Day 5 was by far our longest day. Somehow it turned out even longer than I thought it would as we didn't get back until 10 pm. It was worth it though because the sights were amazing. We went to Quba and Khinaliq on a private tour with Azerbaijan Traveller. Mostly this meant we saw lots of mountains! (Also I am behind on posting days because we didn't have any internet in Sheki, I will try to catch up on our somewhat rest day tomorrow)
Azerbaijan traveller picked us up at 9 am. It turns out it was the same guide as our walk around old town (Gani). We brought Lincoln's car seat this time so he could relax.
First stop was a somehow this coffee shop in the middle of nowhere like 1.5 hours from Baku. On the outside it was like a strip mall that belonged in India, on the inside it was a college town coffee house.
First real stop was Quba. Quba is an older settlement to the north of Baku. It is known for its Jewish town and Sunni Muslims. Also for its beauty. The first stop in the town was Jewish town or Red Town. We stopped at the Jewish baths, where they insisted we sit Lincoln down on this chair for a picture.
Next we hiked up the cemetary for a view of the town. The entire top of the hill is reserved for a cemetary
Old tombstones up the hill
Next we walked around and saw all the cool buildings. Then outside one synagogue this lady came out to say hi. She was trying to tell us to leave Lincoln with her.
This was the biggest synagogue we stopped at, and the one we entered
Lincoln got the jewish hat to wear while we looked around. He was better about keeping that on than his sun hat.
Monument to WWII
This was a somewhat odd stop. We stopped at this former maternity ward. It is now I think a house, but some ladies let us in the look around. It had stopped operation like 5 years ago, but there were still all sorts of things that hadn't changed.
Zach got to go into the Sunni mosque. We got there right at prayer time and women are not allowed.
Prayer time
Next we were on the road again. Here is just one of the many many cows that were on or near the road.
The road was ok for a while and then it got really rough. We were in a gorge and I guess this road is less than 10 years old, but it was basically a dirt path hugging the side of the gorge much of the way. It was really rough in the van, but the views were great.
You can see what the road looked like
Amazing views the entire time
Lots of sheep
More great views. This was from when we stopped at the eagle overlook close the Khinaliq
These sheep were taking their time on the road
We got the Khinaliq and were greated by our lunch host on horseback. Also we went up this "road" with our 8 passenger van and it was an adventure
We had lunch in our host families house. They made lots of wonderful things including bread and all sorts of jams.
Lincoln didn't eat much but the bread, but he seemed happy to look around
They had chickens and all sorts of other animals right in the village
This was at the village museum. It is basically a bunch of donated stuff from the locals that show their history
Finally we hiked up a small hill at the edge of town to get this view.
We made it
Kate and Lincoln stayed behind because Kate's foot hurt and Lincoln seemed to want to walk on flatter ground. This was us spying on them from the hill
Lots of chickens and turkeys. They also just wondered on the roofs of their neighbors house.
Lincoln made some friends playing cars while we had tea back at our host families house.
After tea we were off again for the return trip
We spotted an eagle eating a cow carcass.
Lincoln somehow slept through the crazy bumpiness of the trip home. It was like a 4 hour drive back and he slept much of the way.
And we arrived back at Kate's at 10 pm. We ran to the store to get frozen pizza for dinner and then everybody collapsed in bed.
As I said I am behind on the blog. So a preview of the coming blogs are day 6 the trip the Sheki, Day 7 in Sheki and day 8 on the way back (with stops). Next up we leave Azerbaijan for Tbilisi!
No comments:
Post a Comment