Trek Day 2 - Monjo to Namche Bazzar - 11/2/10

Today was a bitch.  I woke today feeling fairly normal -- no muscle soreness at all.  The ibuprofin I took must have done the trick.  We got up, packed up, ate breakfast, and had to regroup a little.  One of our porters had twisted his ankle and had to head back to Lukla.  We redistributed the loads (both Kopil and Bogdan took a little extra) and we headed out.  Since we were spending 2 nights in Namche, Kopil called another porter who would catch up with us there.

We had been told that it would take 5 hours to get to Namche and the last 2 would be basically straight up.  Somehow we managed to get there in 3.5, but I'm not sure how.  It started out benign enough.  The entrance to Sagamartha National Park is just outside of Monjo.  There's a beautiful gateway to walk through lined with prayer wheels.  Kopil went inside with our park permits while we hung around outside, but soon we had to start doing some serious walking. The trails here are not flat by any means.  Nor are they up.  You have to go up and down along a ridge, drop down to the river, cross a suspension bridge and head up the ridge on the other side.  Repeatedly.  I kind of groan every time we head down because I know I have to walk up it again at some point.

First view of Everest (with some serious lens zoom)

That last 2 hours was as advertised -- steep and up the entire way.  There was one place about 2/3 of the way up that had a flat area to take a rest.  There were Sherpa women from Namche who had come down and were selling oranges.  We shared a couple of oranges and got our first view of Everest in between the trees.  It was popping out behind a ridge and looked very far away.  As we finally approached Namche, we turned a corner and there was a little snack stand on the right side of the trail and a long bench on the left and the trail was finally flat.  A very nice man said "You did it! Welcome to Namche".  We turned left around a corner and finally saw the village.

First view of Namche Bazaar

Namche Bazaar (elevation 12,467 ft.) is shaped very much like an ampitheater, with buildings along each tier on the way up.  It is absolutely stunning, with mountains looming all around.  At the bottom center there is a stupa with prayer wheels in front.  Also, there's a stream that flows down through the village near the stupa.  We were at the very bottom level and I was worried that our lodge would be up higher in the village.  No worries though -- we were at the bottom just past the stupa.  After getting settled in our rooms and having lunch, Krista and I did our laundry in the stream, much to the amusement of the local women also doing theirs.  Then we took showers, and meandered through town.  I'm so excited that we have all day here tomorrow to explore!