Back down to the valley and the town of Azau...

Report: August 3, 2006

Yesterday we made our way back down to the valley and the town of Azau. We spent the afternoon relaxing and catching up on sleep and wondering around the village visiting local merchant kiosks and stores. Last night I joined a bunch of others from the group for a late night at the hotel bar to celebrate.
It seems that slowly everybody is getting the “bug” and coming down with intestinal illness. Luckily, dad and I have been fine.
Today, a few of us went on a deaclimization hike up a local valley just east of us. Along the way, we had to pass through a Russian military checkpoint in the middle of the hike. Apparently, the region we were hiking is fairly close to the Georgian border. The solders were very nice and chatted us up on where we were all from.
This afternoon we had our celebration BBQ and enjoyed shaslik (we think it’s goat or lamb), beer, wine, and champagne. Tomorrow we depart for Moscow.