Exploring the South

Armenia is about the size of Maryland, small enough that you would think getting from one end of the country to the other would be a breeze.  I live near the Georgian border and I set out with a few friends to visit a town on the Iranian border.  It is impossible to make it from one point to the other using public transportation.  It takes me anywhere from 4 hours to 7 hours to get to Yerevan by marshutni, and another 7-8 hours to get from Yerevan to the Iranian border by a shared taxi.  So over the course of two days with multiple forms of transportation and a fun group of volunteers we made our way down south.  We went on an epic two day hike to a beautiful lake high in the mountains.  A volunteer invited his two Armenian friends to go with us and they were essentially our guides. We used a horse to carry our supplies, camped at the halfway point, and woke up early the next morning to reach the lake.  Below are pictures of the hike (the pretty lake ones taken by my friend Kelsey, thanks!).

 

 

 

 

After our hike down south, we traveled to a town called Goris to camp in ancient caves with about 15 other volunteers.  It was a very laid back camping experience, filled with dizzy bat kickball and blackberry picking.