Bosteri and Kerege Tash

well tomorrow didn’t happen and obviously the next couple days didn’t happen either. Between getting sick and having my phone turned off I haven’t managed to update again on the rest of my adventures in the village, but here goes!!

After Kyzyl Syy my friends and I went to Bosteri which is on the northern side of the lake, where all the tourist go. There we met with two other of out friends and spent a couple days on the beach, soaking up the warm sun. (I managed to come home and be darker than some of my Kyrgyz friends in the city:-) I’m not a huge fan of the northern shore during the summer, way to many people. Someone said about million people come over the course of the summer to stay in the hotels there, many Kazaks but also Russians. They are too expensive for Kyrgyz to go to, but then most Kyrgyz have relatives from around there so they stay with them. But it is the main source of income for the small villages around there.

From Bosteri we went back to Karakol and stayed in my friend’s village for a couple nights. I like it the best. It was the smallest village I’ve seen yet and it reminded me more of home, there were woods nearby and lots of open space and mountains, and in general it was just beautiful. On Sunday we took horses and went up into the mountains for the day and it was so relaxing and wonderful. I’ve decided that I need to learn how to ride a horse, so I can do more than just sit on it:-)

After the mountains the family killed a sheep for us and made Besh Barmak (the national dish of meat and noodles) And it was really good. Every time I eat good besh barmak I like it more and more, and every time I eat bad besh barmak I say I’ll never eat it again:-) I usually never have a choice of eating it or not but fortunately this time it tasted good:-)

In general it was a trip of first for me. For those of you have known me for a long time and will appreciate these things. I went for an entire week packed in just my little backpack and a purse! I went for a whole week only using outhouses and only taking one real shower and even that was in a rickity old shed. I went for 6 days without speaking English, and I didn’t drink coffee for a whole week. But I learned that I can drink tea as much as a kyrgyz, and I got to drink water from a fresh spring coming from under the ground, I got to take a shower in a hot mineral spring, and got to know my friends a lot better. It was a great time, if a little long. I was ready to come home at the end and have a couple quiet moments to myself, and take a shower by myself in my own bathroom, but ready to go back next summer!!