The Road Less Traveled: 25 pounds of granola on our back

Someone...as in Liz...had a great idea to save us money (shes always been awesome for that). Instead of buying lunch while trekking we could just pack 2 granola bars for each day. Worst case scenario, we would be on the trail for 30 days...30 x 2 = 60 granola bars = im guessing what, 25 extra pounds??? oh, and then there was the cans of tuna for a treat, and the crackers, and the snickers bars, oh my, this is getting excessive...
yay for giant, heavy, packs on our backs!

Most people fly into a town called Lukla to begin their hike to Everest Base Camp, but we started a week (by foot) earlier in the town of Shivalaya. Our first week we hardly saw another foreigner, it was filled with long, hot days and it certainly was a "shock to my system"...one of the days gaining a lovely 5,000 feet just run down the other side to the river again, but looking back, it was good training for what was to come...

Apparently most people don't find their own way around, it was rare to see a trekker without a guide of some kind, and I'm actually not sure if I could recall seeing anyone else packing their own bags, they hire porters for that. And guess what? We had neither...

George!

To Mom: Yes, I actually packed your "heavy" paper envelope up all those hills, it was funny to have my 21st in a country where it really doesn't matter hehe

Baby goats were in season, hehe. So cute!

The porters carrying needed items to the villages...I don't envy their job

Sitting around the fire of one of my favorite tea houses before dinner

Even the donkeys get to dress up

Still, I don't understand what made my pack THAT big...

Most trekkers buy bottles of water along the trail (which would get extremely expensive and is anything but environmentally friendly!) The locals would be enthralled watching us pump liter after liter of water in to our handy Nalgenes, and the kids couldn't resist helping