On top of the wooooooorld!

No Need for a map cuz we’re still on the Annapurna Circuit…

Dhal Baht

Every day we would wake up around 5:30 AM, have breakfast and leave around 7 AM and hike for 5-6 hours total. We would always take a break for some snacks and tea every 2 hours of walking and any time we thought it was worth to appreciate the views. One of the nicest things about trekking in Nepal is that there are small villages every 2-3 hours and we can stop at any time for some rest.

A Retreating Glacier On Top of the Mountain

Different from the Patagonia where there was great water to drink from the rivers, here in Nepal one would only do this if the desire is to be in the toilet for days. The solution was to buy bottles of water in the little shops, or be more green and treat your own water from streams or untreated tap water, or fill up our canteen with clean water that was available in some towns. Food was very good, but sometimes not enough. Walking up hills with 20 lb backpacks for 6 hours a day burns a lot of calories and at the very end we were VERY HUNGRY. The solution was to ask for their food staple called Dhal Bhat which is basically rice, lentil soup, vegetable curry and pickles and you could ask for a second helping free of charge. We were vegetarian for almost the full duration of the trip and no alcoholic drinks either. WOW!!!! Big change for us!

A Lama -He Blessed Us With Good Luck

This Pic Almost Looks Fake

The places we stayed were very different and we were looking for 3 main things: 1. Clean bathrooms; 2. Good mattresses and 3. Friendly hosts. Sometimes we had to go over several places to fulfill all our basic requirements, but often we succeeded. Communication with people was not always very easy, but some people, already used to so many tourists, could speak some english.

GangaPurna Mountain

Funny enough we saw some statistics at the Annapurna Conservation Park and of the almost 20,000 tourists who visited the area in 2010, the largest amount of tourists came from France, followed by Israel, UK, USA and Australia followed closely and only 33 Brazilians came to Annapurna that year. So if the statistics are the same I am in the 0.165% minority of tourists who came in over the past year. What is going on with you Brazilians!!!!! I know we prefer Miami, New York and Paris.

Landslides??????

An Altitude Map of the Small Cities Along the Annapurna Circuit

To go from 2,952 feet altitude to the top at 17,769 feet we had to deal with an invisible problem. People have died at the pass before because of altitude sickness and to avoid this we had to take a day of rest in a town at around 11,482 feet. But because, almost everyone does this as well, it was cool to rest a day in Manang, where there was even a “movie theater”.

Friends On Top Of The World

The “theater” was a basement of a house with benches covered with yak leather. It was very rustic,but really cool.  We watched Seven Years in Tibet and they even gave us tea and pop corn for all of us. After 9,842 feet one can feel very clearly the difference of walking into thin air. It is just ridiculous to give ten steps going up and feeling completely exhausted, but hey, it was more time to contemplate the surroundings, :-). Also in Manang we decided to visit a place call Prakesh Gompa where this Lama who is 96 years old lives, he gives you a necklace and a bless you before you go the pass. It is a very isolated place 500 m high above Manang, but the views of the city and the mountains in front of you are outstanding.

Walking Up The Final Stretch

WE MADE IT!!!!

My birthday was just the most unusual over the past 37 years, but really fun because of the accomplishment. As we got in Thorong La there were a lot of people we met the day before in the hotel. We took pictures, I had brought a very small bottle of whisky and spent about 1 hour resting on the top. In front of us there were 4 hours going down a full mile. It was EXHAUSTING and our knees were ready to explode.

On the Way Down FINALLY!!!

But we were back in civilization in this temple/city called Muktinah where hindu pilgrims come for over 3,000 years from places as far as India to pray and wash in one of the 108 fountains of the temple. For us was time to celebrate my birthday and it was a fun night with people I never met before from Russia to Switzerland, a German who lives in Brazil for 27 years and of course Nepalis.

On Top Of the Local Temple

The Bells at Multikitnath, A Hindu Holy Site

The last 2 days we hiked with a really nice couple we met from England (Laura and Piers) and stayed one night in the cutest town in the whole circuit. In Kagbeni we felt like we were in a medieval walled city with a stunning buddhist monastery and a very curious statue in the middle of town. After 11 days we finally took a bus on a HORRIBLE/DANGEROUS/CROWDED bus trip for 10 hours until we reached Pokhara.

The Monastery in Kagbeni

Freezing on the Trail

So, how is the overall experience? Well it is just unforgettable! Definitely very hard days when we had to climb up 700 m in a day, but so rewarding to see so many beautiful views and the changes in vegetation and people throughout the hike. The best and one of the most difficult days was the cross from Upper Pisang to Manang where we could see several snow-covered mountains around us, pine trees underneath and so many waterfalls leading down to the river. The suspended bridges were sometimes scary but a special moment at each crossing. And finally the marijuana that grows like weed everywhere we went. Sometimes it looked like a plantation, but it was just nature doing its job in the middle of the road.

Unshaven Yet FINISHED!!!!

The mountains we saw topping out at 19,685 to 26,246 feet made the mountains we saw during our experience in Patagonia seem small in comparison. Maybe we will be just like so many other tourists we’ve met who have already come to Nepal to trek multiple times.

Native curious plants on the trail

Check out our remaining pics of Annapurna Circuit.

Up next are our impressions of Nepal.