More travels....

So this week has been highlighted by more travels about the country. Tuesday was spent exploring different areas around Baku, starting at the odd mud volcanoes. The volcanoes exist from natural gas that seeps up through the ground and pushes the mud up into a bubble on the surface. While these are mostly harmless volcanoes, they do, on a rare occasion, explode in a dangerous manner every couple of decades, but it would only be perilous if you were very close to them during the "eruption".

From there I went on to see some ancient rock carvings in Gobustan, which are dated between the 12th-8th century BC. They are hidden up in the hills, but quite a reward to work your way up there. Also nearby is an old Latin inscription, which happens to be the location furthest East in the entire world where a Latin stone inscription has been found.

From there, I took a trip to the beach nearby, where I had to take a dip in Caspian while I was all the way over in this part of the world. Only in Azerbaijan is your trip to the beach combined with a scenic view of an off-shore oil rig. I then finished my day with some scenes over the outskirts of Baku, producing some views of the cities continued dependence on Oil production to try to drive forward its economy.

The next morning, I awoke early and jumped on a bus to Lankaran, a town near both the sea and the Iranian border. Despite what you would think, the further south (and closer to Iran) you go, the more green and lush the countryside becomes. I was there to get some hand-made woven baskets, and after completing my responsibilities for work, I decided to take a side trip up into the mountains. I hired a taxi for the afternoon and had him take me to a fairly remote mountainous village, and after a short hike, I was rewarded with some of the best views I have found in all of Azerbaijan.

Finally, the last few days I have been searching around for a nice Azeri carpet to bring back to the States. The only exciting news on that front (besides finding a carpet I really like) is that in one shop I visited, I managed to really make the shop owner angry by telling him I thought his carpets were very expensive. When he got pretty angry, the only way I was able to calm him down was to explain that by expensive, I meant he had really high quality carpets in his shop, but then I politely excused myself a few minutes later.

Finally (really this time), I will be back in the States on Wednesday afternoon. I am going hiking all day tomorrow, but I will hopefully write a quick report on that and give a summary sometime in the near future.