Namche Bazar

Yesterday after a very scenic flight and a heart-stopping landing on a small airstrip perched on the side of a mountain, we arrived in Lukla to begin the trek to base camp. Lukla was filled with excitment as porters organized their loads and trekkers began their journeys. From Lukla, we hiked for about 4 hours through the beautiful Nepalese countryside, passing through several villages until we reached the village of Monjo, where we stayed the night in the Monjo Guesthouse. I think my dad and I got the big sleep that we needed to catch up up on our jetlag; around 4 in the afternoon, we decided to take a "nap" that lasted until 7 the next morning!

Today we started out with a visit to the Uche Chholing monastary, and then continued on with the trek. After a bit, we came to a corner where we got our first glimpse of the summit of Everest, still more than 5000 meters above us!
We arrived in Namche after about 3 and a half hours, where we will stay tonight and tomorrow night. Namche is pretty amazing, because it is really a decent sized town, with internet cafes, bakeries, and more. But since there are no roads here for cars to drive on, everything that was needed to build this place up had to be carried in, by either a person or a yak. This is also true of all of the other villages that we have already passed or are going to pass on the way to base camp. The size of the loads that the porters can carry is really amazing!