Beautiful Buddhist stipas and Mani Stones along the trails are part of the past and current Buddhist tradition. 

This is our highest school with ENG sponsored girls. It sits approx. 13,500 feet, just above Namche and is breathtakingly beautiful but extremely remote. We sponsor 14 girls in this school who live in the hostel and study to complete their education.. 

So far, so good. I’m as clean as I’m going to be tonight, I had Sherpa stew with water buffalo and apple pie for dinner. Paid for internet to catch up on posts, as you can tell, sorry for so many! Now I’m about to be face first in my sleeping bag and it’s only 7:30. We keep climbing tomorrow! 

I looked out my window to see the mountains and on the trail below was this sweet interaction with lots of laughter between this beautiful lady and the baby.

My option for a shower tonight involved paying to cross the street with the entire village watching to use the shower that sits by the side of the road,directly behind the toilet. The line you see going to the “shower” is a water hose. Yep! 

We met this beautiful child on the trail today. She was carrying 30 kilos or about 70 lbs of dead chickens from Namche. Makes my heart hurt.

We are heading above Namche and the clouds are literally  surrounding us and the views of the mountains and snow capped peaks are absolutely stunning. Rhododendron trees grow wild everywhere at this altitude. 

Each week traders set up on the sides of the trail to sell and trade wares. Namche was once the primary trading route for those between Everest and Tibet. It is the last larger village before Everest. 

I’m not gonna lie, the climb to Namche kicked my butt. The air is clear and super thin and we did approximately 5 miles of straight up “shortcuts” from Namche. I am so thankful for every sqat, run, butler, etc. with Camp gladiator because my knees held up really well, I held my own! I’m still crawling into Namche though and we don’t stop here today, headed for Sanasha before stopping tonight. 

Our first sighting of Everest on the way to Namche… so majestic