Mustang Trek — Trekkers and Staff

Cel­e­brat­ing an amaz­ing trek back in Kath­man­du.
All pho­tos by Deana Zabaldo

Hap­pi­ly back in Kath­man­du, we cel­e­brat­ed with drinks and din­ner. It’s been a spec­tac­u­lar jour­ney on the Mus­tang Trek — and a great group of clients to trav­el with! I’m also always proud to work with our Nepal staff. They are sim­ply amaz­ing — hard work­ing, car­ing, and always with a smile. Here’s a few pho­tos of their friend­ly faces. And if you’re won­der­ing what our trekkers thought about the jour­ney, read on for what they had to say…

~ MM Guide Deana Zabaldo

Oang­di, Nan­ga, and Dawa — our super­star staff!

Shi­va shows off one of Dambar’s amaz­ing apple pies, baked from scratch on the trail.

I thought it was won­der­ful when the vil­lage women came to dance for us. These young women real­ly want­ed to show us their cul­ture and it was­n’t a stage per­for­mance. It was inti­mate, it was in some­one’s home, and I was real­ly touched and hon­ored that they want­ed to do that for us. It was a spon­ta­neous and shared expe­ri­ence with the com­mu­ni­ty and with our staff. 

~ Joan F, California

Joan explor­ing a cave.

“The trip sur­passed all my expec­ta­tions. Climb­ing des­o­late high moun­tain pass­es and find­ing prayer flags, mani stones, chort­en or stu­pas at almost every turn made trekking a spir­i­tu­al expe­ri­ence. We vis­it­ed a num­ber of monas­ter­ies, some dat­ing back to the 8^th cen­tu­ry, as well as oth­er reli­gious sites like caves in the cliffs. Deana’s com­pre­hen­sive knowl­edge of Tantric Bud­dhism was a great help. She iden­ti­fied the fig­ures por­trayed in paint­ings and on altars, and put them into a con­tex­tu­al and his­tor­i­cal frame­work which great­ly helped me under­stand how they all fit togeth­er and what it all meant. We also received bless­ings from monks in dif­fer­ent monas­ter­ies, and I cher­ish these reminders of a very spe­cial trip to Upper Mustang!”

~ John A, California

John’s glass­es reflect the view: moun­tains and prayer flags!

I was sur­prised by how dif­fer­ent and beau­ti­ful the moun­tains were from oth­er areas of Nepal. 

~ Bar­bara G, Ohio

Bar­bara gets a les­son on how to make Tibetan tea.

Late in the after­noon com­ing into dhak­mar, when the sun was low was one of the most beau­ti­ful days. The cliffs were red, the mead­ow was green, and the trees were just start­ing to turn yel­low – it was one of the best days of scenic beauty. 

~ Har­ry C, California

Har­ry shoots a few pho­tos before drop­ping down to the vil­lage and camp.

The immense con­trast and depth of the val­leys, canyons, and moun­tains on the way to yara – I could­n’t get enough. I could have sat there all day and absorbed it. It was feed­ing my soul! 

~ Moira-Anne S, Canada

Moira strings prayer flags at a high pass.

Most of our Mus­tang group, gath­ered at lunchtime on the trek.