Day 14 (Nov 7) - One success per day

Tyler and I have agreed that while living in Italy we can only expect to accomplish one major thing a day.  Therefore if we set off on a bunch of bureaucratic errands, for example, if we are successful at just one of our stops then it has been a good day.  Two success days are few and far between, and three success days... well those just don't happen. Anyway, I think this rule also applies in Nepal, or maybe it just applies anywhere as long as you are with Italians.

Yesterday's success was feeling better.  Today's success was hot water, and therefore a hot shower! I feel like a new person.  I can finally walk around without a hat on for a little while (until it gets cold and then I'll put it back on to keep warm).

Other good news of the day is that there were a bunch of flights between Kathmandu and Lukla today because of good weather.  Hooray!  This is good news for all the stranded tourists, although we do not think our boxes have made it on board any flight yet because there is such a huge back log of people waiting to fly.  Weather is expected to be good again tomorrow though, and in that case hopefully our boxes can fly out because the airlines should be more caught up by then.  If that happens, that will be tomorrow's success of the day.

Today was a sunny day, so after breakfast I took a short walk in the hills around the Pyramid with my colleague Giulio just to get some fresh air.  Naturally I snapped a few photos.  The rest of the day has mostly been spent working on writing.  Oh and I did a little bit of laundry, which involved putting my clothes in a plastic bin with cold water and some shower soap and mushing them around for a while.  Then I hung them out to dry, and by dry I mean freeze.  At least I can have clean socks now (once they thaw).

Cross all your fingers and toes that our instrument flies out soon.  That news would make me exceedingly happy!!

Here you can see the Pyramid on the right, and that little building on the hill to the left is where we hope to put our instrument next year some time when they have more space.  Right now it's too crowded. The other two photos below are just some nice mountain views I got today.

 

Day 13 (Nov 6) - Things starting to look up

I woke up with a nasty headache this morning, which left me feeling really frustrated that I just couldn't seem to get better.  That on top of not being able to watch or listen the Michigan game last night due to slow internet (which believe it or not happens in places other than Calabria), not having taken a shower for a week because we don't have hot water (sorry if that's too much info), and constantly being cold, I kind of felt like I'd hit my limit.  But after some breakfast, a much needed coffee, and some consoling from my colleagues Giulio and Stefano, I started to feel a little better.  I put on a semi-clean shirt (that's right - haven't done laundry in two weeks either), brushed my unwashed hair, and headed up to the Pyramid to get some work done.  Getting out of my room really helped, and making some progress on my article review made me feel like I was actually doing something besides waiting for my instrument.

By lunchtime, I think I looked and felt like a new person and I have felt pretty good for most of the day.  I even ate the same dinner as everyone else tonight (minestrone soup and polenta with a ragu sauce), and was able to eat the whole thing (appetite is back!).  I still have a lingering cough and runny nose, but I can handle that.  In other good news, the radiators were finally back in action by dinner time, meaning that we got to enjoy our meal in temperatures above 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time since our arrival.  I am also told that there was a brief moment of hot water this evening, during which time a few of the guys "in the know" snuck in to shave their beards for the first time in days.  Tomorrow there is promise of hot water for a longer period of time, and I have been promised the first shower.  I suspect it's because (a) I am the only woman, and (b) I have been sick.  Call it sexism if you will, I don't care, I want my shower.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is also better, meaning there is hope for flights from Kathmandu to Lukla.  The problem is the back log of tourists waiting to take those flights with all their luggage, meaning it could be difficult to get our instrument and other boxes on board.  We'll try to pull whatever strings we have, but there is no guarantee of anything at this point.  We are just hoping for the best.  The good thing is that we don't actually have to be in Kathmandu to fly back to Italy until the 20th, so although we're scheduled to leave the Pyramid on the 15th we could actually push that back by a day or two if needed.  Buffer days are built in for a reason.

So keep your fingers crossed for us that we get our instrument soon, we get some hot water for showers, and we get some continued heat in the lodge.  Is it wrong that that's the order of my wish list?  Successful work before a decent shower?  I guess that is what it has come to.

Day 12 (Nov 5) - A day in bed

Well, after arriving at the Pyramid fighting off some kind of bug, and then not really feeling great yesterday and again this morning, I've been instructed to spend the day in bed under the covers. I can't really complain - I am tired and it is cold, so in bed under the covers is not a bad place to be!  Plus I have no instrument to work on, as you know, so I will take a day of rest.  It is Saturday after all!  Now if only I weren't so many hours ahead of the Eastern time zone, I could at least watch some football!!  Unfortunately the Michigan game isn't on until 9:45pm for me :(  Anyways, I got moved to a smaller room this morning which is much smaller and is also in the middle of the hallway instead of the end where I was before, so I think I should be warmer here.  I finally unpacked my things (since we're here for 10 more days) and am feeling like I have more of my own cozy space.  So for now, I am under some warm blankets, drinking a thermos of lemon tea, listening to some Avett Brothers on my iTunes, and attempting to review an article that I agreed to do by the end of the month (which I actually have time to do now while I wait for our stuff to arrive).  Not a bad way to spend a Saturday I suppose, just not how I planned to spend it :) 

For now, I will leave you with some of the other interesting/entertaining photos that I have taken so far during my travels (I recommend clicking on the photos to see them in a larger version).  Enjoy!

Mural on a wall in Kathmandu in which every panel was about washing your hands with soap and water, basically emphasizing good hygiene.

Flowers for sale at a market in Kathmandu for the festival we witnessed at the end of October.

Outside the first stupa we visited in Kathmandu, there were monkeys everywhere!  We were told to watch out for them, because they can be "bastards".

Everest beer - special edition dedicated to a famous sherpa.

As we approached the Lukla airstrip, everyone started taking photos of our landing.  I think I am glad I could not see anything.

 Rubbish Bean? English translations entertain me.

Horse can be found here... but to ride, not to eat.  I just felt I should clarify.

Gianpietro trying to talk to a young Nepalese girl on the trail, asking her how old she was and what grade she was in at school.  This guy will talk to anyone, I swear.

Women doing laundry in Namche Bazar.

Yakkity Yak.  Actually this might be a zopchuk (I'm sure my spelling is completely wrong on that) which is an animal that looks very much like a yak.

This is one of my favorite photos I have taken so far.  This is Alberto, one of the technicians who hiked to the Pyramid with us.  This photo gives a bit of perspective on the mountains we have seen.  Incredible.

Here I am crossing one of the many bridges we encountered during our hikes.  These bridges have a tendency to sway as more people (and pack animals) step on to them!  For Halloween I elected to go as Little Red Riding Hood (read: NOT an Ohio State fan).

mmmmmmm Milk Tea

A sign for one of the primary schools up in the Khumbu Valley (where we are).  School doesn't start before 10am because most of the kids have to walk quite a distance to get there.

Why we still don't have our instrument, and may not have it for days...

I suppose I am glad to be hanging out at the Pyramid instead of stranded down in Lukla or some other town, waiting to return to Kathmandu (see the BBC link below).  Things do not look good for the arrival of our instrument anytime soon.  Tuesday (8-Nov) looks like the next best day for weather, which means the earliest our things could arrive is Thursday (10-Nov). We are scheduled to leave the Pyramid on 15-Nov.  We will see how this plays out...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15589982

Day 11 (Nov 4): First day at the Pyramid

I woke up this morning feeling a little bit better.  I slept pretty well, and my appetite was more or less back (at least more so than yesterday or the day before).  I did have a headache this morning, but that has since passed.  Mostly I now feel like I’m just fighting a cold, and I do not have a ton of energy.  I think in another day or two I should be back to normal.  For better or worse, we don’t have much work to do here without our instrument.  We did go up to the top floor of the Pyramid (where we will temporarily install our instrument when it arrives – in the spring we hope to move it to a nearby shelter on the top of a hill where we can sample air that is less influenced by the valley surrounding the Pyramid) and start thinking about how and where we would set it up. I can definitely feel the altitude here – when I got up to the top floor of the Pyramid I was pretty much out of breath! I am fortunate that the two technicians here with me are very competent and experienced, so once we have some work to do together I think it will go well.  Once we did about as much as we could do with nothing but a box of spare parts and no instrument to use them with, we took a short walk outside to get some fresh (albeit cold and windy) air.  I took a couple photos of the Pyramid before the clouds roll in this afternoon.  We hope our instrument will arrive in a few days, but we do not know yet if there are any flights going from Kathmandu to Lukla today.  The forecast does not look great for the next couple days, but the flights (when they go) go early in the morning so we will see.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Days 8-10 (Nov 1-3): Deboche to Dingboche, Dingboche to Thukla, Thukla to La Pyramide

I waited a couple days to write, so I’ll do my best to remember the events of the last few days.  On Nov 1 we walked from Deboche to Dingboche.  We started the morning by visiting a nearby Buddhist female monastery, and that was pretty interesting.  The walk to Dingboche was nice, but we definitely went up in altitude, climbing to about 4300 meters.  By the time we reached the lodge, I had a pretty wicked headache.  I assume it was due to the altitude.  We had hot tea and eventually dinner, and then went to sleep.

When I woke up on Nov 2, my headache was still lingering a bit but it was not nearly as bad.  I talked with Gianpietro and we agreed it was fine for me to move forward.  That morning, we made a very slow ascent to the small village of Thukla.  The views along the way were really spectacular and humbling.  The Himalayas are really incredible.  You can tell from the photo below, I felt pretty good that morning :)

In Thukla we had lunch and in the early afternoon we began our ascent from 4600 meters to the Pyramid monitoring station at about 5,050 meters.  Unfortunately, during the initial part of the ascent my headache came back as well as a bit of a stomachache.  I consulted with our trekking guide, and he spoke to Gianpietro (who was in Thukla at the time) by walkie-talkie and we agreed I should descend back to Thukla to rest and make a slower adjustment to the altitude.  This was an option Gianpietro and I had discussed earlier in the day, should my headache resume.  I was disappointed to leave my group but I knew it was the right thing to do, so I descended with our trekking guide.  My colleagues were very kind at that moment, handing over various articles of warm clothing to get me through the afternoon and evening.  I ended up staying the night in Thukla and Gianpietro stayed there with me. I did not feel great during the afternoon and evening due to my head and stomachaches, but Gianpietro took good care of me and by the morning I was feeling better. 

We took a slow morning, hanging out at the lodge for a few hours, and around 11am we started a verrrrrry slow ascent to the Pyramid.  Gianpietro was constantly asking me how I was doing, and thankfully my headache did not return; however, I am inclined to subtitle this portion of my post "Climbing 400 meters while fighting the flu".  We arrived at the Pyramid around 4pm, and all of my colleagues greeted us with open arms.  I am happy to be here now and will be heading to dinner shortly.  I plan to rest for a couple days (given that we are still waiting for our instrument to arrive from Kathmandu) and I think that will be very nice.  I have free wifi here, so hopefully I can connect with some of you by Skype or email more often now!

Day 7 (Oct 31) – Namche Bazaar to Deboche

This morning we started off from the hotel around 8:30 or 9am.  We first had to climb about 100 meters and then we had a nice reasonably flat stretch for a while.  A couple hours down the trail we stopped for a cup of hot tea in a small village where there were several vendors out selling the usual things.  Several people continued to stock up on gifts and trinkets.  We then unfortunately had to descend from 3600 meters down to 3300 meters, at which point we stopped for lunch.  Around lunch time the weather turned a bit and it was pretty cold and cloudy.  After a nice warm lunch we had to set out to climb from 3300 meters up to 3900 meters.  It was a somewhat difficult ascent, but we went slow and made it up without problem.  At the top was a beautiful monastery but it was very cloudy so it was hard to get a nice view.  We went inside for a few minutes and got to see the Buddhist monks meditating.  The clouds also made it hard for us to get many nice views during the afternoon portion of our hike, when we likely would have had a great view of the mountains.  After the monastery we descended a short way to our stop for the night in Deboche.  It is a small town (if you can call it that) with a few buildings and a lodge where we will stay tonight.  We have already had one cup of hot tea and are on to our second.  It tastes so good on a cold evening.  Overall it was a good day, but we are all tired from hiking.  Hopefully tonight will bring sleep for me, because tomorrow we will climb above 4000 meters, and the day after to the Pyramid at 5000 meters.