Day 4 - Namche to Tengboche

I am at at internet cafe right now, so no pictures with this post. Too bad too, because today we saw Everest!

Today was a longish day. We hiked out of Namche and headed towards Tengboche. We hiked for about an hour along side the mountain. Very flat and nice. but to get up to tengboche you had to descend all the way to the valley floor where the river is, then back up 500m to tengboche. it was steep, but not like the way to namche.

Dad had a hard day. he is not doing well, having trouble eating and if very tired because of it. peter and ian carried dads pack up the steepest part going up to tengboche, and that seemed to help. but we are all still in good spirits. a lot of joking on the trail and laughing. dad will rebound. we all made it together today. nobody went ahead. we all kept slow with dad. i think if we can get him to dingboche tomorrow that will be good. we have two nights in dingboche. the hike from tengboche to dingboche may be the easiest leg of the journey. not a lot of up then down then up again like we have had. not to worry though, we are all taking care of each other. no one else has felt sick yet or the effects of the altitude. mild headaches, but that is about it.

tengboche is a monastery, the highest buddhist monastery in the world. we just went in and watched them chant their prayers. different, but enjoyable to experience. then we went to the tengboche bakery. ian said his cinnamon bun was better than the one in namche. who would've figured? my chocolate croissant was pretty good too. we are going to try and get dad there later this evening to get some food in him.

we met a lady along the trail who was 70 years old coming back from her trek to base camp. randy was up ahead and told her to find dad. she came upon us on the trail and said "are you folks from canada? where is don?!" then proceeded to tell us her story and motivated dad to keep going. she suffered from the altitude as well, but made it. she was fun to talk to. then she told dad to "get his butt down that trail!"

we saw everest today too. it was a big motivating factor. seeing the mountain energized us. the mountains are unbelievable.

i feel like i've finally got my walking legs today. they still get tired, but they feel good most of the time. still no cardio distress for me. i've been lucky. ive kept my appitite and haven't had any headaches yet. i've been drinking about 3L of water a day, i'm sure that helps.

tomorrow will be a good day for hiking. not so much up and down, but a steady climb. i think i will like that better.

mom- randy would like you to call ardie and tell her that he's found himself a little phillapeno and is staying in nepal because he likes it here so much, and she can send him money each month. (she will understand what he means)

mom- don't worry about dad, we are taking good care of him. we won't let him do anything he can't.

i found myself today doing something that robbie would do. i was about 50yrds ahead of the group and came to a small bridge. i quickly ducked under the bridge and waited for the rest of the group to catch up and go over it. when they did i started to yell and roar!!! they weren't very scared. robbie would've done that exact thing, and i usually just roll my eyes when he does. but it made me smile for the rest of the day.

well, we are all still together so that is the most important thing. we take it very slow, but steady.

that is all for today. we will see if there is internet any farther up. i have been surprised to find it here, although it is twice as much to use as it was in namche!

NAMASTE!!