Lahij to Sheki

After four nights in Baku – during which one gets to know the neighborhood a little by going back to the same store and seeing the same people in the park and getting a feel for the rhythm of life – we piled into our lil’ bus and drove west through the arid hills to the Juma Mosque of Shamakhi, the oldest site for a mosque in Azerbaijan (tho’ its been rebuilt)…

We drove on to a nice place for lunch, with views and a pond, then the rural village of Lahij, where we checked into Rustan’s country guesthouse…

Shortly after being assigned our rooms, we went for a walk through the cobblestone streets of the village. Among other things for sale, there were lots of options for flavored teas & animal skins…

Lahij is known for it’s artisan metal crafts and we spent some time in one workshop, eventually visiting the family home and exiting through the gift shop…

A story: Just above there’s a picture on the wall that depicts various world leaders around 1918. It was found by the family hidden under a mirror, seemingly protected from the destruction by Soviet thought police.

We continued our walk through Lahij taking in some views and local color. Near the end of this batch, note the cemetery and the gas pipes that are ubiquitous…

Back at the guesthouse, we did a little work with some yogurt before having a lovely dinner…

The next morning, having eaten our yogurt, we departed for the city of Sheki. Along the way, we stopped to check out a somewhat precarious foot bridge across a valley. Amazingly, I was the only one in our group of 12 to pay the 2 manat to walk it to the other side. Met some nice folks, took in the view, and ambled across to continue our journey – during which we encountered some cows…

Thanks to fellow traveler Niall, I have these pix of me crossing the bridge…

Our next stop on our way to Sheki was to a Nij village, a settlement of the Udi people who are the direct descendants of ancient Caucasian Albanians. We visited a charming family museum that Orhan Pamuk would have approved of…

A little further on our journey to Sheki was an Albanian church with an interesting photo gallery and impressive Azerbaijani sycamores…

Since it was getting near lunch time, we stopped for some tea and snacks.

Eventually, we made it to Sheki, checked into our hotel, then went out to explore the neighborhood. Met a cool guy who operates a little tea house/pub near our hotel.

After that, we went to an entertaining wine tasting before another great dinner…