traveled were being cleared. In the mountains, the clouds at times made everything but our  ridge road disappear into the mist, giving the illusion of driving up a  roadway floating through the clouds. I chose to visit Lige village on the Lake - more tranquil than the nearby Luoshui town.

 
Coming down the mountain road at the Sichuan Border, we spy Lugu Lake and Liwubi Island.

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Looking out from the tiny town of Lige at a guest house on Lige Island.

   
From a book, an aerial view of Lige Island, which connects via a peninsula to the lakeside town. The lake changes color reflecting the sky, at altitude 2600m (8000') with depths up to 90m (270') and good fishing.


Due to the flooding, there was no shoreline. One gets around by jumping from stone to stone - sometimes very funny. Above center I have walked out toward the island and am looking back at the town.
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The boats are called zhucao ("pig troughs") a term derived from an ancient myth. The women sing beautiful traditional songs while paddling.  The Mosuo are the last matrilineal society in the world, it is said. Men visit the women when given permission, but leave in the morning for their mother's house (the so-called walking-marriages). The women own the land, houses, businesses, and raise the children, while the men are behind the scenes, mostly as laborers.  But running a household for the women also includes tending animals and gathering firewood. See my blog.

   
 This woman said to me (it was translated) "I am in my dirty work clothes now. Why not photograph me tonight at the dance in my nice clothes?"

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In summer it is an idyllic place with ducks swimming in the water lilies, but the land is covered with snow all winter. On the hill shown below is the "Coca-Cola School,"
which was paid for by the company. (However the company gave no money for teachers and I hear the kids run riot at the school).

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By having the good fortune of meeting Netty (Li li Lu) I was introduced to a Mosuo family with whom I hung out. They live in the 100 year old cabin featured above. Here, the grandmother is stepping out of the the cabin to tend the pig, ducks, and beehive. She told me, that, if I stayed in town, I could be "married" with in a week - to a 13-year old if I liked. I declined, but I did enjoy getting to know her family. Her home is the bottommost brown one in the aerial view shown in the 8th photo above. The pagoda/gazebo shown directly above, in town, with ducks going by, is where we docked the boat after paddling from the island. The townspeople enjoy lakeside barbecues under the tents.

But it came time to leave. When we piled into the bus, I noticed that Xie was taking a bucket full of live frogs back home from their family's boat outing onto Liwubi Island. The family is Naxi, who revere frogs, but I suspect they also enjoy them for a meal.

   
Netty joined us traveling back down to Lijiang. We stopped in some rugged terrain to buy vegetables.

  
  Huge version of this panorama 7 Mbytes of the mountain road over the river- Larger than screen.
   
We lunched on river catfish beside the River of Golden Sands.
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And for the third time I returned to Lijiang. We dropped Netty off and proceed to Dali.