Greetings from Karakol, We drove from Almaty to Bishkek and had a quick look around Bishkek before driving around the north shore of Lake Issyk Kol. the lake is a huge dent filled with water between the Kungey Alatau to the north and the Terskey Altau to the south, which together form the norther arm of the Tian Shan mountains. It is extremely deep and there is thermal activity and mild salinity-it never freezes. It is over 170 km long, 70 km across and the second largest alpine lake in the world (Lake Titicaca is still number 1. While scores of streams pour into the lake, none escape; the shoreline rises and falls and artefacts have been recovered from what is called the submerged city of Chigu, dating from the 2nd century B.C. Someone had the forethought to plant beautiful poplar trees along the lake and you feel as though you are driving through natural arches of greenery. There were quaint roadside stalls selling dried fish and then it started to rain. After that we saw very little except oncoming headlights through the rain and arrived in Karakol at the Amir Hotel in the dark. We met our guide, Aziz and our cook, Tashtanbek and had a quick sleep.
We started first thing in the morning on our trek. A huge old Russian truck picked us up at 0900h. We drove with our new team, Aziz, Tashtanbek and porter, Murat to the park gates. The road reminded me of a steep mountain road on the way to Valkyrs but in much worse conditions. The rocks and ruts were big, but our truck lumbered up and over each. The views were more and more spectacular. Steep mountains rising out of the valley floor and summer pastures; grazing flocks of sheep, goats, horses and the yurts of the ranchers. We put on our packs and the team of 5 started to climb. The cook and porter with 35kg packs simply disappeared and we slowly took one step up at a time the trail.
Within about an hour the altitude started to hit me (Corine). I felt lightheaded, nauseated and short of breath but Stefan seemed okay. After another hour and half we arrived at a shelter called "Sirota". This is a Kyrgez word meaning orphan because it is all alone. Camp was set up when we arrived and a good thing too because within minutes, it started to rain and the rain and wet snow continued. It was good on one hand because it made us stay there and acclimatize to the altitude, but the snow was discouraging. On the otherhand, the scenery was so beautiful. The giant peaks were there and then they disappeared in the snow. It felt like a dream-a rather cold, wet dream. We started the Diamox and started peeing every 2 hours, but felt much better. On the 3rd day, the weather cleared and we had a long hike up to Lake Ala Kul. The hike was steep and exposed in a couple of places. I can say that the trek is not for the timid, but I can die a happy woman now that I have seen Lake Ala Kul. It is 80m deep, 1 km wide and 3 km long winding through the mountains. Big snow capped peaks all around. The campsite is on the rocks so it would be very cold but Spectacular!
Because we had stayed 2 nights at Sirota, we decided to carry to over the Ala Kul pass to the Karakol gorge (3700m). That's when the altitude hit Stefan like a ton of bricks. For the first time in history, I was faster than he was and I was feeling great. We were climbing through about 1/2 meter of heavy snow and it was sort of cloudy in the pass. The guide, Azia wanted to do this but was a little timid in approaching the cornice. So Stefan kicked off a big avalanche and the snow rolled down as far as we could see. This was great because we could scree run all the way down. I think that our experience in scree. We camped that night at the bottom the scree run, but on the snow. The team was just excellent and our meals were hot and nutritous. The most important part, they were very clean and we didn't get sick. Ecotreks was a very good investment and I would highly recommend the company. Descending 500m Stefan was feeling much better. We got up to hard snow crust and slowly made our way down through the high pastures, called Jailoos (rhymes with J-Lo). Seeing and walking in the Jailoos was my dream. Sleek fat horses, cows, sheep and goats cling to the mountain sides and graze along the river on high pastures. The cowboys ride among them and we met a few-always, it seemed, just when I had my pants down behind a bush. The walk through the ge was truly spectacular, trees suddenly started up out of the rock and funny little bridge crossings were found in the woods. The trails were not blazed, there were few cairns (no Innukshuks)and a GPS would be useless. Our 19 year old guide was just outstanding and we soon found ourselves in Altyn Arashan. Arashan is a cute little mountain village, blessed with hot springs. The cottages dot the hillsides and the people live close to the animals. The few houses were sort of Russian styled, with verandas filled with babuska wearing-fat ladies in colorful dresses, who chain smoke. Nothing passes the view of these ladies and I'm quite sure that they know all of the latest gossip (if not the fashion). Some of them probably come up from nearby Ak Suu village or Karakol for the summer to eat, smoke and tend the pools. The bathing pools, called the Source, were a longish hut, two rooms with locks. Inside each was with a deep concrete pool, about 3M X 3M-an inlet with hot, mineral water and an outlet going somewhere. The walls didn't go to the ceiling, so we could hear the neighbors spashing and moaning. I tried not to moan loudly, but my god, the hot water sure felt terrific. The Source was very basic, clean and unspoiled. It was a perfect end to a very, long hike. We decided to take the room with the pool access as the $10.00 price for foreigners was about the same without the room. For the price you can go back in 3 times. We went back after dinner to warm up. The price to bathe for Kyrgz is 100 som (46.2 som/1 USD), free for EcoTrek staff and our team who set up their tent in the pasture. The village (family houses, kids running with the animals, wool sweaters) sort of reminded me of the Arn valley in Italy about 30 years ago (but without the plumbing). I suppose with time, the full outhouses will be replaced with real plumbing, but then the charm might also disappear. The morning dawned bright and clear.
We hiked the last 3 1/2 hours down along the Arashan river and had a last picnic with our team. A truck met us at the trail end and we drove to the town of Karakol, population 66,000 where I'm told there are 11 schools, a big animal market on Sundays, and a clinic. The rows of giant poplars and the little gingerbread, Russian houses makes for a nice place to retire. Oh if only to speak Russian or Kyrgez.
I'm sure that there must be other tourists still coming to Kyrgestan, but there are few. The hotel had a few German-speaking hikers, there was an intrepid Japanese American woman at the hot springs, but that's all we've met. All in all, it's easy to fall in love with Krygestan-one of the world's best kept secrets. Small towns, big mountains, nice, friendly people. A few too many geo-political problems, but otherwise, once down from the mountains, the fruit trees are producing, the farms look in good shape and the animals are fat. Tomorrow we'll be at the market bright and early to see the sheep that we watched get herded all the way down from the Karakol gorge get sold for our plates. This trek was about 48km, over 4 days, but the altitude was the challenge. We had a very competent support team. Tomorrow, after visiting the market and thinking about buying a few sheep, we'll visit the Karakol regional museum and then the Przewalski museum. On Monday, we'll drive to Kochkor and onto Tash Rabat, the Stone Castle. Don't know when we will have computer access. System access is very slow, but thanks to Mark, we are able to post to the blog.
Love to all. Corine and Stefan (Stefan doesn't seem to like to type, so this is pretty much Corine's version of travel-you might get his version once we're home).
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