Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th March

Lazy and didn't write up a separate entry yesterday.   It was our final day of the three days of seminars and much the same as previous days.
We finished a little earlier and I went for a walk to get some exercise after blobbing in a chair for 3 days.   Spent an hour or so roaming the streets of Karakol and found interesting architecture and a fascinating wooden Russian Orthodox cathedral.   Unfortunately the gates were closed but our host family tell me it is open earlier in the day, so maybe the weekend will provide an opportunity to investigate further. 

The houses here are fascinating, some very ornate in old Russian style, some very old and only just standing and other splendid new ones in between.  























But probably the most amazing thing about the city is that no matter which street you turn down there are snow capped mountains at the end.   In other words we are completely surrounded by very close mountains.









Last night we had a birthday celebration for little Anton who was turning one - youngest of three boys of our host family.    He is very cute and the baby I have spent a lot of time nursing.   I had a cassowary puppet to give him and the older boys also had lots of fun with it.   We even had a puppet show later.
Today, Thursday, has been a rest day, and we woke to more snow falling.  We had planned to go to the ski slopes anyway, but this made it even better.   Karakol has the best slopes in Kyrkyzstan and we weren't disappointed.   I decided not to ski, being a bit wary of my knee and not wanting to spoil the rest of our holiday but had enormous fun on a mini toboggan.   Catriona braved the gentle home slope and I was sorely tempted to have a go.   After lunch we took the chairlift to the top of the mountain at 3004 metres.   The snow had stopped, the sun was out and we managed some great views between clouds.   It truly would be a great place for a ski holiday.   The locals are trying to promote it and there are some quite up-market looking resorts.    But the prices are very reasonable - 600 Com, equivalent of $12 for a days lift pass.
I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story.