Annapurnas Day 3: The Fourth Member

Early in the morning of day 3 we had our first encounter with the snow. For now it was only a decorative hat topping the neighbouring mountains. During breakfast Bodo, Benny and me joked about what would go first, us to the snow or the snow to us. Soon we'd find out!

In our way to Manang (first leg of the circuit) we discovered that Basques, Quebecois, or Vlaams don't hold the exclusivity of regional independentism, apparently Nepal is also a nest of unhappy brothers. Religion followed politics in the form of a Gompa that popped aside the trek. I'll never stop feeling surprised to see how delicate and beautiful things can be done when someone truly believes. After collecting a little bit of good karma by spinning some holy cylinders (sorry Buddha, I forgot the name, I hope you can forgive me for that), we continued our trip.

As in a fairy tale, the flowers foregrounded the snowy peaks in our busy cameras. And then -all of a sudden- it happened, we met the fourth man, The Unexpected! The Fourth Member of the team was no other but the 100% Nepali wood stick that I adopted as my most loyal climbing companion. It took a while but once properly shaped it would become the third (what the heck! the fourth!) leg that would propel me to the top of the world.

With my mind still busy making up bad jokes about the fourth member, the team arrived to Chame. In Chame (2710 m) we realized that it was Holy Day for the Hindus. A furious battle of red paint had taken the streets of this charming village and Benny was on-targeted by one local contender. By the way, if you check the pictures don't miss the little boy that we meanly named the 'Fucked-up kid' (I'm sorry, I know it's extremely rude but it just suited his look after the war of paint).

Also in Chame we finally met The Others (I mean, the other trekkers). Just like in Lost, we had heard them, we had noticed their footprints, but we had never seen any of them. In contrast with Lost's The Others, these ones were very friendly and peaceful. It was great fun to share our thoughts about the day with other people while we enjoyed a warm cup of tea. And God knows that we needed that cup of tea because as it turned out that was the only warm thing that we would feel that freezing night in Chame!

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El tercer dia por fin vimos la nieve. De momento solo en la cima de las montañas colindantes pero pronto bajaria a recibirnos. Un buen desayuno y nos lanzamos al camino. En el mismo descubrimos que los nacionalismos no son cosa agena en Nepal, al parecer aqui los hermanos tambien se tiran piedras de vez en cuando. Tras la politica llego la religion, y con ella los templos o Gompas y los cilindros metalicos que uno hace girar para recolectar buen karma (como si de un videojuego se tratase). Tras la religion llego la primavera, con sus flores dando color al blanco de las montañas, y tras ellas, a la vuelta de la esquina, conocimos a nuestro cuatro compañero de viaje. Y este no seria otro que el palo o makila que le robe al bosque local. Como buen (ejem, ejem) montañero patatero no podia dejar pasar la oportunidad de agregar una tercera (que narices, cuarta! que hay confianza) pierna al equipo, la cual me propulsaria a la cima de las montañas nepalis.

Y asi con unas cosas y otras llegamos a chame (2710 m). Este precioso pueblo de montaña estaba siendo escenario de cruentos combates de guerra, noooo, no os procupeis, se trataba de una guerra de pintura roja para celebrar una fiesta religiosa hindu. En las fotos podeis ver que tanto Benny fue objetivo facil de los niños locales. Finalmente, de vuelta al albergue por fin encontramos otros senderistas. Durante los primeros dias no habiamos coincidido con muchos, pero en Chame tuvimos la oportunidad de compartir estufa y te con algunos de ellos. Noche fria en Chame, maldita la hora en la que elegimos aquel bungalow!