Ushguli is about a 2.5 hour drive from Mestia over rough roads and through winding hills.  Along the way, our driver told use stories and folk-tales about the areas and it was a lot of fun.  The stories, not so much the ride thanks to a [...]]]> The highest, constantly inhabited, village in Europe.  Awe-some!

Ushguli is about a 2.5 hour drive from Mestia over rough roads and through winding hills.  Along the way, our driver told use stories and folk-tales about the areas and it was a lot of fun.  The stories, not so much the ride thanks to a bad back.

Drinking a beer at the highest village in Europe

After we got to Ushguli we stopped at a cafe so everyone could get some coffee.  This is actually the only cafe in Ushguli and they have drinks, food, and souvenirs.  I was actually quite surprised to see a sign on their bar that stated that the cafe was partially funded by USAID.  Really?  Interesting.

Since I am not a coffee drinker I wanted something else to drink.  Considering that it was almost noon, like in an hour or two, I decided to get a beer.  While drinking my beer I realized that I am having a beer in the highest village in Europe.  Sweet!  After the other guys saw me drinking beer they decided that they also needed a beer after finishing their coffee.

In front of Mt. Shkhara, the highest peak in Georgia

After finishing our drinks and partaking in the souvenir shop, we headed out to explore the village.  The north side of the village is dominated by Mt. Shkhara, the highest peak in Georgia.  That is where I wanted to go.  Well, not all the way to the mountain for that is a seven hour hike.  Instead, there was a nice hill on the edge of the village that overlooked the mountain and that is where we went.

Along the way through the village, we picked up a guide dog, well more like a dog follower.  The dog followed us all the way to the top of the hill and kept an eye on us.  At one point the dog saw a pack of dogs running on the mountain to our left and he ran to the edge of our hill and yelled at them.  I think he was telling him that this was his hill and that we were his.

Lower Ushguli Towers

After the hill we walked back through the village and ended up at the cafe again, this time to eat lunch.  Next, we headed south of the village towards the museum that lets you go up in a tower.  If you look in the photo above, the museum/tower is the short fat building on the far right.

The Wanderer

On the walk to the museum, was walked up a hill that gave a nice view of upper Ushguli.  On top of this hill is where my favorite photo was taken, as seen above.  When I got home and looked through my photos, this one reminded me of a painting that was on the cover of my humanities class in high school.  It was actually my favorite painting and I think it inspired me to hike, travel, and see the world.  I love it!

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich

Overall, I love Ushguli.  I am going to go back next summer and hike to the glacier.  I would love to live there, but having snow from October to May is a bit of a downer for me.  If anyone is interested in purchasing or building a summer tower that I can live in for free, please let me know!

View the slideshow of Ushguli.

Bridge to Chalatis Glacier

We got a ride most of the way to the glacier for we did not know how strenuous the hike would be and wanted to enjoy ourselves.  The jeep took us about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way [...]]]> A few kilometers north of Mestia is the Chalatis Glacier.  Hike time!

Bridge to Chalatis Glacier

We got a ride most of the way to the glacier for we did not know how strenuous the hike would be and wanted to enjoy ourselves.  The jeep took us about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way there.  There is a footbridge that you have to cross over a river and this is where all of the vehicles stop.  As we got out of the jeep (btw – not the jeep in the picture above), we saw a small group of older ladies returning from the hike.  Well, hell, if they could do it, we can do it.  Well, turns out they did not do it, but we did.

Chalatis Glacier

The weather was perfect and the hike to the glacier was awesome.  Up and down hills.  Walking along the river that is coming out of the glacier.  Boulder hoping.  Trying to find the trail while boulder hoping.

Note – out homestay host told us that the trail was flat.  It was not.  Mostly uphill.  I noticed that she also told us that the road up to the Svaneti house museum was also flat.  That was very uphill.  I have concluded that the people that live in the mountains have a very different idea of flat than the people that do not live in mountains.

The picture to the right is the glacier.  No, not the mountain at the very top but the wall of gray rocks that go across the middle of the picture.  I didn’t realize until I was almost upon the face of the glacier that that was the glacier.  I thought that it was just another rock slide wall.  I was wrong.

It was awesome to watch the water flowing out of the bottom of the glacier to form the beginning of a river.  Whenever I see rivers, I always wonder where they start.  Well, for this river, I now know.

Water flowing out of Chalatis Glacier as the start of a river

The picture on the left is where the water is flowing out from under the glacier.  If you look at the ground that surrounds the river you will see lots of rocks.  I thought that this was the normal ground.  However, upon walking up to the very edge and watching the water come out I realized that the ground is ice covered in rock.  Upon looking closer I noticed that the ice was not that thick so I decided that sitting on the edge was not longer a great idea and decided to back away a bit.

We decided that instead of calling our driver to pick us up, we would just hike all the way home.  It was a long and hot walk back to Mestia.

As we got close to town, we started passing a lot of huge dump trucks as they were going back and forth with river rock.  The trucks were annoying for the road was dirt and they kicked up huge dust clouds whenever they drove by.  How dare they!

At one point one of them stopped and offered a ride.  Considering that there were six of us and only room for three in the cab, the girls jumped in and left the boys behind.  The boys kept walking and we got passed by a few more trucks.  After a bit of time truck stopped and offered us a ride. Sweet!

Before, I mentioned that the dump trucks were huge.  By huge I mean having to climb up a three step ladder to get into the cab.  Huge.  We squeeze in and get going.  Happy to be getting a ride.

Literally, one minute later we see the girls on the side of the road standing in shade.  Are you kidding me?  Why did they stop there?  Man, do we have to stop?  We just got on!  Fine.  We stopped.  Apparently that is where their driver dropped them off.  Luckily, right where they were dropped off was a little food stand with shade, seats, beer, and ice cream.  Yes we partook.  After the rest it was another 45 minute walk to get into town and to our homestay.

View the slideshow of the glacier hike.

After we flew into Mestia and settled into the homestay, we still had about one or two hours until dinner so we decided to head out.  We took a side road down a hill that [...]]]> While in Mestia, we took two trips to the river that was a ten minute walk from our homestay.

After we flew into Mestia and settled into the homestay, we still had about one or two hours until dinner so we decided to head out.  We took a side road down a hill that I guessed would lead to a river.  I was right.

After crossing a little bridge we found a nice rock outcropping to hang out on and play with the freezing water.  The girls took off their shoes and put their feet into the water.  The boys skipped rocks.  Beso, aka the mountain goat, was jumping around on the boulders.

And now, please take off your hats and bow your heads for a moment of silence for the trip to the river had a very sad outcome.  Beso and I were skipping rocks and having fun.  Even Teona tried to learn how to do it.  Well, after throwing one rock, I noticed that two things flew out of my hand.  I was puzzled for I was pretty certain that the rock did not break in half.  Sadly, I was correct.  It turns out that my ring flew off my finger and into the rushing water.  I have always had a problem with the ring sliding off when my fingers are wet, especially wet and cold.  I could not help but laugh.  I feel naked now that my fingers are bare.

On the last night in Mestia, Beso, Amy, and I took another trip to the river.  It was a very hot that day and we were tired of walking around.  When we got to the river we were instantly greeted with about a 10 degree temperature difference next to the water.  Yeah!  We were also greeted with a lot more water than we saw three days earlier.  It had been raining every night, but I did not know that it had rained that much.  Below is a shot from the first trip and a similar shot from the second trip.

First trip to river

Second trip to the river

View the slideshow of river pictures.

The first excursion was with the 8th and 9th grades.  We went into the hills on the southwest side of Sachkhere and had a picnic.  Along [...]]]> During the last week of school, there were several excursions (a.k.a. – field trips) at my school.  I was able to go on three of them.

The first excursion was with the 8th and 9th grades.  We went into the hills on the southwest side of Sachkhere and had a picnic.  Along with the students, about five other teachers came on the trip.  It was very nice weather and we all had a good time.  The kids chased each other with water, played games, or just hung-out in the marshutka.

The next excursion was again with the 8th and 9th grades.  This time we took a long trip to Uplistsikhe (cave complex) outside of Gori, Mskheta (the old capital), and then to Tbilisi to see the Sameba cathedral and to go to the zoo/amusement park.  I went to Uplistsikhe in the fall with Susie so this time I ventured to areas that I had not seen last time.  The kids had a great time running around the hills and climbing the rocks.

Up next was Mskheta were we visited two churches.  Lia, the civics teacher and the one that I teach English and she teaches me Georgian, has a cousin that lives in Mskheta and she met us at one of the churches.  Lia and I went with the cousin to her house and had a drink of water (it was very hot out).  Her house was near the river and had a beautiful view.

Next, we continued into Tbilisi and went to Sameba.  When we got to the zoo, we were so hot and I was happy to see that most of the park was covered in shade by trees.  The zoo is nothing special to write home about (uh, wait, what am I doing now?).  A bunch of small cages/pens and not a lot of animals to see.  The best part of the visit occurred at one of the bear pens.  The workers were spraying water into the pen to help keep the bears cool.  The bear that was getting sprayed was trying to catch the water in its mouth.  It was very entertaining to watch.  To add excitement to this event, I noticed a sign on the bear pen that appeared to indicate that the fence was electrified.  I only bring this up because the person spraying the water was shooting the water through one of the holes in the wire-mesh fence and it would not be that hard to slightly move the hose and hit the fence and get a nice shock. But alas, it did not happen.

The last excursion was with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades.  About four or five moms attended this trip in addition to the three teachers.  This excursion was a jammed packed trip to Kutaisi.  Going to Sataplia to see dinosaur footprints, visiting the Bagrati cathedral, and finally hitting up the amusement park.

Unfortunately, the road to Kutaisi goes through very windy roads that go up and down hills.  I think we stopped at least five times for kids that were getting car sick.  I am so glad that there were mom’s and teacher’s there to help take care of that.  After a nice picnic were I drank way too much cognac with a son of one of the teacher’s, we made it to Sataplia and had a nice walk through the mountain area and the cave.  The park is nice, but there really was not all that much dinosaur stuff to see.

Next we went to the Bagrati cathedral and mostly sat around in the grass and let the kids run around.  We then made it to the amusement park and the kids were in heaven.  A merry-go round, ferris wheel, bumper cars, and ice cream.  What could be better.

I had a great time on the trips and was glad that I was able to go and spend the time with the kids.  Unfortunately, I was not able to go on some of the excursions with the other grades because I was not told or because my back could not handle sitting in a marshutka to Tbilisi on consecutive days.

View the slideshow.

Vardzia is a cave complex that is located in southern Georgia close to the border with Turkey.  This [...]]]> I have mentioned in several posts a seven hour marshutka ride that I took the day I hurt my back, but I have never mentioned why I spent the long day on the marshutka.

Vardzia is a cave complex that is located in southern Georgia close to the border with Turkey.  This is the third cave city that I have visited, the others being Uplistsikhe and David Gareji, and this one is by far the biggest.  According to wikipedia: Vardzia was founded in 1185 by Queen Tamar; consisted of over 6000 apartments on 13 levels; had a complex irrigation system; and was initially constructed as protection from those pesky Mongols.  In 1283, an earthquake collapsed about 2/3 of the complex and exposed the caves to the outside elements.  More damage was done to the complex when the Persians invaded in 1551.  You can learn more at the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From Sachkhere, it was about a 3.5 hour marshutka ride to get there.  This spring TLG has been sponsoring excursions for the volunteers and this was the excursion that the Sachkhere and Chiatura volunteers were given.  Aside from the totally last minute notification (i.e., getting called at 7pm the night before to let us know that we are being picked up at 9am), the trip was really good.  TLG has their own marshutka that is bigger, cleaner, and nicer than the traditional marshutkas.  They also brought sandwiches, fruit, and drinks.

While walking around the complex, I got the feeling that I was walking through the ruins of Minas Tirith in Lord of the Rings (is there anything that is not explained in wikipedia?).  There is still a working church, of course.  Other than that, there are a few tunnels you can walk/hunch through, you can go to Queen Tamar’s throne room, you can see the pharmacy, and you can climb/explore to your hearts content.  Overall, it was a very cool place to visit.

There is a fortress a few kilometers north of the Vardzia cave complex called Tmogvi.  The fortress was built high on a mountain and was never, ever sacked.  Apparently, two major earthquakes are what eventually took down the fortress and its surrounding town.  I mention this because we could see it from the road and it looks like heaven for a person that loves to hike and explore.  I definitely want to go back and spend some time here.

View the slideshow of the Vardzia pictures.

I focused mostly on creating panoramas so there are not a lot of photos to see (view full screen slideshow of photos here). The slideshow will not work for [...]]]> I recently wrote a post about a hike I did up a hill in Chola. Here are the pictures to go along with the story.

I focused mostly on creating panoramas so there are not a lot of photos to see (view full screen slideshow of photos here).

To get to the monastery, we hired a private driver for the day. His name is Giorgi and he is a friend of the owner of the hostel. He speaks [...]]]> While in Tbilisi, we took a day trip to David Gareji, a monastery built in the 6th century that is still in use today.

To get to the monastery, we hired a private driver for the day. His name is Giorgi and he is a friend of the owner of the hostel. He speaks Georgian and German, but not a lot of English. Luckily, Susie was married to a German and learned the language so she was able to communicate with him.

The David Gareji monastery in about 60km southeast of Tbilisi along the border with Azerbaijan. The road to the monastery gets progressively worse as you get closer to the monastery and makes the drive take a couple hours. Along the way you go from forested hills and mountains to rolling grassy hills to a desert. Below are some pictures of the grasslands (or view full screen slideshow of photos here). One of the pictures shows people with parachutes on the ground. They were filming a commercial and were filming the people flying through the valley.

You can learn more about the monastery from wikipedia and unesco.

When we got to the monastery there were no other tourists there so we had the place to ourselves. We went into the monastery and were greeted with a structure that had been built along a slopping hill and into the side of the mountain. We saw monks walking around and it was a cool feeling to know that this place has been in use for over 1000 years.

After going through the monastery, Giorgi indicated that we should follow him up a trail along the side of the monastery. Susie had no interest in hiking so she visited the gift shop while Amy and I followed Giorgi.

We had no idea where he was taking us or what there was to see. At first this was not an issue. But then we kept going up and up and up. We passed the monastery and were going up the mountain behind it. Amy and I were wondering if the hike was really worth it. If the trail led to just another church, Amy was going to kill Giorgi. We had seen plenty of churches in Georgia, so seeing one more was not that big of a deal anymore.

We got to the very top of the mountain and there were two little churches. We were hot and not all that happy, but we were relieved that we were at the top and the only way to go was down. It turned out that we were now on the border. Georgia was on the north side of the mountain and Azerbaijan was on the south. We could see for miles into Azerbaijan.

Giorgi then pointed to a tiny little trail that went along the Azerbaijan side of the mountain and said that that was the way we were to go back. Amy and I looked at each other and thought here we go again. It turns out that the trail leads to dozens of caves, some of which still have frescoes in them.

For some reason, it felt awesome to be walking along a trail in Azerbaijan. Maybe it was because I had no idea I was going to be in another country. Maybe it was being able to see for miles into the Azerbaijan desert without seeing any settlements or people. Well, minus the military base that was to the west. Maybe it was the grass stalk that I decided to chew on, something that I had never done before. Whatever it was, it was awesome.

We finally made it back to the Georgian side of the mountain and headed down. Overall, the hike took about two hours and we were exhausted when we met up with Susie. Luckily, Susie was smart and bought some extra pastries when we got breakfast at a bakery. We drank water, ate the pastry and enjoyed the sun.

Overall, it was a great trip and I highly recommend it.

Here are some photos (or view full screen slideshow of photos here).

A couple weeks ago, Bondo took me up the immediate hill behind us to go to a supra. It was a new area for me and it had a great view of the valley so I decided that [...]]]> On Friday, I ventured up into the hills behind my house and had a pleasant walk.

A couple weeks ago, Bondo took me up the immediate hill behind us to go to a supra. It was a new area for me and it had a great view of the valley so I decided that I had to come back and explore. I noticed this past week that the fall colors were really starting to show and I decided that it was time to head up into the hills to explore and take pictures.

My trail was a dirt road that goes around the hills. At one point it turned into a walking path and I was a bit worried about whether I was walking on someone’s private property, but I continued anyways. It eventually turned back into a dirt road, so it was all good.

I said hello to people as I passed them and, like usual, they all gave me weird looks that said who the heck are you and what are you doing up here in the hills. I stopped at the top of one hill to take pictures and talked to one of the villagers. Again, as usual, he did not understand a word of my Georgian, but once I said that I was an English teacher at Speti, everything changed. We ‘chatted’ for a bit and then I decided to head home since the sun was getting close to setting.

I found a trail that goes further up into the hills that I believe is used by the locals to get wood and other goodies in the forest. The trail is next on my list of areas to explore.

Here are some photos (or view full screen slideshow of photos here).