Khevsureti, Georgia

I hope to catch you up on my recent activities.  It has been a fun and busy time, which is great.  One highlight was a 2 day camping trip to Khevsureti.  This is a four wheel drive trip up to some old ruins and beautiful views. I should mention the 4 wheel drive was a 16 passenger marshutka Mercedes van. We passed over Datvisjvar Pass at 2677 meters ( 8800 ft) and started toward the northern Khevsureti region.  Shatili is a mountain town  built of cliff hanging towers from the 7-13th century. We had some great meandering among the ruins. It was restored in 2000 and is a UNESCO site.

Mutso was another meandering destination,  with over 40 medieval fortified towers.  Beautiful. And finally, we stopped at the Anatori Crypts. During the Black Death the entire village died.  People would take themselves to the crypts and lie down to await their fate so they wouldn't infect their families.  The crypts are on the side of the mountain, overlooking the river.

To me though, as many of you know, the real beauty came from the mountains.  Since they were lower than our Colorado mountains, they reminded me more of the Swiss Alps - green blankets with higher snow capped peaks behind them.  They also looked more like northern Italian Alps. We didn't have time really hike the mountains... but then I do have 2 years...