Rice fields and Elephants!

This week has been an adventure! I started off the week staying with a local family in the village of Lamatar. They have a small house in a little village amongst rice fields and mountains. It was really beautiful there! The man who was hosting me made a living farming giant white mushrooms. He took me on a hike of a nearby mountain, where there was a small isolated village with a school at the top. His wife taught me how to cook Nepalese Dhaal Bhaat! I slept in a barn that had been converted into a bedroom, which was fine, but now my sleeping bag still smells like barn!

Later in the week, I went to Chitwan National Park in the Southern end of Nepal. The temperature is much warmer there and there are a lot more bugs! The Park is a jungle with many wild and captive animals. We went on a jungle walk, but mostly saw deer and monkeys. We saw rhino tracks, but no rhinos! :(  We got to ride on the back of elephants through the jungle, and we went on a canoe ride and saw crocodiles! We also went to an elephant breeding centre and saw baby elephants, SO adorable!

Tomorrow morning I fly to Lukla in the Himalayan region of Nepal.  From here I will begin my ascent of Everest. The entire trek will take 14 days and we plan to visit Base Camp and a couple nearby peaks. It should be both exciting and exhausting with some amazing views!!