Escape through the Kaçkars

With Adnan as our guide, Olee, Hadar, and left on a two day hike through the Kaçkar mountains:

On the way we passed glacial lakes:


and met a mountain girl with a wreath of flowers:


The people of this region are invariably beautiful. The Israelis brought absurd amounts of food with them, and that night we pitched tents and cooked what was probably the only Kosher meal in all the Kaçkars:


As we looked at the stars after dinner, Hadar and Olee taught me Israeli folk songs and I taught them the few American spirituals I know (thanks Maman!).

At dawn, we were awoken by men installing electricity in the region for the first time. I snapped this photo of the view from my tent: