The highest village in Europe is Khinaliq, Azerbaijan, in the Caucasus at 7,500 meters (1). An organized tour (2) set out early toward the mountains. There were eleven guests packed into the minibus; Russian speakers to the front, English speakers to the rear (3).
After stopping for supplies, we headed north to Candy Cane Mountain. This sounded like an amusement park, but is actually a distinctive geological formation with undulating red and white stripes on the hillsides. Three large coaches disgorged a group of Indian tourists, and our guide, Nazir, called us back to beat them to the bathrooms at the next stop.
After lunch at the forest in Quba, we began the ascent up the Caucasus. Until quite recently, guests had to switch to Lada SUVs for the ascent. Due to recent snow melt, we continued on in the minibus. The group stopped at a narrow canyon, a mountain lookout and a Monument to the eagles, the symbol of the Caucasus. One was spotted soaring through the canyon. Before the road was built in 2006, the Khinaliq villagers had to travel multiple days by horse to stock up on supplies in Quba.
As we ascended, one of the Russian guests began singing Russian folk songs, and encouraged the other passengers to do the same. We all clapped along as songs were sung in Russian, Spanish, Hindu, and Cantonese. I demurred. The Russian woman said "Дружба Народна," (druzhba narodna) and asked the guide to translate: "friendship of the nations."
At Khinaliq, the guide discussed the summer sheep pastures here (4), and difficult life of the inhabitants: "The girls want to marry someone who will take them away from the village." Poking about for a half hour or so, I could understand why. One girl was hand washing clothes in an open trough, while dung was drying on a wall for winter fuel here at 2,500 meters, well above tree line.
For the return ride, the guide rode in the front seat, opening up a seat in the middle row, which I grabbed (5). Now in the row with the singing Russian woman, she began to chat, asking the (roughly) 30 year old Russian woman next to her, Yevgenia ("call me Jane") to help with translation. They were amused at the three words I know in Russian: please, thank you, and ice cream.
Susanna is from Yaroslav and loves to sing and dance. Now 61, she has retired from her job as a school teacher and librarian. She high-fived me when she heard I was the same age. She shared pictures of her son, daughter, granddaughter, and (mostly) herself. I showed a picture of my wife (7); her reaction was two-fold (a) that beautiful young woman ("so fit") is really your wife? and (b) I have "Компромат" (6), a picture she had taken earlier with her arms around me, which she jokingly threatened to send to my wife. Yevgenia showed multiple pictures of her dog (Mr. Happy) before eventually sharing a video of a fishing trip with her boyfriend to the Russian Arctic.
The three of us played a game in which a city anywhere in the world was named, and the next person had to name a city beginning with the last letter of the previous city. There are a lot of obscure Russian cities that start or end with K (8); Suzanna came up with Kansas City. Yevgenia looked at me and said: "Are you getting tired of us?" I was not. They were enjoying practicing their English; Yevgenia is in the tourist trade in St. Petersburg, and few foreign tourists have visited recently due to the Ukraine war.
Stopping on the road back to Baku, nobody needed the restroom. No luck pressing on to Baku however; it had been over an hour since the guide had smoked, and he was suffering nicotine withdrawal. Susanna quickly hopped out to join him. Back at Baku about 12 hours after we left, most of that time spent in the minibus (9). The scenery and agreeable company made for a good day.
(1) A village in Russia a few miles from Khinaliq also claims the title, as does a settlement in Georgia. While Georgia's is undisputably the highest, it only has one inhabitant, so it's hard to describe as a village. All agree the highest village in Europe is somewhere in the Caucacian Mountains. About 1/3 of northern Azerbaijan is in Europe, with the south in Asia.
(2) Organized tours are not normally my thing, but useful now as the weather and road conditions in the mountains are still unstable.
(3) The English group was a Spanish Couple, an Indian couple, one guy from China and myself.
(4) Winter pasture is near Candy Cane Mountain.
(5) Sitting in the last row of a stuffy minibus bouncing down muddy roads was not the best thing for my stomach.
(6) A Russian phrase for compromising material than can be used for blackmail.
(7) They seemed surprised I was married, probably due to my physical appearance, but perhaps because I was travelling alone.
(8) I drew a blank after Kinshasha and Kampala, eventually coming up with Kallinigrad.
(9) All day in a minibus reminds me why I prefer the train.
Lunch of the forest of Quba
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