Kristos Voskres!

I celebrated orthodox easter with Sasha, his wife Galina, and their daughter Masha on Sunday morning. They had decorated eggs and kalich, the traditional easter bread. We even played the "crack the egg" game that's a highlight of the day. It was nice to feel like part of a family while I was so far away from my own.

Then, Sasha and I headed to a neighboring town called Barguzin, which hosts the first church in the region. After services, we explored a little. There's a monument in town to two brothers, Decembrists, who were exiled here in 1825 or so. I've been to St.Petersburg where they lived. Now I've been to Barguzin where they were exiled. Its hard to comprehend the disparity between the imperial capital and this dusty collection of wooden huts.

Later, we drove over some of the worst roads ever. Road, in this part of Buryatia, seems to be defined as the absence of trees in a semi-linear path. Seasonally adjusted, of course, with the addition of mud or snow or ice. Or like today, all three.

We were driving Sasha's station wagon. At one point, we slid off the crest of two ruts, and got stuck in adjacent deep mud-filled ruts. The car bottomed out with a crunch, and I got out to inspect. The wheels spun freely in the filth, clearly not touching the bottom. Pushing had no effect, since the whole weight of the car was on its bottom.

Suddenly, thankfully, and miraculously, another car came up behind us. They were in a wonderful mood and joked around with us while helping. One guy looked at me and asked where I was from. The answer caused uproarious laughter. An American in a mud puddle in the middle of rural Buryatia! Imagine! "Take pictures," they said, "so you can show everyone back home what its like here."

They hauled us out and we found another path to our destination, a large valley on the opposite side of the mountains from Baikal. The ecology there is completely different, more barren and wasteland like - asia's northernmost steppe. But stark and severe as it was, it was very beautiful. At one point, we were beneath a hilltop crowned with rock formations.
"Do you want to go up there and get a closer look?" Sasha asked.
"Sure," I said.
"Go ahead," he said. "I'll be down here waiting for you."

Darn. Tricked into hiking up a hill. And what a hike it turned out to be. At points, it seemed like a 45 degree angle - though that perspective could simply be due to my hunched over wheezing position. The up-bound direction was positively brutal.

But I was rewarded at the top by outstanding views of the plains, the mountains, the valley, little villages below me closely hugging the bends of a river. Amazing.

At another rock outcropping, much more accessible, we inspected rock paintings from more than 3000 years ago. A really amazing experience to see so many things in one area.

It was an incredible day - to top it off we found some of the roads that we needed to take back to town were completely impassable. And for a road in Buryatia, that is a real distinction.

In honor of the holiday, dinner included some homemade vodka produced from berries that grow along the lake shore. I toasted their hospitality for making me feel like family on such an important holiday, and they toasted my successful travels.

That sort of wound up my rural experiences with my host/guide. It was enough to keep my eyes and head swimming with the impressions for a long, long time to come.