Xinaliq... "the middle of the middle of nowhere"

In order to grab some precious fresh air before school begins in a week, a few friends and I escaped on a final vacation into the middle of the middle of nowhere: Xinaliq. Xinaliq, pronounced like: [hocking a loogie noise] + [in] + [a] + [lick], is an ancient, isolated village located in the north of Azerbaijan, nestled in the barren roots of the Great Caucasus Mountains. Despite a small population of about 500 people, the village boasts its own culture, architecture, traditions, language and religious practices.

The middle of the middle of nowhere.

The road to Xinaliq was dangerous at best; snaking around mountains, cliff faces and roaring river beds. One false move in our LandRover and we would have literally fallen off the side. We even found a wreckage of a car that wasn't so cautious: five people died in what was apparently a case of drunk driving that had undoubtedly resembled drunk flying. Sad. Nevertheless, the scenery was amazing. Breathtakingly amazing. The weather was foggy, which provided a view that was both eerie and beautiful. There were some parts in the road where clouds of fog rolled so quickly that mountains appeared, disappeared and reappeared in a matter of seconds - right before your eyes.

This is one of those mountains.

Once we arrived in Xinaliq, we hiked all around the village and met with the locals. My favorite was the shepherd girl (pictured below) who watched us take "jumping" photos, like the crazy tourists we were. We stayed with a host family and ate on the floor, which made us feel very Eastern. I had some Montazuma's Revenge that night which kept me up until about 2 AM, but luckily there were primo toilet facilities. And by primo, I mean a hole in the ground with trash around it. It's always good to have reminders that you're in the Peace Corps.

School is overrated, anyways.

And that was Xinaliq. The next day we descended from our magical, hobbitish fairy land in the mountains and returned to Baku and Barda. This week I may have access to wireless Internet (!), so you may just see a video here soon enough. Stay tuned!

Da svidanya

I woke up with a cat on my head today and screamed.

The title says it all. I sleep with my door open and a cat must have come in the middle of the night and found my head to be a comfortable resting place. When I woke up, I thought it was a rat and screamed at it, provoking the host family to run upstairs, thinking I had been stabbed by some midnight assailant.



The rest of my day was normal enough.