Noel and I spent 5 days in the Caucasus Mountains during the first week of September in the Svaneti region with my friend Sarah. The region is located on the southern border of the Greater Caucuses. Its very isolated and has been for hundreds (maybe even thousands?) of years, so they speak a different language from Georgia, called Svan. The region is famous for its stone towers, built between the 9-13th centuries as defense structures as well for storage. My friend Sarah is currently researching these towers to see if they represented some kind of sophisticated communications system as well.
Although the isolation is part of the appeal, it also means that it was extremely difficult to get there. We started by taking a clunky, smelly soviet train over-night from Tbilisi to Zugdidi in Western Georgia. Then we hoped on a mini-bus, (in this case more of a cramped van), that took us along an extremely bumpy, at times perilous, and mostly unpaved road through the winding mountains. We followed the Enguri River through extremely scenic valleys all the way up to Mestia.
Mestia left something to be desired, mostly because the entire town seems to be under construction. The construction is supposed to result in more hotels, restaurants and other tourist-luring facilities. I think a lot of money has been poured in from the USAID, as Noel and I saw at least 3 stores with plaques that said they were funded by USAID money. I am sure that in say, 10 years, this region will be more of a tourism hub, but for now, it is quite difficult to reach and also very limited in terms of places to stay/eat as well as transportation out.
We stayed at a hostel called Nino's, which was run by Nino with the help of her husband and daughters. It was very clean and had pretty good food. Noel stayed in the house, I slept in my tent in the yard (with the goat!) and Sara unfortunately had to stay next door (she ran out of beds) with Nino's neighbor who was a lonely little old woman. The rest of the hostel inhabitants, to our surprise, were mostly Israelis. From talking with a bunch of them, I heard the same story again and again; after the Flotilla "incident" Israelis didn't feel safe vacationing in Turkey that summer and opted for Georgia as a plan B. Most were looking for trekking and out-door opportunities which had brought them to Mestia. There were also two girls from Latvia, a tour guide from Prauge. The bad thing about Nino's is that it seemed that everyone paid different rates. After talking with the other guests, it seemed like some were paying more and some paying less than us. There was also some discrepancy as to how much of a discount I was getting because I was sleeping outside rather than occupying one of the beds. At first she said it was half the normal rate, then changed it to be the same rate, then we negotiated it 5 Lari off, which amounted to less than $3. It was very obnoxious that she didn't have fixed prices and the only reason we stayed there for the other two nights was out of convenience, much to Noel's disliking. At any rate, if I'm ever back in Mestia I won't stay at Nino's.
Our second day in Svaneti, we hired a driver along with an Israeli couple we met, Einat & Ariel, to take us to Ushguli, which was by far worth the bumpy 2-hour ride (was it four? I can't remember now…) The town is smaller than Mestia and more rural, thus more appealing in its"charming", rustic setting. There are towers everywhere and chickens, pigs, goats, etc. roaming the dirt streets. But it is most impressive due to the towering Caucus mountains towering behind it. Unfortunately we went there on a whim, and thus did not plan to stay there overnight, also not giving ourselves enough time for a hike. We did arrange with the help of our driver, to hire some horses and at dusk rode along the river into the valley leading to the mountains. It was a spectacular view, even if my horse was a little S.O.B. I eventually had to be led by our driver which was a bit humiliating. But this being perhaps my 4th time on a horse, I didn't have much of a choice. As we returned to Ushguli after night-fall, the stars above us were more spectacular than I have ever seen apart from perhaps in the Saharan desert. Each constellation and ever wisp of the milky-way were visible. The towers were lit early by the little light that was coming from the stone houses, and I couldn't help but feel that I was entering a medieval town 800 years ago on my trusty stead. An odd sort of romantic, nostalgic feeling.
Our third day in Svaneti, I wasn't feeling well so took it easy at the hostel, reading in the hammock and napping in my tent. Actually, it was an awesome day as far as I'm concerned. Sarah went on a solo-hike to one of the glaciers and Noel spent most of the day on Facebook and also stewing that we were staying another night in the mountains. It turned out that the only bus leading out of town left at 5:00am so we were kind of stuck there unless we wanted to pay an arm-and-a-leg for a private driver to take us down to Zugdidi, which Sarah and I did not. Of course, there was the option to stay another 2-weeks and get flown out via Soviet helicopter, which some of the Israelis were looking into. It started raining in the afternoon and we were a bit worried about Sarah. But of course, she was fully prepared and had even found an awesome walking-stick to tote! That night I opted to sleep with Sarah at the old lady's house since we had to wake up at 4am to catch the mini-bus and I didn't really want to deal with my tent before sunrise and possibly in the rain.
Indeed, it rained that night, so the road the next day was quite muddy and we were delayed for a good hour due to a car that was stuck in the mud. Miraculously, or perhaps more accurately due to Sarah's ability to negotiate in Russian & Georgian, she and I shared the front seat of the mini-bus next to the driver which made the ride SO MUCH more doable. I was truly fearing the 10-hour bumpy, cramped ride all the way back to Tbilisi. Poor Noel was stuck in the back guarding our backpacks. But I gave him my iPod to console his frayed nerves. It was gorgeous leaving the mountains at dawn, all blanketed in fog. Between the mist, the mountains, and the stone towers peaking through the trees, it was very mystical.
I'd love to return to the Caucuses some day for some serious trekking/ backpacking. Unfortunately I didn't have the right equipment/ clothing with me, what I had of it was in Turkey since this expedition was spontaneous. The mountains of Georgia are definitely an un-tapped goldmine for American outdoor enthusiasts and I highly recommend the long journey to those wanting a real adventure.
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