Hiking Interrupted

Last weekend, we set off to go hiking in the countryside.  We plugged our destination into our GPS and hit the road.  We were driving along, watching mountain peaks getting closer, when we suddenly came to a barrier across the road.  A very nice man came out of his booth and said something unintelligible to us.  We mimed that we were trying to drive through and named our destination:  Xinaliq.  He made multiple gestures and said more things we couldn't decipher.  Finally we understood one word:  President.  With that, we realized this was an access road to (one of) the President's villas and there was no chance we were driving through.  The man continued to make animated gestures and then jumped into our car.  He motioned for us to turn around and rode with us a few minutes down the road before pointing to a side road we had blown right past.  We drove him back to his post and thanked him profusely.  First crisis averted.

A few more miles down the road, we drove through a spectacular canyon and then began to climb up one of the narrow, winding mountain passes that dot the Azerbaijani countryside.  While Jeremy managed the switchbacks, I got to enjoy the scenery.

Jeremy waves from our car

As we arrived in Xinaliq, I realized I had to go to the bathroom.  Now, Azerbaijan is not necessarily the type of place that has a toilet at every gas station.  Plus Xinaliq was little more than a gathering of houses along the road and didn't have a gas station anyway!  We strolled through the village and some helpful people pointed out a toilet.  At first I wondered if this was a trick to see if the foreigner would fall for the bait, because this toilet was literally perched on the edge of a cliff!  But when ya gotta go, ya gotta go!  I did my business, and the locals weren't gathered outside laughing when I emerged. Second crisis averted.

A toilet with a view

Now we were ready for our hike.  We noticed a structure in the distance that looked like the entrance to a hiking trail.  Once we got closer, we could read the sign:  Shahdag National Park.  But then some unfriendly men came out of their booth, stopped us, and asked for our documents.  Puzzled, we said we didn't have any documents.  The look on their faces clearly conveyed, "No documents, no entry."  Having no idea what documents were needed for a simple hike, we shrugged our shoulders and returned to our car.  Third crisis not averted.  We didn't get to hike, but instead got a nice drive through the mountains, and a good story to tell!

Beautiful mountain scenery outside Xinaliq