fall break trip to karakol

the end of october brought us a week long break from school and we decided to take advantage of the time off to travel to lake issyk-kul and karakol. so we loaded up the car and headed off for the five hour drive east to issyk-kul.

the lake is one of the largest alpine lakes in the world and is pretty impressive. surrounded by 4,000 meter peaks (over 12,000 feet) on all sides. our original plan was to camp somewhere on the lake for a night before heading to karakol... but after stopping for lunch along the lake (and realizing how cold it was getting outside)... we drove on to karakol for the night. we hoped to stay at a recommended bed and breakfast listed in our lonely planet guide but after not finding it and driving around for over an hour (remember... kyrgyz cities don't have street lights or street signs... so it is very easy to get lost at night)... we ended up at a really fun hostel called "yak tours". cute and nice rooms.

we were unsure of our plans the next day. in the morning we meet a really nice couple from brussels who were traveling around central asia and after talking to them for a while we decided to join them on a trip to a cabin that the hostel had up in the mountains.

the trip to the cabin was a three hour ordeal over the craziest boulder strewn mountain road that we had ever been on. several times during the ride jen and i were convinced that the jeep we were in was going to fall off the side of the mountain and thousands of feet below into the canyon. it was honestly scare and a couple of times tried to get the russian driver to stop so we could get out and walk but he ignored us and kept driving. finally, we got to a section in the road that was too steep and had too much snow for the loaded jeep to make it up with us in it. so the drivers (there were a couple of jeeps taking us, our new friends ramone and lyndia, and some other folks) stopped and told us to walk rest of the way... they would meet us at the cabin.

seemed like an nice idea... but in typical david conover fashion... i was only wearing flip flops (with socks of course)... and the "short 200 meter walk" was up and over a mountain pass through snow and ice and back down into karakol valley.

other than the frostbite i suffered on my pinkie toe... the walk was well worth the effort as the valley was the most amazing, majestic alpine valley that jen and i had ever seen.

the cabin we stayed was rustic and cold... but we were so excited upon learning that their were some hot springs nearby that it didn't matter. we got settled into the cabin and walked down to the "natural springs" (a sanitarium... but with really nice tubs). it felt amazing to soak and get feeling back in my toes!

that night we sat around the fire in the dinning room talking and chatting. around 900pm we were served a dinner of sheep liver and sheep tail fat. let me repeat that... sheep liver and sheep tail fat.

after a COLD night of sleep (we were so thankful that we had our sleeping bags as it was freezing and we were at over 9000 feet)... we got in another soak before heading back down off the mountain.

once we arrived back in karakol... we decided to head home in order to make it to the halloween party at the metro pub.

below are the photos...