lenkeran

I’ve lost count of weeks that have gone by.  I think I’m at week #8.  Entries for week #7 are missing, and I think that’s a good sign that I have adjusted to life.  Oh, and there have been guests at the office, an Italian lady and Dutch girl, so I’ve been going out a lot.  It is quite funny to hear from Dutch girl her perceptions of the country after being here for 1 week, and it dawned on me that it wasn’t so long ago that I arrived yet seemed like ages ago!   

Anyways, last weekend, Jon and I went to Lenkeran, a city by the border with Iran.  That’s right, I was very close to the realm of the axis of evil.  But a certain Mr Bush has probably not been to the region I’m guessing.  Because if he had seen it, he’d have a tough time associating “evil” with what he saw.

Lenkeran is a city by the Caspian in southern Azerbaijan.  The climate is mediterranean and good for growing fruits, vegetables, and tea.  I had another one of those “who would have thought that __ in Azerbaijan” experience here.  We met a tea expert from Sri Lanka who provides technical advice to local farmers to improve their tea production methods.  He also let us stay at his house and made us Sri Lankan food.  And in his visitor book log was the name of another recently graduated Macalester student.  Random! 

Here’s a little village called Istisu (means hot water) we ventured to by bus.  The bus was full of ladies from the market who had closed shop for the day and brought bags and bags of fruits and other stuff with them on the bus.  Not sure when was the last time they saw foreigners…but they kept asking if I was married, why not, and if not, what then was my relationship with this man I was traveling with? 

Anyway, the hot springs were closed for the day so we wandered into this little village.  The grass was soft and a pretty light green shade, flowers were beginning to bloom, and I could hear nothing but birds chirping, cows mooing, and frogs croaking…the only thing missing was a bottle of Bordeaux.

The next day we hired a taxi driver to drive us over the southern Caucus mountains to a city called Lerik.  We asked the taxi driver he wanted to bring his son (the conversation went like this - “you, son?”) so he brought out his mobile and talked for 3 seconds, literally.  2 secs later, his son shows up at the taxi stand.  So the 4 of us went on a pleasant but uneventful, for the most part, road trip.  I taught the little boy how to skip stones on the river. 

Below is Lerik.  On the other side of the cloud covered mountain is Iran. 

 

On Sunday, and just a little over 24 hours after we arrived by electric train, we said adios to our hosts and this lovely city.  We splurged a little for a first class ticket back to Baku — $5.00 for first class vs. $3.00 for economy.    The ticket buying experience is a story for another time.

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