News from Clara and Martin - Nepal, Oct 15th, 2005

Namaste!!! (how funny it is to come to Nepal and hear everybody saying namaste as a way to greet each other. You get confused thinking they are all your yoga buddies) This is just a short email to say we are well, healthy and happy here in Nepal. We have just finished our Trek in the Annapurna region and we are back at Pokhara. Thank to our many careful measures with water and food, which inclued Purell, iodine purified water for drinking and brushing the teeth and no raw salads or fruits, we did not get sick and we can say we enjoyed the food. These guys eat the same thing everyday (dhal bat, rice and a watery lentil soup) and they think we are weird, going crazy after variations everyday. We did reasonably well on the trek, it was 10 days, 8 of them actually walking. We rested for one day and cut the program short 2 cities. We were exhausted and not really keen on getting anywhere. Every single part of our body screamed for a bed. On average we were walking 8 hours a day and while going all the way up was intense, going down killed our knees. Some days had more than 5000 steps. The trek is awesome and we have much to tell you. The small villages, the people, the landscape, everything just blows your mind. Not always conforting, but invariably enlightening. Tomorrow we have a nice 7 hour bus ride to Kathmandu. If we are lucky, the driver will put the same tape, in which a lady sings incessantly Banmakadachha. Then in a couple of days we'll go to India. Ok, now we have to go get our clothes in the washing places. We'll write more soon! With Love, Clara and Martin