15 SEPTEMBER, 2013 - MONJO OVERNIGHT

Today was quite an adventure.  Eleni is really, really sick and causing her to move slowly so our downhill escape out of the Himalayan mountains has been retarded.  Kaji, one of our porters, is now sick as well and coughing as bad as Eleni.  We only have one more day but it seems like our last day will be even more difficult than Alex and I’s day climbing Kalapathar.   The trip will definitely be accomplishable but it will be a slow journey.

View of the Mountains

View of a Stupa and Mountains

We started today thirty minutes early because we had to cover the largest distance of the trip.  We went from Tengboche to Monjo.  The path we took had us cross two rivers which mean lots of climbing and descending of hills.  Alex and I kept a steady pace and reached Namche quickly.  We stopped for lunch and we had our first beers of the trip while we kicked the feet up and waited for the food to be served.   We found out that Jimmy Carter stayed at the tea house we were located at.  The owners of the lodge even posted several correspondence letters between them after the Carters traveled back to the states.

Small Walkway in Namche

For the second half of the journey, Alex and I left a few minutes before Eleni.  We took a wrong turn which, fortunaltly kept us on the same route but took us a few extra minutes.  Once we came to a Military check point we had to wait for Chhiri to continue. So we sat down for an hour and chatted.  The clouds were finally clear and provided us with a pretty good view.  A few of the shots are posted.  Once Chhiri came we were only a few more minutes from the Tea House.

Tom as Tom Cruise

Stairs leading to Monjo and Park Entrance

Once we reached the tea house I started to feel a little sick.  Right now all three of us are on some sort of antibiotics.  Hopefully we get some good sleep and are able to finish the last hike as fast as possible.

Neat fact: the national park entrance lists all the mammals you can see inside the park; it says nothing about red pandas.

No Pandas!!!