Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Everything worked out well with our flight to Lukla and is was an incredible flight.  We were able to get on one of the first flights of the day to minimize the chance of the flight being cancelled due to bad weather.  And I got the last seat on the left side of the plane so the views of the mountains were awesome.  Lukla airport was pretty impressive too, I have a video that I took of a plane taking off so eventually I'll try to get that posted somewhere. 

We spent Wednesday wandering around Lukla and taking pictures...I love the children here, they are so adorable and grubby and still entertained by the simplest things.  We stayed at Raj's family's lodge and it was a nicer than I expected for the teahouses, I mean, they are accomdations in a third world country so it is all relative I guess.  Now that is has been a few days and I don't have my map in front of me I don't remember the exact elevation but it is over 9,000 feet.  Bedtime is early, about 8:00 or so. 

Thursday morning we got up, ate breakfast, and headed up to Phakding which is only a couple of hours of walking.  Unfortunately, since we are sharing porters with this other tour group we had to stay somewhat near them for the walk but it wasn't bad because you are never alone on the trail.  I guess I shouldn't reallly even call it a trail since it is more of a "road" for the people here between places filled with Sherpas moving goods up and down it.  It was funny because Erin didn't realize that there wasn't any cars up here.  There literally aren't any wheels except prayer wheels.  Everything is hauled up and down by foot...it is amazing to see these guys.  We arrived in Phakding which is actually lower in elevation than Lukla ~8,500 feet

Friday was supposed to be a longer day of trekking up to Namche.  It only took us 4 hours to get there and I really started to feel the elevation the last couple of thousand feet that we climbed up to Namche at just over 11,000 feet.  We got into town and are kind of staying at a dumpier (is that a word) place but feel obligated to stay at Raj's family's places.  So far the rooms are super cheap, around 200 rupees or about $3.00 but they make their money on the food.  And, if you don't eat breakfast and dinner there then they charge you literally 10 times that amount.  Oh well, I can always eat:)  We walked around town a bit on Friday, checked out the view of some of the mountains nearby, ate lunch, took a shower for $4 (that was a treat), etc.  We will be spending a few days here to acclimate before moving on.

Today, Saturday, we got up and after breakfast went up to the National Park visitor's center to get our first view of Everest, Nuptse, and Ama Dablam, and others...it was beautiful, and such a clear day!  The mornings have all been very clear and blue skies but the afternoon the clouds roll in.  Erin has a cold so she went back and slept while Jay and I went and checked out the Saturday market, a stumpa that has prayer wheels set up so that the water flowing below them turns them, and tried to get into the gompa but it was closed.  Lunch, lounging, dinner, and now this.  Tomorrow we will do an acclimitization hike up to some other Sherpa villages, the Everest View Hotel (for the apple pie), the Hillary school, and other stuff along the way.  On Monday morning we will leave for Thame.  We have our Sherpa lined up, Nima, and his son.  Nima is awesome, such a cute old man and just has the greatest little sparkle in his eye.  I like that when we arranged for him the other porter that Jay already knew found a Sherpa from his village and one that has been up in the area where we are going, and across both passes, several times.  Him and his son will be with us until we reach Dingboche before our climb....if I remember correctly, November 5 or 6th.  So, I probably won't have email access again until then.