Now that I've officially convinced you that I've been going nonstop for almost 2 months, Ive decided to dedicate this free hour to easing your curiosity with the very short version of the majority of the trip. You'll just have to hang out with me/buy me lunch when I get back to hear the rest of the story :D
I left off in the village of Machemo, from there we trekked to Gokyo right below the 17,000ft peak of Gokyo Ri. Gokyo sits on a gorgeous lake which I walked around during my free time. I met a group of Canadians and played cards/ate/discussed the fate of the Indian family we heard about getting stranded on a glacier the other night. Next morning I got up around 4am, super clear skies, head lamp and oreos in hand to head to the summit of Gokyo Ri. All uphill, bald summit and about 2000ft of straight elevation gain in just over 2 hours. The view was unbelievable-the Gokyo lakes, a string of 8,000 meter peaks, the sunrise and the second biggest glacier in the world which we hiked to the day before. 2 guys had carried their guitars up and were playing some soft tunes to complete the spirit of early morning in the Himalayas
Next day we conquered Renjo Pass, just slightly higher and much more snowy the pass loomed over Gokyo village and separated my path into the mountains from the way back out. Again, my aight addiction to hiking and exercise took me 17 total miles back to Namche where I returned to Hamalayan Java coffee for an Americano and the liquid bar to watch Everest documentaries with hot chocolate and ginger tea
We ended up returning to Lukla (final village and airport) a few days early so I celebrated by playing more cards and walking into random bars alone. I found a group of Australians who did helicopter rescue missions on Everest which was super cool and got a few free drinks and stories. The weather had been really bad lately so we weren't sure if we would get out of Lukla, but the 5 hour delay ended up working in our favor and we flew back to Kathmandu just below the cloud line and with just enough bumps to question whether we would make it back.
on the way down I had met Justin who invited me to drinks the night we got back with some other friends and then head to the town of Pokhara that Monday so the fun never stops. Had a great time with Justin and another girl Huxley and Buddha Bar before sprinting theough the empty Kathmandu streets at 2am with just enough time to get a couple hours of sleep and book my bus to Pokhara at 7am. like I said, nonstop, no resting allowed, all out, do everything and anything everywhere all the time. That's the only plan I had.
