we opted for a 6 day trek because we only got a 2 week visa and annette wanted to do a 4 day kayaking trip. i decided to do a 4 day mountain biking trip, but that didn't pan out since most of the organized biking trips leave from kathmandu, which is 6 hours away. the trek was magnificent and a lot of hard work, but totally worth it.
the first day i struggled, seeing as how i made bad choices the night before. i realy need to learn how to say no when someone says, "just one more". needless to say, the next day was rough. i threw up on 2 separate occasions. the first time my dinner from the night before and the 2nd time the 2 liters of water that i had been drinking to quell my aching head. i really didn't think that i would be able to hike that day. we even had to stop for about 45 minutes so i could take a nap. the nap did the trick and we were able to make it to the first tea house where we were sleeping for the night at around 4 pm. i was promptly asleep by 5 and did not get out of bed until the next morning. there was a gnarly thunder and lightning storm that went on all night. i was terrified and titillated all at the same time.
while i was sleeping annette got to talking to some british kids who were just finishing their trek and decided that instead of doing the circuit we had planned to do, we should instead hike up to annapurna base camp, which takes most people 10 days to do. i was against this, considering that it didn't really seem we would have enough time, we didn't have warm clothes or sleeping bags, and i hate the cold and we would be hiking up to 12,800 snowy feet. but, despite my better judgment, i agreed to go. looking at the prodigious mountain that is annapurna was quite humbling. not too many people actually go on expeditions to summit annapurna (which has an elevation of 26, 545 feet and is the 10th highest mountain in the world). for every 2 people who summit, one person dies. actually a couple of days before we got to base camp a ukranian guy was up a bit on the mountain and slipped on a sheet of ice to his death. so seeing this herculean mountain was not only humbling, but a bit harrowing.
the good thing was that i was feeling remarkably better ater 14 hours of sleep and the toxins being out of my system. but day 2 was long, becausewe had to go further than we had planned in order to get to base camp in enough time to descend. the thing about this hike is that you are constantly going up, up, up (obviously. we are climbing a mountain) and it is exhausting. also it is not a gradual uphill. we had to climb at an almost 90 degree angle up all these uneven stairs. i did love the challenge, but at around 2 pm, i hit my wall and had to stop for food. eating lots of carbs was a good motivator though and after lunch, i instantly felt better.

here are some of the stairs that we had to clamber up
the trek was magnificent and really cathartic. i hadn't realized how much i had missed being out in nature after so much time being a city dweller, with no real escape (especially in india). the only bad thing, besides the little bit of snow walking and the shivering cold at one of the camps, was that annette got sick on the way down and seemed pretty miserable. we think it may have been food poisoning. trekking up and down all those stairs with an unstable body is no picnic. but annette was a trooper and managed to get through the entire trek (and was well enough to do her kayaking clinic!).

annette and me after making it to annapurna base camp. i really am awed by the people who actually summit annapurna. they are either the bravest or craziest people ever.


here are some pictures of the annapurnas. there is annapurna 1 and annapurna south, i am not sure which one is in the pictures, but the scenery is glorious.

as you are trekking, you encounter many different people who live in the mountains. i loved meeting the children, even though they were always disappointed that i did not have any candy or gum to offer them.

this is what the little villages that we slept in looked like. most of them were pretty small. they are cut off from roads so porters (who are men who carry up to 80pounds of goods on their backs) carry in all the supplies they need. seeing these men walk up to 20 miles a day with all this weight on their backs made me feel like a real weakling and also reminded me how amazing people are.

children would have to walk anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours each way to get to school, depending on what village they lived in. their tenacity was moving and inspiring.

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