Kyrgyzstan: Hiking, Part 2

I had done some Googling of “hikes close to Bishkek” and had found several easy to moderate trails that led to famous waterfalls: Alamedin Gorge, Ala Archa Gorge, Issyk Ata, and Chunkurchak. 

Ala Archa Gorge

I would hike all four trails by the end of my trip. 

Alamedin Gorge

Each destination was well-known among locals and tourists alike, and so I easily found busses to the trailheads and hiking tips in English on travel blogs. 

Chunkurchak

This particular blog post is about my trip to Issyk Ata, which had a hiking trail to a waterfall as well as a hot spring. 

The waterfall, which was the main destination for the hiking trail here (as it was for the other hikes), was supposed to only be 2.3 km away. The hostel dad was worried about me though, making sure I was stocked up on water and snacks. He made me promise to call him if I had any troubles getting home, and assured me that I should pay no more than 100 som for the minibus (marshrutka) home. I assured him I would be fine and set off on the way, enjoying the views while following the trail route along on my hiking app All Trails. 

The views were majestic. There were tall snowcapped glaciers in the background with grassy mountains in the foreground as I walked in the valley of a gorge. 

I walked past pastures of cows grazing. 

The fields around me were dotted with purple, pink and yellow wild flowers. I crossed little streams and walked along the meandering trail that crisscrossed the hill side and generally followed the river down in the gorge below.

I kept walking and finally the trail stopped and I came across a horse that was clearly abused.  

Its front two legs had been tied together so it couldn’t move. It was in this small little pen that was full of its own shit, so there were flies everywhere, and there were flies eating its eyes and face. All it could do was constantly twitch, blink and flap its tail, but it couldn’t move at all. It was skinny and didn’t even have any water to drink. I felt so bad for it and I suspected that the horse was for tourism purposes. This made me vow never to go horseback riding for tourist purposes unless I know they take good care of the horses. 

I kept walking following the trail on All Trails. It started to thunderstorm. I put on my rain jacket and waited underneath a thick tree while I waited for the storm to mostly pass. It was beautiful to watch the rain fall from my spot underneath the tree. Eventually I started walking again, and it was still raining quite a bit so my hands got cold. Before too long, the sun came out and it got hot again. 

Watching the rain and the flowers, listening to the chirping of the birds, gazing at the mountains in the background and walking through the creek crossing the path, I felt at peace.