Kyrgyzstan is a relatively small landlocked country (7 million population) surrounded by the Tian Shan and Pamir mountain ranges. Visually it is stunning! Although there are over 130 ethnic groups represented the vast majority are native Kyrgyks (78%) followed by Uzbeks (14%) and Russians (4%). Why so many ethnic groups? It turns out this area is on the main Silk Road trail so everyone passed through here at one time or another. Many stayed. The primary religions are Islam, followed by Russian Orthodox.
Trivia for the day: Kyrgyk is derived from a Turkic word meaning “we are 40” which is believed to refer to the 40 clans brought under a unified control by the ruler, Manas. The Persian suffix word -stan means “place of”. Now you know!
Our hotel is on lake Issyk-Kul, the 2nd largest high altitude lake (5280 ft) in the world (after Lake Titicaca in Bolivia). It is huge: 113 miles long, 37 miles wide with a maximum depth of 2192 ft. The water is somewhat saline but it does have fish. Supposedly there is no outlet to the lake. The water temperature does not get beyond 70 degrees in the summer so you have to be pretty hardy to swim in it. Even so this is a very popular summer resort area for people.
The elevation at Lake Issyk-kul..
The fancy Baytur Resort.
The hotel is about two blocks from the actual lake. Having awaken early I went for a walk before breakfast.
The huge outdoor pool at the resort.
Besides the hotel there are quite a few condos and single family homes in the resort complex.
There are several murals on buildings in the resort.
The beach and pier on Lake Issyk-Kul.
View from the pier.
Looking back at the mountain range behind the hotel.
Looking back at the hotel from the beach walkway.
One of several wall hangings displaying local dress in the hotel.
Breakfast sweets! Who can resist?
Interesting mix of breakfast items: stewed vegetables, pizza and shakshuka.
Our day began with a short boat ride on the lake. There was only one other active boat there, also full of tourists. Surprisingly there are not many boats on the lake at any time as the authorities dissuade their use to keep the area pristine.
A local mosque. Even though we see a lot of them we have not heard a call to prayer like you do in Muslim countries.
Had to laugh seeing how they close off roadways.
This is a stadium where the World Nomad Games competition was held three times.
Surprised to see such a large boat in the area.
The very small marina. Our boat was on the right. They do not encourage boating on the lake and tax boats heavily to limit them.
Leaving the small harbor.
Major mountains but fairly barren. We are only 35 miles from Almaty as the crow flies but there is no road through the mountains.
Group picture on our boat ride.
From there we drove to the nearby park where there are some 1200 petroglyphs that date back some 2500 years.
These massive doors/gates are on almost every home. They look expensive.
An open area museum that featured petroglyphs from the BCE era.
A very large pile of boulders left here from the last ice age.
Our local guide, Firhad, spoke excellent English and was a wealth of information about his country.
Thankfully there were plenty of signs telling us what is portrayed in the petroglyph.
The dark “coating” on the rocks is an oxide of manganese which allowed the ancient artists to carve their pictures on the rock.
Stone fencing.
Deer image.
Deer with large antlers.
Mountain Goat
Two deer.
Ancient Turkic Sculpture
These are called bal bal in this culture.
This group of Asian people were performing a dance routine. Not sure why.
It was then on to the Semenov gorge (also known as the Kyrchyn Gorge) where we stopped at a local yurt for lunch. We were told we would have to remove our shoes and sit on the floor. I was a bit skeptical about being served a “local” lunch; however we sat down to a simply marvelous lunch that featured local caught grilled trout and a variety of salads and locally made bread. Best meal of the trip so far!
Scenery near the yurt.
A yurt in the middle of nowhere where we will be having lunch.
She is barbecuing locally caught trout!
We had to take off our shoes to enter the yurt.
The luncheon setup. There are always several different salads to share. Unfortunately we had to sit on the floor which is not easy for many of us.
Our fabulous BBQ luncheon of local trout!
Our luncheon group. It was a great meal.
The view of the ceiling and structure of the yurt. It can be assembled in about three hours!
After lunch we went on a short “hike” ( I would label it as a walk) in the gorge. The gorge was a lush green with snow capped mountains in the background. The area reminded me of Colorado.
A modern day yurt.
The scenery in the gorge.
Reminded me of Colorado.
A family lives deep in the gorge. I believe they offer horseback rides.
People learn to ride at a young age.
Another selfie at a beautiful location.
Our “hike” was along the road we came in on.
A local lady who let us take her picture.
The last activity of the day was an encounter with a local “burkutchu”, an golden eagle hunter who brought his birds and gave us a lengthy demonstration of how these magnificent birds are trained to hunt. This form of hunting has been used here for thousands of years. It was a fascinating experience.
A local golden eagle trainer. He has done this over 25 years.
The training gear. This is a fox skin.
Take a look at those claws!
He rode off a distance with the eagle. His assistant, on another horse, began dragging the decoy on the ground. The eagle was released and flew at and landed (hard) on the decoy.
The eagle is trained to stay with
the prey until his master comes.
He is rewarded with food.
Old eagle eyes!
He also brought a much smaller hunter-a falcon.
A picture of the hooded falcon.
A falcon kills by slamming into its prey. It is trained to hit a moving decoy held by the trainer.
Got it!
His reward is some fresh meat.
We each had a chance to hold the golden eagle which weighs about 8 lbs.
We were back at the hotel a little after 5 PM after spending a great day exploring this lovely area. Most of us felt this was the best day of the trip so far.
The type of road we had to deal with today in this part of the country. It slowed us down.
Not all rest stops had western toilets.
I liked the color of the windows!
Another cemetery we passed in this rather remote area.
Furkat says the yellow is from a winter cover crop.
Dinner was a buffet at the hotel; there was nothing worth taking a photo of.
