The bus drive was supposed to be 10 hours but ended up being 14 hours due to a few reasons. The border crossing was a very long time, but it is hard to tell how much of that time they already account for in the travel time estimate. At one point our driver pulled over for almost 1 hour with no explanation. At some point people started asking the driver to get off early in villages instead of the end point destination. There was only supposed to be two stops, but it’s nice that people can use this bus to get home, too. The only issue is that then we were stopping all the time to let people off. The bus also stopped for anyone to hop on (for some cash) all along the roads outside the villages. Luckily the drive was scenic, passing farms, mountains, and the large Issyk-Kul lake.

Exhausted from the long night bus we were eager to check in to our guesthouse. As it turned out, Kyrgyzstan was one of the few countries not included in our international phone plan, which meant no data. We had the address saved in google maps for the guesthouse we had booked and made our way there. Unfortunately this was just a market and not a guesthouse. We asked some locals to help us and they gave us a new address which ended up being a hostel (not our guesthouse). We used their wifi to try and contact our guesthouse with no answer. Nick noticed that the GPS coordinates did not match the address provided so we tried walking to the GPS coordinates instead. After 4 hours of searching in the heat with no response from the guesthouse it was looking hopeless. We walked into a house to ask for some help to see if they knew the guesthouse we were looking for. It turns out they didn’t, but they ran their own guesthouse. They only spoke Russian, but were very expressive so it was easy to get sorted and check in.

Karakol is a pretty small with not much to do. It is a great starting point for an endless number of either day hikes or backpacking hikes. We wanted to see the animal market on Sunday, but ended up being away that day and missed it. It was easy to walk around the town, trying the different foods and seeing the main sights, in a few hours. Nick and I started with a quick walk to the Russian Orthodox Church, passing colorful houses along the way. It’s an old, fully wooden church we learned was used for many purposes during the Soviet Union time. Originally meant to be burnt down, the local people begged to keep it even if it meant not using it as a church.

The Dungan Mosque was next on our list and had many beautiful bright primary colors on the outside, but was hard to get a good picture of. Inside was closed for visitors when we went. For food we tried beet salad, ashlan-fu (a cold and spicy noodle dish), doners, milkshakes (which in this part of the world don’t actually have any ice cream in them), pastries, and more. We visited a few markets and got 1/2 kilo of strawberries for under $2. They were so yummy.

Jeti Oguz is a village easily accessible from Karakol by marshrutka (small mini bus). There are beautiful red rock formations and a hiking trail to a waterfall there. Nick and I took the marshrutka to the village, then walked along the road towards the hiking area until a car pulled over that would give us a reasonable price. The more official taxis waiting by the marshrutka area give extremely high prices to tourists compared to what it should be. The rocks were bright red, which was a nice contrast to the blue sky we were lucky to have.

The hike to the waterfall starts behind the buildings by the hill with the red rock viewpoints. Walking along that road theres a place where cars have to pay to enter, but people by foot can go through for free. From this booth and back was 8.5 miles long and took us around 3 hours to hike including our lunch break by the waterfall. The hike was along a road most of the way, with views of a river winding through pine trees. Near the end we got to a yurt camp where a little boy was riding his donkey.

From the yurt camp is where the actual trail begins. The trail to the waterfall was easy to follow and relatively short. The waterfall was tall and thin with a nice pile of rocks to sit on below for a break. We enjoyed our packed lunches here while another group of tourists flew their drone around. Apparently the butterflies found this super appealing and all flew to get a closer look before getting shredded by the blades. Once back in Karakol we enjoyed some lemonade, shashlik (grilled lamb on a stick), and ice cream cones. Karakol had the most ice cream stands of any place we had been; it was crazy.

In the morning we were picked up from our guesthouse, along with another couple, for the drive to the start of our 4 day backpacking hike. For the 4 days it would be us, the guide, Azim, and this other couple from Denmark named Adam and Frida who were super nice. Our itineraries, the guide’s estimates, and my phone tracker never lined up for the distances we covered each day so take the distances with a pinch of salt. We noticed the driver had a knife in his car so we asked what it was for. He laughed and joked he couldn’t tell us. It was a funny start to our trip. The view along the drive was forested, passing many hikers and a river.

We were dropped off straight to our yurt camp where we would be staying the evening in Karakol Gorge. It was so cute with lots of couple sized traditional yurts (using sheep skin). They were colorful inside, warm, and cozy. Our hiking this first day was an out and back day hike from camp to a view of Karakol Peak. In total from walking around camp and the hike we did 16 miles that day. It took us about 6 hours in total.

The hike to view Karakol Peak was relatively easy. It was gently uphill with some short stints of steepness. The hike was in the forest some of the time and other times in open fields with flowers. We had views of a rushing grey river whenever the forest opened up. The last part of the hike was maneuvering through a large boulder field. Frida scraped her leg on a rock. It wasn’t too deep, but bleed a lot.

At the end, the view was incredible. There was a glacier at the end of a beautiful valley filled with many small streams leading to the river and a herd of horses. We stayed here and enjoyed our snacks while taking in the views. The couples took turns taking photos for each other as well. This view ended up being one of the most gorgeous places on the 4 day trek. On the way back it was getting darker over the valley and the views were just as great as the way in.

After arriving back to camp and having some chill time, it was time for dinner. Dinner was a soup with vegetables and meat followed by some manti (dumplings). When we finished, one of the staff of the camp wanted to play and sing for us a few songs in Kazakh. He was pretty talented. I assume the woman who was there was his partner because she was filming him the whole time super enthusiastically; it was adorable. The camp had so many baby cows around, too, which added greatly to my personal experience.

Day 2 of our 4 day backpacking trip started by crossing the river by our yurt camp and heading up through the forest. In total our day was about 8.6 miles long from our Karakol Gorge yurt camp to our Ala-Kul Lake camp and took about 5.5 hours. It was 99% uphill which we did slow and steady, thankfully. On the way up we passed another camp named Sirota where other hikers spend the night before hiking up to the lake. There was also a beautiful waterfall where we took a lunch break.

After grueling hours spent hiking only up, we finally made it to the first viewpoint of the lake. Unsurprisingly, it was incredible up there. The front of the lake had views of the hiking trail meandering through the green hillside to the left, mountain edges all around, and bright turquoise water. There were purple flowers in some places, too. We were lucky to have a blue sky with some clouds. The clouds created spotted patterns on the lake which our guide told us is how it got its name (translated as Motley Lake). There was one other group there for a few minutes before we got the place all to ourselves, just like the day before at Karakol Peak.

After taking lots of photos it was time to continue along the trail to our campsite. Our campsite was on the opposite end of the lake by a glacier that was feeding the lake. The campsite was one of the most beautiful we have ever camped in. The toilet even had a gorgeous view over the lake. The four of us decided to try and go for a swim in the lake. Although everyone did get fully submerged, I’d say only Nick counted as having had an actual swim.

The four of us got dressed and spent several hours chatting down by the lake. It was such a scenic spot for hanging out for the afternoon. I was happy we made it there early so we could have more time to enjoy the view. Dinner was incredible, yet again, with a delicious wild mushroom soup and some vegetables with grilled sausage.

Day 3 was about 9.3 miles and took just shy of 8 hours. It was much slower than other days. Nick and I guessed it was a combination of being our fourth day in a row hiking and how steep the down part was. We had to be super careful. Our day started by going up the pass to get one final look at Ala-Kul Lake from above. On the way I hit my leg on a boulder while trying to climb over. Luckily it didn’t bleed, but it did hurt and left a large scab later. The view from the top also had the glacier in it that we camped near the night before. The viewing point at the top of the pass was the only part of the trail that felt busy. It was a small space and people came up there from either side. We were maybe a dozen people at a time there.

After taking in the views we made our way down the other side, which was incredibly steep. The small rocks slid a lot so sometimes our steps would last a long time. We tried to be slow and steady, but it was pretty scary. When it became less steep we started walking a normal pace and I immediately slipped and fell hard on my butt right in front of two strangers taking a rest on the trail. I ended up with a nasty welt and bruise from that one. It went nicely with my scrapped shin.

I think our guide was afraid someone would fall again so our pace slowed down after that. The majority of the trail that day was covered in loose rocks that made it slippery. We passed a yurt camp where people could rent horses, there were so many of them. After this yurt camp we continued making our way down the valley to get to our camp for the night, a yurt in Altyn Arashan. The camp had a lot of horses and the yurts were giant.

Altyn Arashan is known for its hot springs. The four of us got to have one hot spring soak before dinner and it was so nice. The water was incredibly hot so we had to get in and out of it. The hot spring was in a private cement shed-like building. Dinner was a classic soup with meat, vegetables and cous cous as well as various trays of salads and breads. This was our first dinner at a yurt camp where there were actually other guests there at the same time. We got to enjoy dinner and breakfast the next day with an Italian family who were quite engaging.

Our fourth and final day was approximately 11.3 miles, but a quick day. The hike was mostly downhill and flat so we finished in a few hours. The views were nicest at the start when we were in the valley. Some people just drive out of the village so we were passed by many trucks and small busses, which stirred up a bit of dirt. We enjoyed a short lived rainbow with the quick morning rain. There was one river crossing, where Nick helped me a lot with by carrying me over one section. Once we arrived in Ak-Suu village, we were picked up by our little bus and taken back to our guesthouse. The hike was incredible and we were happy to get back to our guesthouse to do some much needed laundry.

We had dinner at Dastorkon. It was nice to get whatever we wanted after so many days camping and hiking. The two of us shared two salads, manti, horse sausages, and duck. Nick tried a more traditional dessert he described as a local attempt at a Reese’s peanut butter cup. I opted for a milkshake. Everything was pretty good and it was exactly what we needed after all the trekking.