Today, after twisting and turning all night, sometimes too cold, sometimes too hot, I woke up to the sun shining through a few holes in our yurt.
I got out and met up with Ji to go grab breakfast in the communal yurt. Since I was still feeling sick, I mostly skipped breakfast.
After packing all our stuff back into the minibuses, we drove back the way we came, along the same dusty, windy, and bumpy road, to get back down to a lower altitude. From there, we continued our journey on nicer roads until we reached our lunch spot, where we had another usual Kyrgyzstani meal: a starter, soup, mashed potatoes, and chicken as the main course. We even had ice cream for dessert, which made Ji very happy!
After the break, it was time to jump back into our minibus, this time heading towards Kyrgyzstan’s biggest lake, Issyk-Kul, which means “warm lake.” After about two hours of driving, we arrived in the area and headed to Fairy Tale Canyon.
Fairy Tale Canyon was made up of all these incredible rock formations in different shapes and colors. The local kids imagine that some of them look like fairytale creatures, with shapes resembling elephants, dinosaurs, and other animals. We walked around for about an hour, taking in all the different geological formations, before heading to our next hotel for the night.
When we arrived at the hotel, we brought our luggage up to our room and relaxed for a bit before heading down to dinner with the group. Once again, we had a traditional Kyrgyzstani meal, which is starting to feel quite similar the more meals we eat!
After dinner, we went back to our room to relax and get some rest, ready for another day of exploring tomorrow.