A rollercoaster through the mountains! This is the best way I can think of to describe our drive into the mountains this past weekend. I suppose it could also be called a six hour brush with death, but this might scare my mother. On Saturday morning, Tracy, Carla, Kari (Carla's sister), Cat, and I all headed with Zakir, our taxi driver, into the Tien Shan range of Kyrgyzstan. We were headed to Issik-kul, the world's second largest alpine lake! Now, I say it was a rollercoaster through the mountains, or also a brush with death, because simply stated, it was. Zakir was a mad man on the road! He passed so many cars with only a few feet to spare. Blind curves meant nothing to him; nonetheless, he seemed to know what he was doing. So, all I could do was sit back and trust in the sovereignty of my good God. My heart stopped so many times, though! It was this way three hours up and three hours back. There were a few laughs on the way. At one point Zakir asked the five of us to be his wives! I would be lying if I said it was hard to turn him down.
Our home for the weekend was small cottage on the edge of the lake. It was a perfect spot for a weekend get-away. And after the ride up, we needed that perfect, relaxing spot. The lake is all salt water, and therefore, never freezes. It was, however, still very cold, even at the end of August. This didn't stop us from taking a dip in it though! Wow was it cold, and yet, so much fun! We had a fairly good view of the snow-sprinkled mountains from the beach, but the towering ones were on the other side of the lake, behind us. They were only a short walk away, though. We also walked into "town" and ate at a traditional Kyrgyz/Uzbek cafe, a.k.a. a tent with benches and matts inside and a small kitchen around the back of the tent. The traditional Kyrgyz food was great! We seemed to be the only vacationers there this weekend, but found out that not many people had been coming due both to the cold weather and the revolt that took place in Bishkek last March. We didn't mind the lack of people.
So this was my weekend! I got back only a few hours ago, and now need to prepare for a week of transitioning into school-life! I meet my students tomorrow!
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