Profile - Peter Humes

By the time I got to Kalpa above Recong Peo I was seriously considering packing this trip in and heading out of India. The trip from Narkanda to Recong Peo, getting run off the road and the fun of getting caught in the rain storm the night before had me pretty wiped out. Just after moving up to the real Himachal Tourism hotel in Kalpa, I came upon Peter just sitting down to lunch. Travel alone will make one pretty bold and with as bad a time as I'd had the day before it was time to find someone to talk to. Peter turned out to be just the right guy this being his fifth trip to India and an experienced motorcycle rider, he could understand my bitching and moaning about the last few days but was also experienced enough to tell me that there is enough to see ahead that its worth sticking it out.

Peter was stuck in India which wasn't the original plan to take a pilgrimage to some of the sacred Buddhist mountain in Nepal and Tibet. Since the borders had been closed due to SARS, he was stuck in India and making the best of it by heading up into the Spiti Valley, where I found him. It having been more then a month since I'd had anyone to talk to, his stories of the catering business in California, travels in India, running a micro-brewery and paragliding were more then a pleasure to listen to, they brought me back to a calm and sane mindset. For that a hearty thanks!

One thing that may be of interest to those reading the website is Peter as a paragliding instructor keeps in touch with some of the Indian flyers. One of the things he was talking about was a world-cup flying competition to be held in Himachal, most likely Manali in 2004. If its something that would interest you, drop Peter an e-mail, I'm sure he'd have more info.