Along the border with Azerbaijan and Armenia
Trip Start
Apr 11, 2006
1
35
39
Trip End
Sep 14, 2006
Jolfa, Aras River Valley and Babak Castle,
Iran
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
31.08.06: it was a nice, but long and hot taxi ride from Jolfa to Kaleybar. The scenery was beautiful: golden yellow pastures with grazing sheep and cattle, red/orange/purple rocky mountains, and the imminent perspective of a different reality on the other side of the fence. It was interesting to see how things can change so much by simply crossing a river! The houses on the Azerbaijan side looked completely different from the ones in Iran; and Armenia looked even more drastically different since most of the villages along the border are abandoned and derelict and I had the impression that the country is really poor and struggling.
During my stay in Jolfa I was invited by a couple of nice engineers working on a project of canals for irrigation from the Aras river and visited a beautiful Armenian monastery
in the middle of nice steep mountains
Babak Fort
.Unfortunate event: hotels in Iran have the annoying habit of keeping your passport once you check in and, from the first day I arrived in Iran, I thought this would cause me serious problems one day; and indeed it happened!! I am traveling a lot and checking in and out of hotels on a daily basis, it was just a question of when would I forget to ask for my passport back and leave without it!! Well, it happened in the worst hotel possible: Hotel Azerbaijan, Jolfa. They forgot to give my passport back and I forgot to ask for it. Now I am traveling without my passport and can only hope the troglodyte manager of Hotel Azerbaijan can post my most important document to the hotel where I intend to stay in Tehran. God help!
Comments
Hammam
Que lindo o hammam? Está ativo?
Recuperou o passaporte???? Boa sorte!