Fall Break

Our Fall Break arrived! A whole week off so we went to do some exploring. Sounds easy, but here in Kazakhstan, it isn't. The plan was to go to the Altyn Emel State National Natural Park. After about 20 in-conclusive phone calls--and that isn't an exaggeration--we decided to go and accept that whatever happened would happen. No one knew if the park would be open, how to book a hotel, or how long it would take to get there. Also, if we got there and wanted to stay another night, we would have to book it here in Almaty. They said that they would not take cash in the park--we had a very hard time believing that. We left on Monday morning and Kyla and Cody were amazing for how much driving we did--it was extremely bumpy.

This was the Director General Kurmanaliyev Sauytbek Kurmanaliyevich's office at the gateway to the park--we even met the man. He had to sign the papers that allowed us to enter the park. They had no problem taking our money--even though they spoke no English. It took us about 5 hours to get to the park. We stopped about 6 times for instructions, bought gas whenever we saw a station (they're very sparse) and were pulled over once by the police. But once in the park, we had a guide with us at all times. No: he didn't speak english.

There are always horses on every road trip.

We are on our way to the White and Red Mountains and the Singing Sand Dunes--it was very dry.

Finally, we made it to the Red & White Mountains