Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Nothing Quite Like Namche

3480m - After an exciting plane ride into Lukla and two days of trekking we have made it up to Namche Bazar. A small village with cyber cafes, gear shops to purchase last minute items, and even a bakery that serves Starbucks coffee. Other than no shower in the past 48+ hour the "roughing it" part has yet to start (soon enough).

Tomorrow we leave Namche for Khumjung about 200-300 meters higher. The acclimatization process is necessarily slow in order to avoid severe headaches and other ailments.

As you can imagine the views here in the Khumbu region continue to grow in terms of awe (see photo). It has been a long patient wait yet tomorrow that wait is over as my eyes will finally gaze upon mighty Mt. Everest. Sleep tonight despite the exercise and sweating today may be intermittent at best. :)

I hope the next dispatch comes in a day or two with a photo of Mt. Everest. Once we get settled into Everest basecamp sometime after April 9th we hope to send some more video showing some of the things we've encountered on the way including the "deworming of the yaks," something that has captivated several of my teammates. Hopefully it won't be like the "running with the bulls" in Spain!

Stay tuned as I sign off saying Namaste from Namche.