Full Circle

While eating lunch at the Art Cafe in Thimphu, Bhutan we met two interesting brothers (1 lived in Austin, TX, the other in Australia). They had just finished the Snowman trek, following a route that took them along much of the Laya-Gasa trek trail on which we were about to embark. They trekked to Lunana to film a documentary about the effects of climate change on glacial lakes in the Himalaya.

They told us of a week filled with slopping down the trail through rain, mud and manure. One of the brothers lost 15 pounds. They recommended bringing baby wipes. They were happy to have finished the trek in "good" health and wished us safe travels.

Most of my thoughts of the brothers while we were trekking were no more than to say "Wow, I'm so happy we aren't trekking in rain and mud like they were". What I didn't know (either b/c they never said, or b/c I wasn't listening) was that the workers that we saw on our last few days of trekking, who had been repairing a dam in Lunana, were the same workers from the brothers' video 3 weeks prior. By the time we crossed paths with them, many of the workers had been stranded for days without food, had severe frostbite and snow blindness due to snowstorms high in the mountains. A high price to pay for manual labor on a glacial lake/dam.

Carly saved the brothers' business card and emailed them after our return. Their video (plus one filmed in China) played recently at the climate conference in Copenhagen.

Check it out - "Bhutan: The Silent Tsunami"