Today I finally felt well enough to go on the hike. The two prior days, even though I was sick, I felt like I was cheating by constantly taking the car to get to the next destination. I didn’t realize the difficulty of what everyone else was dealing with until today, even though it was still the easiest hike out of the three. Yesterday, they came back soaked from the rain after also climbing through what were essentially waterfalls and rivers while I was taking a nap (it was a solid nap though). Before the hike, I loaded up on Tylenol and immediately felt out of breath after the first couple of steps. There was a store at our first stop and we bought some Snickers bars and mango juice, the sugar definitely helped. Overall, the hike got easier as we walked and the frequent breaks were really nice. There was one particular spot where there was a park and we counted how many pull ups someone could do (Alaina did three, kind of– really two and a half). It was also a good opportunity to get to know my peers more, we had some really nice conversations just while walking and found that we had a lot in common, for example in things like TV shows we watched as kids. The teahouses we have been staying in are also super nice. A few of us have also used the extra time to learn new designs for the friendship bracelets. We have also been having some fun hypothetical conversations/debates. It’s weird to think that the trip is coming to an end soon, especially since we’re leaving for Kathmandu tomorrow (ten hour car ride!).
~Aaliyah
