Inca Trail, Peru:
This 33 km trail is one that was laid by the Incas and is traveled by thousands of people each and every year. Leading from the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu you will be sure of a winding trail that will see you going up, down and around the wonderful mountains here. The forest is beautiful here and the snow-capped peaks here will take your breath away.
Everest Base Camp, Nepal:
This is one of the most well-known tourist treks and it is a wonderful achievement to be able to say that you have visited the base of the highest mountain in the world. This is a three-week trek but is one of the best ways to spend three weeks ever! The Sherpas will accompany you on the difficult trek passes and know the area almost as well as the back of their hand.
Becoming accustomed to the altitude will be your first main obstacle here but if you are looking for a real challenging long lasting trek then this is the one for you.
Pays Dogon, Mali:
This is one of the most beautiful locations that Africa has to offer. You can trek here from 2 days up to 10 days and will travel across some soaring cliffs that will make your hair stand on end! While here you can even see some of the cliffside properties that have long since been abandoned due to their location. There are Dogon villages dotted around this area and you may even see some of the people that live here while on your travels. They are majestic people with a real zest for life, and it shows!
GR20, France:
This demanding trail will take around 15 days and see you covering over 100 miles of diverse landscape. You will see moonscapes, forests, craters, glacial lakes, torrents, snow-capped peaks and plans and everything in between. This is a rocky path that will take everything you have, and then some!
Indian Himalayas, India:
This is the least traveled side of the world's greatest mountain range. The isolation that can be experienced here adds to the enjoyment of this trek. You can travel along a trek trail here that can take upwards of a month trekking from Spiti to Ladakh. When trekking here it is simple to see why the phrase ‘the gods live here; this is no place for men’ was coined here by Rudyard Kipling.
Routeburn Track, New Zealand:
A three-day 20-mile trek here will give way to some of the beautiful scenery that is on offer here. Travelling through the national parks of Fiordland and Mt Aspiring some of the top sights of your trek will include Harris Saddle and Conical Hill. They will allow you to view waves breaking near the horizon on a beach! The numbers of people allowed on this trek at any one time are limited so places are much coveted.
Overland Track, Australia:
This 80km Overland Track is simply amazing. Running from Cradle Mountain and snaking to Lake St Clair it is a well-known path that is even boarded in places for a little easier footing. The lakes and tarns here are stunning and will take your breath away. There are different paths that you can follow that will take you past waterfalls, valleys, and further mountain summits. This is a real must see trekking location that offers so much to so few.
The Haute Route, France/Switzerland:
Beginning your trek in Chamonix, France, you will be able to travel to Zermatt, Switzerland, along this magnificent trail. The Alps are amazing and can be seen on this trek in their full glory.
The Narrows, USA:
This is a trek through wonderful canyons that have been created over the past centuries. There are wonderful valleys and canyons here as well as the Virgin River. This is a unique trek unlike any other. You could hike this 26 km trail in a day if you want to. However, travel a little more leisurely and you can stay at one of the camps available here.
K2, Pakistan:
K2 is the worlds second highest peak and offers a vast challenge with its sheets of ice. You will begin by following the icy river here and end up in the pyramidal mountains of Paiju, Uli Biaho, Great Trango Tower or K2 itself. Great Wall of China, China:
My legs were shaking with fatigue. The Great Wall of China melted into an unintelligible embrace with the mountain on which it had lain for millennia. We climbed with the conviction that the only way to finish what we had started was to keep pushing. We have to keep moving despite the fear that it lodged in our throats and from the fatigue that burned us in the body.
Our greatest adventure in the most wonderful Wall of all time began that warm spring morning in Beijing. We never would have imagined to what extent we could prove ourselves, nor the danger in which we were about to lay down our lives.
The Wall has more than 5000 kilometers, the great majority of which are not reconstructed, nor subject to control. This and an article that we read on the Internet pushed us to search for an adventure in the Great Wall of China. It was one that unknowingly, would take us to the limit of our will and would put us face to face with our worst fears in more than an occasion.
We arrived at the village from which we would begin our ascent without setbacks. The weather was unbeatable, and after buying some fruit in a street stall, we began without delay to advance along the road marked with red ribbons tied to the branches of the trees.
We advanced at a leisurely pace with the dirt path that ran between the trees and went into the mountainside. From there we could see, on the distant top of the mountain, the Great Wall of China. Gradually, the road became more and more inclined. The dirt track became more treacherous as we advanced. After crossing with a group of people going in another direction to start the journey, we did not see another soul in the mountain.
Without realizing it, we find ourselves using not only the feet but also the hands to move forward. The handles were those arranged by nature of branches, trunks, roots, rocks, and ledges. Each step had to be calculated, each branch, each root, had to be tested for its resistance.
Suddenly I stayed on boards with the mountain. We collided with a smooth rock surface in an ascending plane, with the only help of a small ledge on the side of the mountain. One by one we climbed slowly, stuck to the face of the stone, standing firm, swallowing the scare.
We passed that test and laughing we assured each other that the worst had happened. But the road, from there, did nothing but get worse.
The difficult road
One hour. We stop to rest and drink water. Two hours. We should continue, we should be close. Three hours. Silence, nobody wants to say what we all think. Weariness took over each one of us. We found ourselves climbing the same stones, crawling through the earth, putting all the weight of our body on a root, on a branch.
The sun, pressing us, was already hidden by the West behind one of the walls of the valley through which we ascended. We were afraid to drink water. Something already told us that the day would not go according to plan, and we were terrified to be stranded and without water in that remote mountainous wasteland.
When we approached the 4 hours of climbing, we found the road more difficult. An ascent to 45 degrees as far as the eye could see where the options were loose stones or slippery ground. We faced it with the conviction that that had to be the end, the top of the mountain was not seen in front anymore.
Between screams, directions and a growing desperation to get there, we advance to the top. Now it was safe, there was only one obstacle left to get to the Great Wall of China, which although we could not see it, we could feel it.
A gigantic stone blocked our view and the ascent. It was too big to skip, too smooth to climb. I was just below the rock, with my feet still on an incline. A couple of Chinese appeared from where we came and with a speed worthy of envy went up to where I was. Seeing them, I decided to wait to see what they did with the obstacle that stopped us.
But they also had no idea of what to do, so they stopped on a path that went away on the side of the mountain to see what I was doing. The whole situation must not have lasted more than a second, but it seemed like a lifetime. First listen to what no one wants to hear on the mountain: falling stones.
Fear paralyzed me for a fraction of a second. The Chinese shouted maybe one of the few words they knew from English, careful! Careful! Instinct took the reins of my body and leaped headfirst under the great stone that happened to be an obstacle to my salvation.
Where my head had been a second before, passed one, two, three rocks the size of a watermelon at high speed. I felt them bounce against the great rock that had become my protection, and the fear of not being able to turn around filled me.
Even before the noise of falling stones disappears, I was already screaming like crazy, until I heard her telling me that everything was fine. I decided that we had to put ourselves in a more secure position and moved to where the Chinese were. We heard the falling rocks again.
I was paralyzed by fear. The stones passed us by as if they did not want to touch us. While at last, he was approaching me, the Chinese and I started shouting so that, whoever was going down the side of the mountain, be more careful. Then we saw two girls.
They were Uruguayan, and they quickly told us that they were coming from the Wall, that we were indeed there, but that it was so destroyed that there was no way forward. That it was best to go back where we had come from. Impossible, we said. We had not gone through everything to leave without touching the Great Wall of China. After I exchanged information with the Uruguayans, we discreetly went by the road on the side of the mountain.
We all ran. There it was. What a vision, what an emotion. We reach those walls erected at the dawn of time, millennia ago, and we touch them. We smell them. We feel it with the touch, we walk it, and we caress it with our eyes. We hug, we sit, we breathe. We drink water and smile. But I, aware of the time it was and how much light we had left, I was inflexible. We have to continue, I said.
Odyssey in the Great Wall of China
We started to move towards the East, in the direction of a tourist stretch of the Wall from where we could take a group back to Beijing. We do not get very far. Soon we were face to face with a wall of rock and bricks about 20 meters high that was erected there where the passage of centuries had destroyed the Wall. We did not know what to do and time was pressing.
Suddenly we saw, as if from an apparition, a couple coming down the same wall that we had called impossible. Once they reached us, we attacked them with questions. They came from the East, they told us that we had a very difficult hour, two more walls like this one, and then we arrived at the reconstructed tourist section, from where we had about two hours until the exit.
The other option was, once again, to return. We doubt it, of course. We were tired and the mathematics did not give. We were going to end up in the dark. But we decided to move forward, partly because of stubbornness, partly because the other option was to spend the night in a hotel in the village on the other side of the Wall. The couple gave us one piece of advice to follow the red ribbons. So we keep moving forward, we keep pushing.
The Great Wall of China, in its time, was built on the sinuous line formed by the tops of the mountains of the north of the country to defend against the constant foreign invasions. At present, a large part of the more than 5000 kilometers of it is practically destroyed due to lack of maintenance.
The road alternated steep rises almost vertically by segments destroyed walls that seemed more like walls than stairs (and often that was the case) and even steeper descents in which we had to descend with the tail stuck to the ground to maintain the center of gravity as stable as possible.
How beautiful is the Great Wall of China? Like a celestial viper, it extends through the mountains of the North to beyond the horizon. It is a symbol that hides in its sinister dichotomy different meanings. On the one hand, it is one of the greatest monuments to the will of man, to the infinite capacity to create and build humanity. On the other, it symbolizes the obsession that has always marked the civilizations of wanting to separate themselves from the different, to keep the "others" out.
In a world that increasingly builds more walls and fewer bridges, the Great Wall of China, which did not stop to stop foreign invasions, stands triumphantly as a reminder that divisions are never, but never, a solution. And we had it for ourselves. We looked for that, that I dreamed since I was a boy. The Great Wall of China unfolding to the horizon, bathed in the light of the setting sun, lashed by the wind, desolate in all its magnificence. In the midst of exhaustion, nerves, and fear, the smiles managed to surface on our faces.
But the view to the East was very different because it marked the way forward. And there, where the Wall ends and the mountain ascends. How we do? When we arrived, we saw that indeed the Great Wall of China had disappeared and we had only one option: to climb the mountainside. The red ribbons guided us to the base.
I went first to find the best way. From the accumulated fatigue my legs trembled and threatened not to push me up enough to reach with my hand the next hold. With the instinct as a guide, I moved slowly, with the strong wind tugging at my shirt, through a narrow space that sank into the rocky wall until it reaches the root of a tree, from which it pushes me up.
But there was still one last test. I only saw the emptiness. At that point, the wall was cut and reappeared by passing a rocky point, but the union of the other side of the rock was the wall. My fear of heights, which until now had helped me to hold on to the stones, beat me. Fear overtook me. I could not move a millimeter of the body. I felt my heart pumping hard as if trying to make the most of its last beats, I saw the abyss as a hole and felt, as I had felt on another occasion in the Himalayas, that the abyss wanted to swallow me.
Slowly, sitting on the stone, with my legs almost hanging in the air, I used my arms to move laterally the meters that separated me from the wall of the wall on the other side. The most difficult part was getting off one foot because I could not see where I was walking. Millimeter by millimeter I was lowering it with every molecule of my body in tension until I touched a brick. I breathed and tried to put some weight on it.
I was loose. The typical swaying of a tile that does not fit shook me with a new wave of fear that terrified me, but I was on my way. Without letting go of the stone with my hands behind my back, I supported the other foot and looked up. I quickly found the way to go down to a safer place, from within the other stretch of Wall.
How sweet is the air that is breathed after fear? The euphoria was taking over us as we approached. There was no doubt, that tower was rebuilt, and from his window, someone was seen taking pictures. We accelerate the pace with anticipation.
We arrived, and once again we shouted, we embraced, we celebrated. Once again, we caressed the Great Wall of China with its sight in its infinite extension towards the sunset. It took us a total of 6 hours, but the worst was over.
Back home
We walked along the reconstructed part of the wall, always towards the East, for almost two hours. The road was, then, easier and easier. Some sections were reconstructed in cement, and others in wood. There were fences where the wall had collapsed, and we even saw tea stalls, now abandoned by the late hour in which we were.
Our mood became euphoric. Now the smile did not escape from our faces. How thirsty I am! I shouted at the wall. And on the next step, I found a bottle of mineral water almost full and closed. We found a path that left the Wall and went in the direction of a village, and we followed it. The descent was hard, it always is. That is when the knees are punished, but the spirit (and gravity) was responsible for pushing us.
We caught the night halfway to the village, but we continued, already on a relatively firm road, with cell phone flashlights. An hour later we arrived at the route. We followed her to the blessed village, where a family of tourists, with wide eyes as they listened to a very limited version of our story, told us how to get to their hotel, where they could help us.
A taxi to a subway station, and a couple of stations later we arrived at the house of our hostess. We collapsed in her living room, even trying to process, while she warmed us some hot dumplings, after everything we had lived.
Another year passes. Before the winter arrives, I often travel to the mountains for 1 or 2 days. Last year, I was in Khajuraho during Diwali. This year I was in Kathmandu in Nepal. A fortnight after Bada Dashain, the Nepalese celebrate another festival of Deepawali, known here as Tihar in nepali. Second most important event of the Hindu year after Dashain, it is celebrated for 5 days throughout the country and beyond. It is especially the profusion of lights, all the houses being illuminated that makes the event so spectacular.
The Kathmandu valley is mostly populated by the Newaris, with very special rites and customs like worshipping the living goddess and many others. And Newari New Year is the fourth day of Deepawali and finish with the ceremony of Bhai Dooj in the fifth day in Nepal. The rainy season is over and the winter lets glimpse its first frost.
Kathmandu is an overcrowded city, and it feels like Mumbai and I think it's worse. In Mumbai, rickshaws are banned, but in Kathmandu, there are only rickshaws. I reach Durbar Square at 7 am. Durbar Square is always a delight. Swarming with people all the time, it is a central place for festivals.
The royal city attracts and brings together all that can be seen surprisingly. It is the full tourist season and the tourists are all over. Urban chameleons, and fugitive shadows that blend into the landscape, pass quickly. Time flies, and festivals too. As in India, religious life is a pillar of the social order.
In the first day, a big ceremony takes place in Basantapur. While I sit in a cafe, I see a demonstration goes on the street with chants and drums. Women dance in the middle of the crowd. Red is the favorite color of women. There is of course the religious reason, but it associates so well with their complexion that I discern also a small part of coquetry.
Nepali, women as men and especially teenagers like to give themselves a style, to make a look. It goes from polo pants to the after-punk but it's done with taste. And the girls, it would be rather the Chinese mid-morning trip. They are small models, it suits them!
In the second day is Kukur Tihar, the day dedicated to dogs. The dogs are the guardians of the kingdom of Ramaraj. After having blessed them, people have them a delicious meal and we also participate in it. From chin-chin to his mummy to the dirty dog of the street, all are entitled to preferential treatment. The creatures are daubed in red paste and powder and adorned with necklaces of flowers. In Nepali mythology, it is also a dog that crosses the river beyond.
I found one down the hotel, who followed me to my room and I let it in. The good dog stuck to me, lying on my feet or move around. I did not have the heart to put it out and it slept at the foot of the bed, in the most discreet way possible.
The third day is the day of the cows but also and especially the day of the celebration of Laxmi, the day of Laxmi Pooja. Laxmi is the goddess of possessions and prosperity. She is much loved. This day is the craziest. The goal is to attract Laxmi to every house with light, songs, dances, decorations and simple tricks.
The girls dance in front of the shops to attract luck. In front of each door, the most artistic lady in the family draws a beautiful rangoli. It is is made of a mixture of cow dung, dye and spices, then decorated with flowers, leading to every important place of the house, especially the family temple. A multitude of oil lamps also indicate the way. Each one expresses her artistic talents with a real motivation.
An unknown game! This man explains the rules to me. In the center, there are 3 dice that have a stick shape and are rolled on the big red carpet. One of the many activities taking place in the innumerable inner courtyards of the city. Each is a small shelter, a haven of peace away from the bustle of the street. There are still religious monuments, statues of gods touched 1000 times a day by believers in search of better days.
The fourth day is the day of bulls and oxen working all year to help humans. Today they are venerated and spoiled like other days dedicated to animals. The party is in full swing especially in the street with carts on vehicles or on foot, singing and playing music. It's a real madness, a cacophony of noise, smiles and joy. The exhilarating crowd bath these animals with love! The event is nevertheless also dedicated to death!
The final day is the Bhai Tika. That day, brothers who have a sister go to her house. They offer gifts, sweets and dried fruits. And the sisters draw the most beautiful tika I've ever seen made up of 7 vertical colors.
On their side, the brothers bring clothing and jewels. It is a day that strengthens fraternities and one of the rare days where the oldest can honor the youngest. And I live completely with locals. With the nepalis I merge in the mass. I have lots of friends and really lead a neighborhood life.
I fell in love with Kathmandu, although it is a polluted city, and it lacks greenery and then the sea of people, too. But I do not think there is another capital so balanced, where no one runs. The pace is slow, with a city on a scale of human time.
Although overcrowded but everything slips, and things are done smoothly, always with a smile. I decided to climb one of the peaks from where we can see Everest. Nepalese people like to smoke cigarettes and do not hide them. They often hold them wedged at the base of the fingers and suck through the hollow of their closed hand. We feed on dry food with puffed rice, grilled chickpeas, and raw Chinese noodles.
I then come back in India. It is Diwali that marks the arrival of the winter. The sun shines every day and we reach without problem!
NepalToday is clear and the mountains look perfect, but from where we are there is not a good view. We climbed to the roof of the hotel and got to see something. Not the full view, but the individual peaks. Still, with that we content ourselves. We prefer to stay with the good side of this bad luck that we have had and it could have been worse: we could not have had today or the day clear.
Our bus departs at 7:30 and we have to go to the station, which is 20 minutes away. It is not the station that we arrived at. It is another one that they call tourist station and that is in the direction of Davis Falls. Ironies of fate, from there we can see the peaks perfectly. In the end, we leave with a good taste in the mouth.
The station from which the tour buses depart to Kathmandu is not the same as the one they arrive at. We ask about the tourist station. This time we travel in buses that are slightly better than the other day and the price is the same. Also, they give us a bottle of water, so we were so happy.
All in all, the route gives for what it gives. The roads are bad and full of potholes, so we go all the way stumbling. We stopped to eat halfway in a roadside bar, where we had a chowmein. In total, they make three stops, one hour between the three. We arrived at 16:30 to Kathmandu (9 hours to travel 200 km).
We go to the hotel that we booked the last day here. The receptionist, who is not the same as before. To our surprise, the room is much better than the one we were shown the other day. It is much larger and with air conditioning.
After leaving the luggage we went for a walk and we found a kind of Diwali procession. There are many people, all with typical Nepalese costumes, accompanied by drums and songs. They carry candles in their hands. It is amazing. They occupy practically all the center of the city. Although the strangest thing of all is possibly that they have not cut the traffic and the motorcycles continue colluding between the people in spite of the agglomeration that there is.
The festival of Diwali in Nepal is also known by Tihar. It is the festival of light. The girls represent the goddess Taleju, the same ones who believe that she occupies the body of the Kumari. We left a bit of Thamel for dinner. We have fried rice and aloo paratha.
The city is still very lively and full of people. It is also very bright, something that contrasts greatly with the Kathmandu we found on our arrival. It seems another place. We think that even there are fewer cars than usual and everything is cleaner. Possibly because, we see, people are cleaning the closures and windows of their stores. Then we learn that everything is part of the Diwali.
Day 2
We have breakfast near hotel with masala chai and some rolls. The masala chai is great. They have it everywhere and we have become very fond of it. Normally they have two options of black tea or milk tea. The first is alone, with sugar. The second, same but with milk. I prefer the second, but the truth is that both are very good.
We go to Ratna Park, which is the place from which buses leave for Bhaktapur. It is not very complicated to find the right bus. We just have to ask and they immediately lead us in the right direction. The bus takes about 40 minutes to arrive and, curiously, we are the only tourists inside.
When we arrived in Bhaktapur we paid the entry fee for entering the city's surroundings. It seems an exaggeration, given the standard of living here, and we know that many tourists sneak in, but we do not think it is ethical to do the same. When we have been inside for a while, we are happy with our decision.
The place was badly damaged by the earthquake (although they have already begun to rebuild it and there are still quite a few standing). With that, if our money helps to rebuild the country, we are happy with it. We believe that it is necessary to be a little consistent in life.
It's funny because here, something that did not happen in the most rural areas of Nepal, children ask for money or candy in exchange for a photo. Obviously we refuse because we do not want to encourage that way of life.
We tried the famous juju dahu, typical here or, as they advertise, the king curd. It is a yogurt somewhat thicker than usual, similar to Greek labneh, but with a slightly citrusy flavor. It is very good. They serve it in a clay bowl that we can keep. Some people give it in a plastic container.
At noon, we take the bus back to Kathmandu and from there we link with the one that takes us to Boudhanath. Boudhanath is the Buddhist district of Kathmandu and has one of the largest spherical stupas in Nepal. It is amazing this place. It has a mystical air that, despite the amount of people there are, invites reflection.
In the vicinity of the stupa Buddhist monks and people pass by giving alms in a row (we understand that for some religious reason). There are even vendors who have bundles of small bills to give change. We go to eat at a place that comes out of an alley of the stupa. We tried the tingmo, a Tibetan bread and shabalay that come to be like momos but with another dough.
After lunch we visited the Peace Park relatively clean to be in Nepal. That's something that even surprises us. They also never have paper and rarely have soap. We return to Kathmandu. All the doors of the shops are decorated with rangoli, candles and, in some, food or flowers as an offering. In many they are still finishing making the rangolis and it seems a most laborious work. Some are really complex and beautiful. The city is amazing.
We go to dine with a girl whom we have met on Instagram and who, coincidentally, lives in our same street. We go around the city seeing the decorations of the shops before deciding on a Tibetan restaurant. We have not had much choice because we have been late and many shops have already closed. We dined with some momos and a bread with vegetables on top that is possibly the hottest we have tasted to date.
When we go out we wander a bit looking for a place to have a drink, but everything seems too oriented to tourists. I do not know how, we ended up in an alley after hearing typical music. It turns out to be a kind of private party, in the middle of the street, with people gambling, dancing and drinking. Then they offer us something to drink and they encourage us to dance with them.
It is something very curious because, from time to time, some of them throw money in a place that they have enabled for it. Everyone applauds and cheers. They also have a kind of song that they sing to encourage the one who is going to throw the money. They immediately include us in the group and even teach us to dance, although we are not given too well.
We contribute to the party, which we do not really know what it is for, but we think it's theirs since they have offered us to drink and they have accepted us as if we were one more. We had a good time with them and we said goodbye with great sorrow but with the feeling that our last night in Nepal has been perfect.
