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BRAZILIAN
EVEREST LHOTSE EXPEDITION is sponsored by
O BOTICΑRIO, VOLKSWAGEN and PETROBRΑS
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August 14, 2002
Katmandu
Brazilian Expedition
to the Top of the World.
End of bureaucratic
obligations.
Finally today we had
our briefing with the Secretary of the Tourism
Minister, he helped with our bureaucratic obligations
with the Nepalese government, and we are ready to go
to Everest and Lhotse.
The briefing is an
official meeting, after all our documentation is in
order and approved, we get a series of
recommendations and we signed documents of compromise.
For instance, I was warned again by the Secretary of
the Tourism Minister to leave the mountain clean (if
we don't, they won't give us back the 6 thousand
dollars deposit, which is the sum of the three types
of taxes for the environment); also they made us it clear
that we have 60 days to climb Lhotse and 75 days to
climb Everest, after our departure from Katmandu; and
we were alerted to be careful with the Maoist
guerillas, because we are in election season here
(November) and they are approaching tourists in the
mountains collecting a kind of toll (the
recommendation was to pay and avoid discussions with
them).
Nobody can climb the
mountains here without official permission from the
government, the famous Climbing Permit. That permit is
very expensive for Everest. Until this year the price
was 70 thousand dollars for 7 climbers (for just 1
climber it was the same 70 thousand dollars), but, due
to pressure from climbers and agencies who organize
expeditions (imposed by the same government, i. e.,
impossible to get the papers without an official
representative) there was an interesting alteration on
the prices, now for the 7 climbers it is still 70
thousand dollars, but for 1 climber it is 25 thousand,
for 2 it is 36, for 3 it is 48, for 4 it is 56, for 5
it is 60 and for 6 it is 66. For Lhotse or any other
mountain above 8 thousand meters the value is less,
but also a little expensive, 10 thousand dollars.
Tomorrow we will be
walking on the trail, on our way to Everest's Base
Camp. We are going to be walking all day, probably
under the rain. We will try to update every day,
presenting the region for you, but maybe it won't
always be possible, because we would be getting late
to one of our destinations or because we would be
avoiding the typical rain from the summer monsoon.
Namaste!
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Waldemar Niclevicz |
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BRAZILIAN EVEREST
LHOTSE EXPEDITION is sponsored by O BOTICΑRIO,
VOLKSWAGEN and PETROBRΑS
 Dispatches
Translated from
Portuguese by Jorge Rivera
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