Day 133: Churi Letdar (Annapurna Circuit) – October 28th

Seems like after the past three days, we’ve regained our strength and our muscles are adapted to the up and down trekking now. The ascents are not as painful and the descents are easier on the knees. Only problem are the blisters that start to creep up.

To treat ourselves, we had a massive breakfast before heading out, and after taking an extremely quick lunch we were afraid that we’d have no place to stay, so we didn’t sit down to relax much longer. Not really wanting anymore Dal Bhaat or curry, I ventured to try some local Manang-style dishes. Ordering a Thugkpa, which is a local noodle dish, I was pretty surprised when it arrived. In front of me was a bowl of soup with spaghetti and carrot shavings. Okay? So spaghetti is a local cuisine of Manang….. We also had a cup of Seabuckthorn juice, served hot. A plant from local regions, it is made in house and tastes some what like a peach/pineapple juice, but served hot? By 1:30pm we were already at our destination of Churi Letdar, and without much pain despite having to ascend and descend and then ascend again…. Jiajia hasn’t been sleeping well so we didn’t push the day any longer and settled down into the sun room of the hotel.

We bumped into a group of 3 Canadians (Ryan, Sarah and Sandy) and reconnected with the Chinese girl we met before, this time with a new solo trekker. The day was early, but we sat underneath the warm glow of the sun and had two beers! The rest of the afternoon was spent chatting with the Canadians and the Chinese people. The Canadians, looking like the athletic outdoor-sy type, were really nice people. Two were from BC, one working as a hydrologist, and one as an environmental consultant. The third guy was in marketing and like us, quit his job to travel. And it was also Ryan’s 30^th birthday on the 30^th after crossing the pass, and he invited us to ‘pound some beers’ (sic) with him down past Muktinath. Haha, fun.

After dinner at 7pm, and brushing/washing our faces in the kitchen (all of the water pipes have frozen by now), we huddled up to our rooms to sleep, but it was sooooo cold! With our awesome FF bags mated together, and a blanket over it was enough for me and I was sound asleep quickly, but Jiajia being the restless+cold sleeper had trouble the whole night. In the end pretty much we were both sleeping in a single bag to stay warm…

One more night in high-altitude before heading over the Thorung-La Pass and back into warmer places!