Lukala to Kathmandu Day 36 22/08/08

Day 36 (slide show)
We had a 5am wake up call to catch the plane for Kathmandu. I think everyone was begging for good weather. I know I was. I didn't want to miss that first flight out. Lukala is a crazy airport and you just don't know. The planes started to come in from Kathmandu around 7am as the clouds lifted, I was relieved. It wasn't a clear day but good enough to fly. As Paul and I were waiting to go I ran into the Spanish team again or what's left of it. Down to three. We got a laugh out of it. I think I mentioned before that there guide even got sick somewhere around Chiagboche. There were other's I had meet on the trail also like Julian from Belgium. I didn't see him until we both were getting ready to walk out to our separate planes. Each plane only holds 18 to 22 passengers. I asked him what happened when he went on up the glacier. He said they hiked on for about an hour and walked right into the base camp area. There was a sign stating the location for the 2009 season base camp and several leveled area's for the larger equipment, radio and medical tents. He said it wasn't hard to get there and it was right at the base of the mountain side. I was very upset because I had my suspicions but now I have conformation. I gave him my card and asked him to email me his pictures if he could. He took it and ran to his plane as I ran to mine. I was the last one on board too and I almost missed it. On the way back I decided the others aren't going to want to hear anything about this. I will talk it over with Paul and see what he thinks. Landed in Kathmandu and made it to the Hotel Tibet and I still have my own room how cool is that. Turns out my credit card from Citicards didn't make it as I had heard but my Citibankcard did. That was good enough. Hard to figure why one would make it and not the other. We had a dinner planed by our guide at a restaurant in the Thamel district at a place where the different trekking groups could go and all sign there names to a place on the wall. The food was alright but I was tired and I just wanted to sleep for a couple of days. Paul wasn't in the mood to start drinking and neither was I so we headed back early. I had told Paul of my talk with Julian, he said he had his own suspicions so we went to the computer in the lobby to check for any passible pictures but couldn't find anything due to the speed of the thing. I think it hurt him to hear the news.

Special note added: Lukala plane crash 08/10/08