Namaste: And we have started our Shishapangma Expedition!!! The team is all well in Kathmandu... pretty much uneventful arrivals yesterday, that culminated with the expected jet lag on most of us. A nice welcome dinner put us to bed early. Today, we spent the day visiting the Monkey Temple and acquiring some last minute items we determined appropriate after our gear check. Kathmandu has greeted us with the last rains of the monsoon, which is to depart the Sub-Indian continent soon. We sure hope for the dry weather of the northern Himalayas when we are on our climb! However, that's a ways away yet, and we have to wait another day in Kathmandu before we fly to Lhasa, Tibet's capital, on the 6th. In the meantime, we're going to continue to relax in hectic Kathmandu (is that an oxymoron?) before setting out for Chinese territory. That's it for now; tune in for our blogs as we start our adventure into the Himalayas!!! RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos