EBC Day 4: A Rare Sighting...

We’re getting faster at packing up and actually arrived at breakfast at 7:00 a.m. with our day packs, containing snacks, water and waterproofs, ready to go. For the first time we saw our porters setting off with our bags and managed to take a few photos of them.

As you see, they strapped the two duffels together and then carried them via a strap across their heads.

These “trekking porters” were hired for the duration of our trek and were paid by the job.  

Unlike Ishor and Chandra, they did not stay with us in our teahouses, but stayed with other porters elsewhere.

It seems that many Westerners have been misusing the word Sherpa as it is actually the last name for an ethnic group native to the eastern Himalayas. Not all Sherpas are porters or mountain guides nor are all porters or mountain guides Sherpas. Ishor is not a Sherpa, but he worked first as a trekking porter until his English was good enough for him to become a mountain guide. He carried his own bag which wasn’t much heavier than our day packs.