Village life, Spa town, Walkers meet, Caravanserai - Part II

I went back to Chad’s for the night with one of the walkers and her husband (who had not done the hike but who had randomly passed by them at one point during the walk, making his marchutny stop to say hello to them). The next morning, it was hard to tear myself away – we relaxed outside Chad’s house, talking and just sitting with his landlord’s family. The father took me on a tour of the garden. My host mother had told me there were lots of snakes in Yeghegnadzor, and when I mentioned it to Chad, he said there were three who regularly appeared in the garden. So the father took me to look for them. They weren’t in their usual spots, and I began to wonder what I was thinking by asking to see them and what I would do if they were underfoot. The father picked some ripe strawberries for me and showed me everything else he was growing. I tried to say that strawberries are better than snakes but Chad told me that I said I wanted more snakes – his Armenian is great, and it made the Jermuk trip and the family time all the more rewarding.

I loved my taste of village life, but tear myself away I did, to spend more time with Emily and Meag and the B2Bers. Everyone was sitting at a long table in the garden – hot, sunny Vayots Dzor, with everyone sitting outside, was quite a contrast to chilly, rainy Gegharhunik – making posters for the final B2B event. Everyone who had hosted the walkers along the way plus Peace Corps staff were coming for it; my plan was to leave town before the masses arrived. First, though, I wanted to explore a little more. The northern group had camped out their last night at Selim Caravanserai, the most intact remainder of the Silk Road in Armenia. Lonely Planet says that it’s not worth going just to see it, but that if you’re on that particular road it’s worth pulling over, and a couple of the walkers agreed with that assessment. I decided I wanted to see it anyway, especially after hearing all of Katie and Theo’s stories and reading their book. Emily and Meag called a taxi driver that they often use, and I talked them into coming along.

Of course, it was worth it, at least to me. First of all, just the fact that it’s there is an interesting slice of history – you can visualize the traders taking the same route that the Border2Border people had just walked, except with animals and goods to trade. Inside, there’s a main hall for the animals, with holes in the roof and a trough on the floor, and naves along the side for the people and their wares. The caravanserai was built in the 1300s. Per the Bradt guide, it is one of the best-preserved in the world - its remote site prevented its being quarried. And the view from it down the gorge was breathtaking. The tallest mountains, on the horizon, mark the border with Naxcivan (Emily said that there’s one spot on the drive back from which, on a clear day, you can see Naxcivan, which is that separate part of Azerbaijan, and then the next range is Turkey, and the range after that is Iran). We went over the Selim pass (in the other direction from all of those) and saw a completely different valley (oh, those microclimates!).

On the way back, we stopped to see a road that had been washed out (more on this in another post) – the entire side of a mountain just slipped into the river below, cutting off about nine villages. This is the way to some good hiking and historical sites; if it’s repaired before I COS I might be tempted to return. We also stopped at a 13th century arched bridge – so arched that it comes to a point – that is also part of Silk Road history; it's the only one of its kind in Armenia. All of this was fascinating, and much more fun because Emily and Meag were along. Emily’s Armenian is also very good, so she could translate some of the comments that our taxi driver made. You can see her in action in this video, made by the U.S. Embassy here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuVQV3lo0wM

Time flies when you’re having fun, and I made the last marchutny going back to Yerevan. I was so happy after a weekend of kind people, interesting sites, beautiful views, and sunny weather that the two-hour hot, airless, bumpy, twisty ride went by quickly. The Yegh marchutny stops not far from where Gordon and Jeanne live; she was on an outing with the hiking group but he met me at the café at the train station, where we had khatchapuri and traded tales.