Day 4 — Namche Bazar to Tengboche

6.1 miles
2,837 feet

Today we left Namche Bazar and headed further up the valley for Tengboche.  Tengboche is well known for having a Buddhist monastery and when we were originally planning on this trip we had considered ending our trek here.  But once we realized that Everest Base Camp was only 3 days further we decided that we would try and make it the whole way.  Not being certain that everyone in the family would be able to make it — it is a pretty grueling multi-day trek that ends up at above 18,000 feet — we decided to hire two guides which would allow us to split up if necessary.  Our guides, Rabi and Pasang have been great.  They set a great pace, stop frequently for breaks and have been great with the kids.  Since yesterday both Grace and Cannon felt the altitude, today our guides were always checking in with them to make sure they were ok.  Happily, the acclimatization appears to be working and we all had a great day today — even after the 2000 ft climb in the final 2 miles.

On the way to Tengboche

Water-operated prayer wheel

The gates to the Monestary

The monastery complex

 

After arriving and checking into the Everest View Hotel, we walked over the monastery where we watched a Buddhist prayer ceremony.  The monastery is one of the most important in Nepal (Nepal as a whole is only about 10% Buddhist, but in the Khumbu region where we are it is about 90% Buddhist).  Normally there are 10-15 monks that live here but at the ceremony we saw there were only two who chanted prayers for about 15 minutes.