Nearly two days after departing the quaint town of Grand Marais, Minnesota, the two residents make their arrival in Kathmandu, Nepal where they will connect with teammates Elías de Andrés Martos and Bridget Schletty.
"It’s like traveling in bright fluorescent hallways that have no ends. Whites and grays. Surrounded by voices that you are never asked to answer. They echo and disappear. People constantly shuffling about. Airports somehow suck all the energy from me. Lonnie and I are in Toronto for eight hours. We’ll be seeing a lot more of these sterile, foreign environs. My itinerary says that we will be traveling for 20 hours 36 minutes and sitting in airports for 22 hours. 8 minutes before we disembark in Kathmandu. Next time I think I’ll book the Kon-Tiki...read more" -Buck Benson Nepal recently underwent changes with adopting a new constitution, thus leading to a blockade amongst many protests on the India border. Now with spiraling prices and limited resources, the team has already faced challenges with their return flights due to fuel restrictions causing flight cancellations. The president of the FNCCI, Pashupati Murarka, described the crisis as the country’s worst economic disaster. “The economy has been almost completely stalled for the past two months,” Murarka said. “The impact is worse than the earthquake.” - The Guardian
The team will rest and recover from jetlag in Kathmandu while they prepare their journey out of the city in the coming days.