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early in the morning, under a slight drizzle, we set foot on the high trail of the tiger leaping gorge, where the chinese west starts clambering towards himalaya and the secretive tibetan plateau. the yangtze, increasingly below, roars greenishly along.
num desafio ao pulmão carbonizado, o trilho vai subindo de curva em contracurva - devagar devagarinho, está bem de ver, que a perna também se urbanizou - e a cada passo vai deixando para trás os vestígios das gentes e os derradeiros arrozais.
ahead of us, across the water, the cliff gradually straightens up into an immense black wall, pushing head first into the cloud cover. on our gentler side, a sudden twist of the trail reveals tiny hamlets in the distance.
uma vez lá chegados, damos conta de que em torno das eiras vazias circula finalmente alguma vida. vida animal, já que, ao que parece, a de outro género está concentrada no restaurante da aldeia a engolir sopa de fitas.
goats - those elusive things - occasionally rain down from the steep cliffs along the road, as carelessly as one might glide down sand dunes for a leisurely dip in the sea.
o vento ganha pujança, o que nestas serranias não parece incomum. apesar de nos salpicar com os ribeiros que descem a encosta e nos obrigar, volta e meia, a agarrar os pedregulhos do caminho em busca de estabilidade, tem pelo menos o condão de dissipar as nuvens.
as the clouds part, we can finally see where the black fortress ends. jade dragon snow mountain. jade, to be fair, is nowhere to be seen, and the dragon did not make an appearance; but the white matter drizzled on top rescues the wisdom of the namers.
vindo o lusco-fusco, é tempo de arranjar um abrigo e trocar historietas com os camaradas caminheiros. e cama. de madrugada, com um chá de gengibre entre as mãos, observamos a respiração do rio a trepar a montanha.
as we stand watching the yangtze slowly carve the gorge, very close to where the proverbial tiger leapt across it, a series of explosions go off around the corner. the trail, it appears, now joins a road under violent construction. soon, we hear, it will allow coaches to cart mass tourism into this wilderness. 
as for us, low-income sweating trekkers who are too early to enjoy the delights of modernity, it would be wiser to roll down to the river bank as quickly as possible, find the ferry crossing and drive back to lijiang. there is more to see elsewhere, and this stretch of the gorge has been corrupted just a tad too much.
não sei para onde vousei que não me ponho a caminho enquanto não parar de chover
early in the morning, under a slight drizzle, we set foot on the high trail of the tiger leaping gorge, where the chinese west starts clambering towards himalaya and the secretive tibetan plateau. the yangtze, increasingly below, roars greenishly along.
num desafio ao pulmão carbonizado, o trilho vai subindo de curva em contracurva - devagar devagarinho, está bem de ver, que a perna também se urbanizou - e a cada passo vai deixando para trás os vestígios das gentes e os derradeiros arrozais.
ahead of us, across the water, the cliff gradually straightens up into an immense black wall, pushing head first into the cloud cover. on our gentler side, a sudden twist of the trail reveals tiny hamlets in the distance.
uma vez lá chegados, damos conta de que em torno das eiras vazias circula finalmente alguma vida. vida animal, já que, ao que parece, a de outro género está concentrada no restaurante da aldeia a engolir sopa de fitas.
goats - those elusive things - occasionally rain down from the steep cliffs along the road, as carelessly as one might glide down sand dunes for a leisurely dip in the sea.
o vento ganha pujança, o que nestas serranias não parece incomum. apesar de nos salpicar com os ribeiros que descem a encosta e nos obrigar, volta e meia, a agarrar os pedregulhos do caminho em busca de estabilidade, tem pelo menos o condão de dissipar as nuvens.
as the clouds part, we can finally see where the black fortress ends. jade dragon snow mountain. jade, to be fair, is nowhere to be seen, and the dragon did not make an appearance; but the white matter drizzled on top rescues the wisdom of the namers.
vindo o lusco-fusco, é tempo de arranjar um abrigo e trocar historietas com os camaradas caminheiros. e cama. de madrugada, com um chá de gengibre entre as mãos, observamos a respiração do rio a trepar a montanha.
as we stand watching the yangtze slowly carve the gorge, very close to where the proverbial tiger leapt across it, a series of explosions go off around the corner. the trail, it appears, now joins a road under violent construction. soon, we hear, it will allow coaches to cart mass tourism into this wilderness. 
as for us, low-income sweating trekkers who are too early to enjoy the delights of modernity, it would be wiser to roll down to the river bank as quickly as possible, find the ferry crossing and drive back to lijiang. there is more to see elsewhere, and this stretch of the gorge has been corrupted just a tad too much.
