Relative Something

I have yet to write very much about the planning we have been doing for our upcoming travel to Portugal, but with departure now less than a month away, Cyndie and I are daily making decisions related to preparations for that adventure. With the majority of my attention being funneled toward that trip, I was entirely unprepared for the email I received yesterday from the conductor of my favorite travel club.

In April of 2011, he will be guiding another trek in Nepal. I cannot describe how tempting that is to me. As I read his description of the trip, memories of my adventures there in 2009 came flooding back. Knowing what I now know about the whole experience feeds my thinking about how much more I might be able to get out of such a trip, the second time around.

I am remembering the Sherpa people who I came to know so well. They are a major part of the draw I feel to return. It feels uncomfortable to know that another group will be going over without me. It doesn’t feel right. I belong on that trip. I remember meeting Rosemary on the long plane flight out of Los Angeles, and her descriptions of having trekked in Nepal before. At the time, it seemed a little extreme to me. Now I understand it entirely.

I am so tempted to return.

For now, I have a whole ‘nother trip to distract me. We leave for Portugal near the middle of September. I will need to save temptations of the Himalayas until I return. But for a few hours yesterday, my mind was all Nepal, baby. All Nepal.

It is tempting.