We took a little stroll up the hill, up to Thyangboche, above us, that is Namche, and on to the fair city of Kunde, it's about 1200 feet, or for the rest of the world, it's about, I think it works out to about 400 meters above the city of Namche. And we looked around, spun some prayer wheels up there, went past the hospital and walked through the potato fields that they're planting.
This time of the year, the snow is just melted off; we saw just a little bit in the shadows. But for this time of year, they're pulling the potatoes out of the ground, out of their root cellars and they're warming them up in the spring sunshine and replanting them about a foot underneath with a hoe, in a very age-old, traditional, medieval style that's quite fun to watch.
After Kunde, we strolled on down to the village of Kumjung which is where the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation has provided a school for the Sherpas that live in this region. It's quite highly successful and many of the Sherpas today were educated in that school over that last 40 years. It's a quite successful project.
Then later, we dropped to the east and went down a long ravine, took a side trail after many yaks passed us, and were able to see some Himalayan pheasants. They're quite interesting, the male is almost as striking as a peacock. Then we returned to the fair city of Namche.
Most everybody in the group is feeling much better now that we've been here for several days. Their acclimatization levels are much improved and they're saying they're raring to go; really looking forward to going up the hill.
Tomorrow we're planning on one more acclimatization hike, to the fair city of Thame, which is just to the west of Namche. It will be an all-day hike and hopefully afterwards everybody will give the high sign, the thumb's up, and the following day we'll be off to Tengboche.
We're all missing our loved ones of course and we know we're in your thoughts and prayers and, likewise, you're in ours. That's all for now from Namche Bazaar, Nepal.
— Vern Tejas, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent
