EBC Day 2: Arriving in Namche Bazaar...

During our final tough two-hour nearly all uphill push to our next destination, we passed into Sagarmatha National Park—Sagarmatha is the Nepali word for Everest, meaning Goddess of the Sky—an UNESCO World Heritage Site and the gateway to the high Himalayas.

We reached Namche Bazaar, the largest village of our trek, at 4 p.m. 

The crescent-shaped village of approximately 1,650 residents (as of the 2001 census) was traditionally a trading post, but everything changed after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa’s successful climb up Everest in 1953 with so many trekkers attempting to follow in their footsteps.

It is the largest Nepali village of Sherpas (a major ethnic group native to the Himalayas).

It is also very colorful with giant water-driven prayer wheels, lots of teahouses and shops, a bakery and several bars. I often joked that we were on a High Altitude Detox Program. We all were avoiding alcohol as it can contribute to altitude sickness and meat due to the lack of refrigeration on the mountain. After seeing a disturbing headline on BBC about Trump, I decided to add reading news to my list of detox items. The paid WiFi wasn’t great, but it was good enough for me to be able to chat with Jimmy and Ashlynn that evening.

Sherpa Village, where we would be spending two nights in an effort to better acclimatize to the high altitude, had a lovely dining room, but the rooms were ridiculously tiny and it was a struggle to fit in all our gear. Unfortunately, Terri felt very sick upon arrival with a headache and nausea, hence the bucket in case she needed it. Thankfully, she was fully recovered by morning, which was a huge relief.