This shows that Starbucks has either a sense of humor or a good dose of pragmatism knowing that copyright infringement halfway around the world in Nepal is pointless to try to stop. If it had been a fake McDonalds they would have targeted it with drones.

Anyway, there is a faux Starbucks in Lukla. Check out the logo. Instead of the mermaid it’s a mountain. Brilliant! We stopped in to buy a mug, expecting it to be a schlock spot, but it was really nice!  We changed plans, got a couple of coffee drinks, and sat down in an almost elegant place to celebrate the end of our hike.

We finished the last few hundred yards to the tea house, got cleaned up, and had a celebratory dinner with the Sherpas. The high point was some Nepali gambling where the only uncertainty was how long it would take to lose all our money to the house. The house’s winnings all went to a good cause so it was OK.

From the cold, grey underworld of high altitude, we had now descended over three days from 17,000 ft to the sunny and relatively balmy Phakding at under 10,000 ft. In an inverse Oz sort of way, we went from a bizarre world in black and white to a comforting one in living color. Loved the vibrant prayer wheel set in the orange flowers.

We picked up something else in Phakding…Maya. A four year old orphan, Maya had a tragic start to life when her unwed mother committed suicide in light of beatings from her alcoholic father, but with the help of a local family and Deana, Maya was heading to a school in Kathmandu supported by an American foundation. Maya was a testament to human resilience.

We said goodbye to Namche. We were now on familiar trails…the same ones we took from Lukla to Namche the first time. We remembered it being a long, steep UP the last few hours on the way in, but none of us seemed to remember just how long and steep it had been for now it seemed like we were hiking down a steep grade for hours. No complaining. It was great.

We shared smug laughs about the fresh-faced trekkers making their way up the hills. The trails were SO crowded with people, dzokios, and regular porters carrying on normal trade and cargo transport between Lukla, Namche and places farther up. Boys that didn’t seem much older than 13 or 14 were carrying massive timbers up the trail and having to turn almost 90 degrees sideways when they met someone coming the other way.

We recrossed the suspension bridges and walked along the river. It started to hit, when we left Sagarmatha park, that this adventure was ending.