Karakol is a middle sized city in the East of Kyrgyzstan. It’s a bit of a travel hub for people wanting to explore the countryside which mostly consists *drumroll* of mountains. As does over 90% of the country. It is runoured that the most scenic hike of the route leads to the heights of Altyn-Arashan. From there, you can climb another 10 km to Alak-Köl lake.
So we went on the hike to Altyn-Arashan. It’s 17 km one way, the last third being the exhausting part, as that is the part that actually gains altitude. The scenery was beautiful, steep mountainsides covered in pine forests, the ice-blue river meandering through the valley, eagles soaring up above- and it would not be Kyrgyzstan if there weren’t a few horses grazing here and there, unattended. All in all it felt a lot like what I imagine Canada to be like.
We reached Altyn-Arashan after about 5 hours of walking. There’s not much of a villiage to speak of, from I gathered there were always just a few families grazing their herds there- and now they’ve all opened guest houses and yurt camps. And above it all, a great glacier looks.
We chose a guesthouse at random, which turned out to be a mistake. But first, we went to the hot springs, which were the main reason for us to want to get up there. There were several basins with water of different temperatures, but all of it very warm and a perfect way to relax after the long hike. Fred tried dipping in the river afterwards to cool off, but the water was painfully cold. Me, I was just glad to be warm for once. Our room proved a disappointment. The matresses in the bed didn’t fit the frame, which made if quite uncomfortable, the bathroom had barely any water and worst of all, it was very cold. We spent the night bundled up in all of our clothes. In the morning, our breath was visible in the air. Winter is definitely coming. We opted out of hiking up to the lake and decided to descend instead- we’ve had enough of lakes for now and frankly, I didn’t want to spend another night like that. All in all, although the views were stunning, Altyn-Arashan did not live up to our expectations.
