If I go on and on about Tajikistan for a few posts please understand…it was a nearly perfect few days in a place unlike any other I’ve been in…also it was the few days before we all came down with the nasty, nastier and nastiest bug that colored our experience dull gray for awhile. So here’s the second of four Tajik posts; this one primarily a photo album.

After a good night’s sleep under our piles of heavy quilts, a morning walk, and a simple breakfast in these most picturesque surroundings, we left Seven Lakes for Lake Iskanderkul.

The day’s drive was by turns smooth and jolting but always scenic in a most top-of-the-world kind of way.

Eventually we pull up the last rocky road to Lake Iskanderkul which is named after Alexander the Great who supposedly visited here on his way to conquer more even more territory.  Once again, I will plead description-exhaustion and borrow Lonely Planet’s words. “Iskander-Kul is an opal-blue mountain lake that looks almost tropical in strong sunlight. It isn’t. At 2195m, it invites a distinctly chilly swim even in summer. The approach to the lake is made particularly interesting by the streaks of copper and iron oxide that striate the barren mountains, contrasting with pockets of virulent green vegetation along the river’s edge.”

We stop for a walk before checking into our lodgings for the night.

Home Sweet Home for a night.