Lets Take A Trip Up The Mountains, Photos From Xinaliq

3 Victims of Altitude Sickness

This past tuesday, Glendene, Emily, and I went on a day trip to Xinaliq, a quaint village 7500 feet above sea level, isolated from the rest of the world in the arid, mountainous region of inner Guba.  The village is on a steep incline, in a way that your neighbor's roof is on the same level of your front door.  Its a highly recommended day trip and villagers are used to seeing visitors come through, though maybe not as used to these visitors speaking with them in Azerbaijani.  But, regardless of the language you speak the village provides majestic 360 degree view of the surrounding Greater Caucasus Mountains.

The ride there and back was amongst the best part, a harrowing journey of switchbacks and dips, at times speeding up a hill backwards because there was no room to make the tight turn.  Luckily we had a powerful van that could easily manage and our hired driver had been making this route for longer than Emily had been alive, so we were able to enjoy the, literally, breathtaking scenes as the road edge plummeted beyond.  Imagine the road up to Rocky Mountain National Park with the drive along Big Sur, and then take out all those silly measures we have in the States to keep us from careening to our death and you have a pretty clear picture of the road up to Xinaliq.  Dad, this was not a drive you would have enjoyed.

Once there we walked around and enjoyed the village.  We visited their museum, took photos, and gave ample discussion material for the kids playing.  We booked this through CBT Azerbaijan, which I highly recommend if you're going to make this trip.  This included our expert driver and lunch with a Xinaliq host family.  Glendene and I have been saying how we want to explore more of what Azerbaijan has to offer this year and this was an outstanding way to begin it.

Check out the photos HERE