Svaneti Trip Days Four and Five: Koruldi Lakes and Martvili Canyon

On the 4th day of our Mason & mom trip in Svaneti, we headed to the Koruldi Lakes with our group. Our passenger vans were replaced by 4-wheel drive mini van like vehicles. We headed back across the Mestiachala River. We then proceed along a car trail (calling it a road is too generous). A handful of families live up in this area during the summer.

Our first stop was a mineral spring. We passed on the water (not feeling adventurous that morning) but it was a nice vantage point of the area.

We stopped in view of Ushba (that double peaked mountain), but it was hiding in the clouds again. Our guide pointed out this small lake at the bottom of the hill was shaped like the country of Georgia.

When we got to the end of the car trail, there appeared to be a herd of wild horses (maybe 15 or so horses). It is possible they belong to one of the farmers, cows and pigs roam free in the townlet so why can't horses roam free.

I am not exactly sure what I expected with the mountain lakes. There were about 7 small lakes in the area. 

Mason circumnavigated all of them. He spotted frogs, tadpoles, fish, and a turtle. He got stuck in some mud getting too close to one lake. He found and skipped stones in all the lakes. I was unaware he could skip stones and the first time he showed me I thought it was luck. But here is photo evidence that he can skip stones.

For the most part, we just admired the beautiful landscape....mountains in every direction we looked. I think we could see only one farm house and the car trail....otherwise, complete wilderness.

I'm not sure which ones in particular, but some of the peaks you see here are in Russia.

It was just stunning.....

Little people, big landscape.

The last lake Mason circumnavigated.

On the way back, we stopped at a cross and observatory deck overlooking the townlet of Mestia.

That afternoon, the group headed to some museums and another church. Mason and I opted out. 

The following morning, we got up for the grueling ride back to Tbilisi. Our first rest stop was the restaurant we stopped at on Day One. Remember that pig that Mason was so excited to see. Well it appears that while we were in Mestia, she had some piglets!!!! There were two momma pigs and 17 piglets! As much as Mason wanted to bring one home, I told him no. He did get up close to see them (I just told him not to get between momma and her babies). I was even tempted to pick one up they were so cute!

We stopped at Tsikhegoji, also known as the Fortress of Kuji. It is an ancient village/archeological site. I found it interesting to see a plastic covered dig in progress (we saw some of the recovered treasures in the dimly lit, no flash museum). Mason was less impressed (motion sickness to blame). I took a photo in front of the main entrance that is remaining. Mason is sitting on the 3rd wall built in the 9th century AD.  The tall 2nd wall was built 4-6th century AD. They way the walls were set up when invaders made it past the 3rd wall, the had to make a u-turn before attempting to penetrate the 2nd wall. People in the village, would be up on the top of the 2nd wall, shooting arrows down and eliminating the invaders! The 1st wall was inside of the 2nd wall and was built around the 3rd century BC (hopefully, I remember all my wall ages correctly...my apologies if am off).

Following the fortress, we had lunch and then headed to the Martvili Canyon for a boat ride. Can you tell who is charge?

The woman with the umbrella was in charge. Our guide talked to her, she told us what boats to get into and away we went. We were paddled through the canyon. There is a super shallow portion where you need to get out and carry the boat over before continuing.

 We took the shorter ride where it was just a turn around point to get out and climb canyon walls and skip stones. Mason found a rock with a plant fossil in it.

Afterwards, we got back in our inflatable and headed back. Mason helped paddle this portion of the ride. He took his job serious!

After the boat ride, we headed back to Tbilisi, only making small snack and souvenir stops at road side stands. We made it back a little before 2200....so Mason may have been a tad tired the next day at school, but he was so excited to see his friends the next morning he got out of bed no problem. 

All in all, I would say the trip was pretty divine (and Mason now has an amazing rock collection including slate, granite, iron ore, plant fossil, crystal, and many other unidentified stones).

Monday's Moment: Outhouse with Running Water?!?!

Svaneti Trip Day Three: Chalaadi Glacier and Khachapuri 101

So after thunderstorms during the night, day 3 began as a drizzly morning. About 1/3 of our group passed on hiking to the glacier (?!?!?). The vans drove us about an hour along the edge of the Mestiachala River. When the Mestiachala River meets the Chalaadi River, there is a place to park and a wooden footbridge to cross the Mestiachala River.  Mason had no fear trotting across the bridge.

We followed the trail uphill through the forest for about 1 km. At some point, the trail turned and we were walking parallel to the Chalaadi River. This river starts at the glacier and it is amazing to me how quickly the water is flowing having just begun.

After hiking through the woods, we came to the last 0.5 km of hike.....across boulders. You can see Mount Chatini in the distance.

Its odd how these boulders seem to be so precariously stacked on top of one another were actually pretty stable for climbing on. Only occasionally would you step on a wiggly rock.

The snow you see towards the middle of the photo is Mount Chatini. Below that to left is glacier (it's somewhat 'dirty' from rocks and debris tumbling down.

The face of 'no mom, you didn't seriously ask if I think this is natural or manmade'....

Mason was kind of 'adopted' by the guide of another group with the same company that hiked with us. She apparently is much more believable when saying you can do this than mom is. She helped him over the rocks and up this giant boulder.

We made it to the glacier! All the white 'walls' along the river are actually a huge piece of ice.

We came. We saw. We poked it with a stick. We touched a glacier!

 The ice is more obvious from this angle.

It was a little daunting as we turned to head back to the van.

After getting back to the van, Mason decide to check out how cold the water was (umm, it just melted off a ginormous ice cube about 1 km back....I'm going to go with freezing cold).

After the glacier hike, the rest of our group took a funicular (ski lift) to a restaurant overlooking the townlet of Mestia. Mason and I opted to stay in town and find the pizza shop. In the town square there is a statue of Queen Tamar. The horse is quite odd looking and from what I have read online, the statue has not been well received among the Svans.

Pizza place had no power, but another cafe did.....I think he is happy with his plate of delicious Eastern European fries....yum!

After lunch, he played basketball with some local boys (it appeared they lived next door and are possibly related to the family owning the villa we stayed at).

In the evening we had a cooking class/demonstration. We were shown how to make Imeruli khachapuri. Khachapuri is a traditional Georgian food (cheese bread). It is quite similar to pizza without the sauce. There are several types of khachapuri with Imeruli being the most common (and most tasty in my opinion).

So you begin with a yeast dough. You make a little circle with it and flatten out. You then place a ball of sulguni cheese on the dough. Sulguni cheese is a brined Georgian cheese. (the cook helping with the demonstration said, if sulguni cheese is not available you can mix mozzarella and feta cheese to get a similar consistency).

You then pull the dough around the cheese and pinch it together.

 You then pat the ball of dough covered cheese into a 12 inch (or so) disk.

You then place the disk on top of a wood fired stove. You cook it for several minutes and then flip and cook several more. You then cut it in pizza like slices and enjoy.

Oops, I ate it before snapping a finished photo.....

Svaneti Trip Day Two: Ushguli and Church of St. Kvirike & St. Ivlita

So we woke up to a beautiful morning the next day.

After our breakfast, we headed out on a short 35 km drive (given we were driving on the edge of mountains it took about 3 hours each way) to the village of Ushguli.

We stopped to get another view of Ushba (you can see the two peaks of the mountain much better from this angle) on the way.

Throughout the Svaneti area there are towers. A lot of these towers were built starting in the 9th century. The purpose of the towers is mainly for protection from avalanches, but they work against invaders as well. The first floor is typically about 12 feet in the air and accessible only by ladder.

We stopped at the Love Tower. Our guide told us two legends associated with this tower. One is a woman's love went off to fight in a war, she stayed in the tower waiting for him, but he never returned. The other is a woman's parents did not like her love and she was locked into the tower to keep him away from her.

We had the opportunity to climb the tower. We went up the outside stairs, there was some stones stacked up along the wall we could climb to get up to the next floor, followed by 2 ladders up to the 3rd and 4th floors. The floors were made of what looked like birch logs. It doesn't seem like it would be warm and cozy during an avalanche, but that's just me.....

After climbing back out of the tower, we stuck our toes in the freezing cold river water rushing by. Mason then picked a crab apple from a tree.....this was before he bit into the tart little treat.

The Svan woman who was charging the admission to the Love Tower also had a collection of crystal rocks for sale. Mason tried using Russian to negotiate a price. Svans are a subgroup of Georgians that speak Georgian and a Svan language, so it is possible she didn't know Russian.

Both appear happy with the deal negotiated (yeah for fingers!).

Mason's crystal! He paid 8 GEL (a little more than $4) for the large crystal and she gave him the small one as a bonus.

Ushguli is considered to be the highest settlement in Europe (wikipedia has it at 2400m (close to 8000 ft)). The area is a UNESCO heritage site. Our guide said 200-300 people live here year round. During the winter though, the road to Mestia is impassable and no visitors can make it in.

Obviously the architecture of the buildings is so different than anything we normally see, so we took a ton of pictures, the green mountains behind the village was so beautiful as well.

It seemed nearly every home had a tower associated with it.

There were streams meandering throughout the streets, as well as, many a cow patty to navigate around. The mix of old and new was so apparent. Houses with power lines and satellite dishes built of rock connected to these 1000+ year old towers.

The Ushguli village is located at the base of Shkhara. The tallest mountain in the country of Georgia and third tallest mountain in the Caucasus Mountains.

A closer view of the apparently shy Shkhara mountain hiding behind the clouds now. Note the cows grazing on the hill.

We visited the Ushguli chapel that overlooks the city. It was built in the 12th century. I failed to get a photo of the church, but it seems every Georgian Orthodox church we have visited has a set of three bells. We've heard the bells rung a number of times but I've never gotten a good picture of them.  I love this shot with the stone wall and Shkhara mountain in the background (also note the wine making grapes design on the bells).

After we had lunch, we began heading back to Mestia for the night (remember, its another 3 hour drive to get back those 35 km). On the way we made one last stop at the church of St. Kvirike and St. Ivlita. The church is located 1.1 km off the road according to the sign at the entrance of the trail.

See the church up there at the top of the mountain. I seriously think it was 1.1 km as the crow flies. We hiked up the mountain and through the woods to the church on the top of the mountain. We had a couple of Marines in our group who raced to the top. Mason took lots of breaks on the way up and I did lots of cheerleading and.....we made it!

See those two little white specks parked on the side of the road toward the center of the picture, that's the vans we were riding in. It was real sweet. Some of the older individuals heard Mason yell "yay, I made it" and he motivated them to not give up and keep on going. I was very proud of Mason for not giving up and making it up the mountain!  That night when we got back to our villa, we both slept good!