What an eventful day!  

After breakfast at the Panorama Lodge we were treated to katas and good wishes from the proprietor, Sharip, and his family.  We each took turns sipping homemade chang, the local brew, while Sharip tied a silk kata around our necks and wished us safe passage on Mt. Everest.

Kata ceremony
Photo:  Lisa White

Next our bags were loaded onto dzos,the half-cow half-yak animals that are used to carry loads at lower elevations in the Himalaya.  

Dzo waiting for a load
Photo:  Lisa White

At 9am we hit the trail, headed for the village of Tengboche. We gradually gained and lost elevation multiple times, following the Dudh Koshi river.  We spent most of the day on dusty, rocky, forested trails, shaded by pine trees and giant pink rhododendron.   Ama Dablam, Everest, and Lhotse greeted us when the trail meandered out of the forest.  

Views of Everest, Lhotse, and Ama Dablam
Photo:  Stuart Erskine

After several hours and a final steep push, we arrived at the Tengboche monastery and waited until 4 pm to view the lama’s daily prayer.  A giant Buddha overlooked the room, and we crowded onto the wooden floor as the lamas each sat at their assigned spot on raised benches.  They each put on a thick russet-colored robes before sitting cross-legged on their benches.  After burning juniper, in unison, they chanted as they turned the pages fragile pages of their prayer books.  It was a very moving experience.

Monk at Tengboche monastery
Photo:  Jim Lumberg

We ended the day in Deboche and are now about half way on our forty-mile trek from Lukla to Base camp and each day Mt. Everest looks just a little bit closer :)