 |
| Maiden's Tower |
By virtue of a poorly worded memo, I really thought I had to
work for four hours on Monday, so my parameters for finding a place to go was
it had to be a nonstop flight leaving after a certain time and be a little
farther away than I could do on a Friday-Sunday weekend.
Flights.Google.com is a really fun tool and, after much ado,
I finally found something that fit what I was looking for: Azerbaijan, specifically,
Baku.
For those who don’t know, Azerbaijan is a relatively new
country that came out of the breaking up of the Soviet Union. There are a lot
of historic sites, but the country itself came about in the 1990s.
Its nickname is “the land of fire” because it’s rich in
natural gas and oil. My first day, I went to a site with “mud volcanoes,”
which, from what I understood, were caused in part by the natural gasses
underground. On the way, there were literal pools of oil, just like Jed
Clampett found on his property.
In this case, they’re found near Gobustan, a little area
about 60 kilometers from Baku. There are lots of them there. (Wiki says that 400
of the 800 known mud volcanoes are in Azerbaijan, so it must be true, right?)
 |
| Black gold |
They apparently occur when water underground gets warm mixes
with the dirt, which makes the mud. It’s not lava, but it looks really slurry
and then dries in funky formations. It seems that although it’s heated
underground, it’s cooled off by the time it gets to the surface. I saw this
because not only did I stick my fingers in it, but a bunch of kids there at the
same time were playing in it.
Since I’m not a science major, I really don’t understand how
the stuff makes it to the surface except that the earth is sometimes angry and
spits stuff out. Wiki says, “This material is then forced upwards through a
geological fault or fissure due to local subterranean pressure imbalances.”
Sounds like “spit out” to me.
Anyway, it was very cool to see. I had a driver for the day
and it was sort of Mongolia-like, driving off the road, past a bunch of
pipelines and then up some really bouncy dirt paths for about five kilometers
before arriving at a fairly steep incline. When we reached the top, there were
suddenly a bunch of mounds of varying heights, plus a tour bus full of kids.
I took over 100 pictures. Leanne wasn’t impressed, but you
have to realize it really was amazing. Although we do have some of these in the
U.S. – Beth and John saw them in Yellowstone – I had never even heard of them.
It was fun, trying to figure out how to photograph them.
 |
| Petroglyphics |
At work, I’ve been issued an iPhone, and only took that with
me – no laptop, no camera. I’m still relatively new to smartphones, and it was
quite a struggle to try to work the photos. I was really bad at the shutter and
kept getting “blasts” of a bunch of pictures, like 3-46 of them. It was kind of
fun to play some of those back quickly because they looked like cartoon.
After culling and deleting, I wound up with 99 pictures. I
was just so amazed at the natural beauty that I couldn’t stop taking pictures.
The drive was very monochrome – shades of sandy brown and
not much else. Still, I thought it was amazing.
After the mud volcanoes – and much banging mud out of my
Chacos – I stopped in the village to see the cave drawings, which date back to
the Middle Ages.
 |
| Mud volcano |
Again, lots of photos. Some drawings were easy to spot, and
some were absolutely not. But I loved the rock formations and kept snapping
away. I also liked the deserty flowers. The snake warning sign scared me, but
it was around 3 p.m. and I knew all critters would be hanging out in the cool
places, not directly in the sun like I was. I stayed on the path, though. Didn’t
want any surprises.
Baku itself was fascinating. It’s a new country, a new “democracy,”
and new to tourists, all of whom they assume to be Russian. The city has a
bright and shiny façade on it, but if you look behind it, you see haggard old
buildings. There’s an effort to look
polished – people as well as places – but it’s a bit raw behind the shine.
The Fountain Square was a beautiful little area, with new
stores, cobblestones and works of art down by the waterfront. That area was
front and center last month, when the Grand Prix rolled through. A ways away,
an entire dilapidated neighborhood was being razed and we got snarled in a
traffic jam.
 |
| Beware! |
The historic city was intriguing. Again, it was all
monochrome – not a lot of color at all, but still beautiful. The Maiden Tower
is the city’s most well-known landmark, although in touring it, it’s clear no
one knows exactly why it was built. There are several theories and all fit, but
no one knows for sure. Ditto for the reason it’s known as Maiden’s Tower. Lots
of speculation, but no proof.
In all, I have 231 photos from the three-day trip. I don’t
think it’s a record, but that’s after paring it down as much as I could.
Heading out, I was six days removed from the bombing at the
airport. There was a memorial, which choked me up big time. There weren’t too
many people there. My trip there was kind of charmed, really. I was in no
hurry, but hadn’t flown out of the airport yet, so I wasn’t sure how it worked.
It seems many colleagues cough up $37 each way to hire a car to the airport,
but it’s about a two-hour drive. The metro is long and boring, but it’s only an
hour. Plus, it’s about $5 including the taxi to the metro station. (My apartment
is about four kilometers from the nearest metro. I opted to be close to the
office, so this is the tradeoff and I am fine with it.)
 |
| Flaming Towers at night |
Anyway, for me, the metro is the way to go. Going and coming
were flawless as far as that went. The dicey part was immigration – man, I want
my diplomatic passport back. The wait was over an hour long. There were
fistfights. I almost got into it, too. Some woman tried to muscle around me and
I blocked her, saying she was behind me. She then tried to get around the other
side and I blocked her again. But then she essentially shoved me out of the
way, then pushed – and I mean, linebacker-like – further ahead. I figured she
wasn’t worth it, but man, I want my visa in order. I do not want to do that
again.
Hopefully, I can get that done next month. I don’t intend to
fly internationally until I get it, and then it’ll be to depart and return on
the proper visa.
Looking ahead, I have six potential long weekends left in
the calendar year. I’m hopeful I can maximize.
No comments:
Post a Comment