Date: 2018-10-29
To: View Entry
Miles today: 6.0
Weather: light rain

Scout: I woke up thinking of a Japanese fad. I¢d had the best night¢s sleep in two weeks. It¢s amazing what more oxygen and humidity will do. What I woke up thinking about was ¢oxygen bars.¢ In Japan, establishments sprang up like so many Starbucks, dispensing concentrated, scented oxygen to patrons. If I opened an oxygen and humidity bar up here, it would be just Iike printing money.We are unwinding our path. These last two days we retrace the steps of our younger, more innocent selves. If we¢d had any idea what it would be like to have a severe cold at 17,000 feet, how Cho La Pass would test us, would we have had the same cheery smiles?I remember that waterfall, that grossly mis-spelled sign in English. It is a relatively easy four-hour hike. When we get to our lodge a series of luxuries unfolds. Electric outlets are in our rooms, not 500 rupees an hour for one plug. But the best was the shower. Showers for nearly three weeks have been ordeals holding out the promise of being clean at the end, but meanwhile the hot water is just a bit more than a trifle, the ambient air temperature is lower than the refrigerator in your home kitchen, 38 degrees. You shiver, shaking and then don your semi-clean long underwear, down puffy jacket and finally you are clean and warm-ish. One shower consisted of a three-gallon bucket of warm water sold to you for 500 rupees. Today the shower was in our own room bathroom, the flow was fine and it was hot. Aaaaahhhhh.Quacky, the rubber ducky, is ready to be home with the princesses again.   Frodo: I think both Scout and I are ready to be home as well. A few more days...Yesterday as we hit the outskirts of Namche, hiking into it from up above, there was a rock wall outside a small eating establishment with some loaded carrying baskets on it. Jomba slowed and looked quizzically at the baskets, when two of our kitchen boys ran out of the eating establishment, slipped the carrying baskets on their backs and the broad strap over their foreheads and took off running and giggling as Pemba and Jomba hollered after them and Lisa East and I called out, ¢busted!¢ It was good to see the shy kitchen boys (who are about 16 and very cute) having a bit of fun. Most of the time they work very hard. They are not Sherpas; they are from the Rai (sp?) people below Lukla. They work up here for the trekking season and will go back to school once our trip is over.For this section between Namche and Lukla we will use porters to carry all our gear, rather than yaks. There are hybrids between cows and yaks that are used for transport at these lower elevations and that have a really unusual name, that I can¢t remember and I can¢t look up right now because the internet is not working here at the lodge. It¢s a bit hard to see the porters carrying such heavy loads. Most of them are not Sherpas, according to Pemba. They come from the foothills area up here to work. The people who live and work up here have a tough life. They have no roads nor vehicles; they often have to walk long distances to purchase goods and then carry them home those long distances. They have to wash, rinse, and wring all their laundry by hand, which takes a lot of time. They deal with extreme weather on a regular basis. They can't just turn up the thermostat in their home, they have to spend time in the summer and fall collecting yak dung, patting it flat to dry, and then storing it to burn during the cold months. So much of their time is spent working. I really admire them, but I¢m glad my life is so much easier.So I still have a bad cold and some bangs and scrapes from falling (mostly back onto my tush as I head downhill and little stones underfoot act like ball bearings). But what I haven¢t had cause to complain about are MY FEET. Ever since hiking the PCT 11 years ago, I have had issues with my feet. Last spring I learned that one of the pains in my left foot is due to a partially torn ligament that has never healed properly and never will. The pain could get pretty awful and I worried that it would be trek-threatening. I saw a chiropractor who specializes in feet, outside Denver, and she gave me exercises that helped but, more importantly, she recommended Altra superior shoes. They¢ve helped a lot. I can¢t walk around barefoot or in my down booties, but as long as my feet are in those shoes, I¢m fine. Yay! Except that just today I developed blisters under two of the toenails on my left foot; you know, the kind where the blister lifts up the toenail and it turns black. (Or maybe you don't know?)