Everest Trek

Everest is the smaller one between the mountains but really is the highest one!

Everest is the biggest one! WOW!

Us at the top of Kala Pathar!

Us at the top of Kala Pathar with Everest in the Background!

Jumping with Everest in the Background...

Cam at the top of Kala Pathar with a cliff to the side of him... EEK!

We reached Everest Base Camp!

Us with some Spanish guys that are planning to Summit Mount Everest

Walking away from Everest.

Namche Bazaar to Everest Base Camp (5 days)

Namche to Tengboche to Dingboche to Lobuche (2 nights.. one for acclimitization) to Gorak Shep where we went on to Summit Kala Pathar (5550 meters high) and finally EVEREST BASE CAMP (5364 meters high)

It's been an amazing week for us here in the Himalayas. We still have 4 more days before we fly back to Kathmandu. We feel that words cannot describe how the experience has been for us so we are going to say a few points and then show pictures. The pictures will come at a later date when the internet is not so expensive and works alot faster!

Some highlights:
1. Having to stay on the side of the trail closest to the mountain so you do not get knocked over a cliff when 6 yaks come barreling by.
2. Visiting the Tengboche Buddhist Monastery which is surrounded by mountains
3. Huddling around a yak dung fueled stove to stay warm as temperatures dropped.
4. Playing cards for a full day because we had nothing else to do while we acclimatized!
5. Having a hard time breathing as you go up the mountain
6. Having two cloudless beautiful days when we reached our highest elevations of the trip
7. Meeting a Spanish team preparing to summit mount Everest
8. Hiking to the highest point in the world that we both have ever summited which was Kala Pathar
9. BASE CAMP EVEREST!!!
10. BASECAMP EVEREST!!!!!!!!

On our way to Everest!

6-months to the day ince the wedding and we celebrated with a trip to Lukla Nepal where we started out on our trek to Basecamp Mount Everest. We are well on our way to Basecamp now in Namche Bazaar at the end of Day 2 of our trek. We flew into the Lukla airport yesterday and it was quite the experience, surrounded by mountains, and probably the weirdest thing was the lack of a descent to reach the landing pad. We actually flew UP to the landing strip.

Day 1 was tough because we were tired from our early morning flight and everything, but day 2 was definitely harder with an 800 metre ascent. Pretty much 2.5 hrs of walking straight up with our packs. Annika was not sure what she had gotten herself into at that point. We now spend an acclimatization day in Namche Bazaar and are feeling quite happy that we don't have to strap on the packs tomorrow. Our elevation right now is somewhere around 3500 metres. Basecamp is 5300 or so, so still a ways to go. The scenery is gorgeous and the mountains around us are HUGE and very rugged looking. The villages we pass through are beautiful and the people all seem very friendy (And strong--you should see some of the loads going up the mountain).

We'll let you know how it goes the rest of the way...

View from our Second Tea house - Khumbu lodge

Us in our first lodge-Bengkar Guest house

Along the way

Right before our 2.5 hr ascent

A quarter of a century!

Happy Birthday Cam!

Last night we went to a wonderful restaurant called OR2K with friends to celebrate Cam's 25th Birthday. It is a middle eastern restaurant. Annika got the falafel that comes with 8 falafel balls, green salade and hummous and babaganoush for a dipping sauce. Cam got the Pad Thai. After having eaten supper we ate some yummy cake.

Annika brought out a beautiful chocolate cake she ordered from a nearby restaurant. Everyone sang happy birthday. The candles that were put on the cake were half made up of candles that keep re-lighting themselves. It took Cam about 10 minutes to finally blow out all of the candles.Anyways here are some fun pictures.

The Birthday Party Crew!

Shrimati and Shrimaan

The AWESOME Chocolate Cake!

Cam blowing out the candles again and again....

Back to the Orphanage!

Cam and I decided to go back to the Orphanage we visited a couple of weeks ago. The main reason was because we promised the boys that we would go to the park with them and play sports. Well you do not make a promise to those kids that you are not willing to keep.

Add caption

We ended up playing 1 hour of soccer with the boys. It was one of the funnest things we have done here and Cam's dream come true. To play soccer with children in Nepal. We are hoping to go back again but only have one more week until we hike Everest!

The Jungle Book

Wow!
We saw tons of animals that you do not find in Canada. In our 3 days at Chitwan National Park in Nepal we saw 5 rhinos, MANY elephants, crocodiles, deer, wild boar, baby wild boar and tons of different birds.

A couple of highlights are:
1. The Elephant Bath... So amazing to be so in touch with such a big magnificent animal
2. Sitting in a small canoe and looking down and seeing that underneath our canoe is a 6 feet crocodile.
3. Being so close to a rhino and being able to just sit and watch it.
4. Sleeping in the Jungle in a jungle tower.
5. Seeing the biggest spider in our lives
6. Eating the best pasta with tons of cheese... OH how I miss the cheese from Canada.