Altitude Begins to Cause Us Trouble

The weekly market at Namche Bazar

We felt strong and cruised quickly up the rather steep trail to Namche Bazar, a legendary mountain town full of trekkers and outfitting shops, similar to the Thamel district in Kathmandu.  It’s the last chance to pick up trekking or mountaineering gear before heading deep into the mountains.  It’s also one of the few places outside of Kathmandu to find good coffee, pastries, real pizza, etc.  At 11,283 feet, however, it’s the first place that one of us has encountered altitude sickness.  Eydie has had a headache since arriving in Namche two nights ago, so today we had a short day of trekking and have stopped in Phunki Tanga (that we renamed Funky Town) because it is in a valley bottom.  We hope that by sleeping here at a lower elevation than Namche we will give Eydie a better chance of acclimatizing and feeling good again.