The Himalaya

rainbow

The weather we had was most of the time very humid and sometimes totally soaked... but when after a few days of walking, entering the Modi Khola Valley (the way to the top) you see this, you forget all the pain and the fatigue!
(but you keep worrying about the weather).

Then we went ahead, to the Himalaya Hotel (a five lodges village), from which we left and on the way to the Machapuchhare Base Camp, after three hours of walking in a dense fog, the skies opened and this was the first distant sight of the Annapurna Sanctuary...

A close view of the Machapuchhare (6993m).

Machapuchhare (or Fishtail Mountain) is sacred for the Nepali. In sign of respect, expeditions stop before getting to the top. It is absolutely beautiful, and although it's not the highest of the peaks around, its shape dominates the Valley.

In fact the whole area is sacred, and you are not supposed to bring into the Sanctuary impure goods, such as meat or yak leather.
Unfortuntely a tibetan porter in a group before us carried a tam tam made of yak leather, and the inhabitants said that he had made the Gods angry, and this was the reason for the bad weather.