ep.10: Gems of Georgian tourism!
Having completely drunk the life-giving water of Borjomi, we headed further to explore the Georgian lands. Not far from Kutaisi, another large city in Georgia which can be compared with Tbilisi and Batumi, there is a very remarkable tourist place: Prometheus Cave, as well as, a little further away, a park with a waterfall. That's where we headed this time. It must be said that the weather is already starting to deteriorate and it is raining more and more often, what you can notice from the shots of black clouds.
A little bit scary, but still beautiful. Snap! What a persimmon! And this unremarkable hole is a cave of Prometheus. You couldn't tell that, right? So we're inside. This is the largest cave in Georgia, it is very ancient
it is more than a million years old, but it was discovered only in 1983. It has underground lakes and rivers, there is very high humidity, there are more than ten grottoes, but tourists are allowed into only three. The temperature here is 15 degrees.
It itself spreads over 11 kilometers, but we will only cover a tenth of it. Kumistavi received its sonorous tourist name “Prometheus Cave” thanks to the famous Caucasian myth about Amirani, who, like Prometheus, angered the gods, because of which he was punished. Days and nights the eagle tormented his liver; however, unlike the ancient Greek titan, the cruel gods chained Amirani not outside, but somewhere inside a large cave. According to the assumption of former Georgian President Saakashvili, it was inside the Prometheus Cave. Guide: "As I already told you stalactites are growing from the ceiling downwards but please look on my right hand side - here you can see strange looking cave formation which is growing sideways - it is called "helictites" and speleologists believe that it is made so by movement of air (by wind). Of course here is not strong wind in the cave
we can feel sometimes. I must mention that air is so fresh in the cave and it is good for treatment of asthma and for allergy also. You have to breathe deeply - it is good for your lungs. We call it spellio-therapy and it will be during 1 hour for you. On my left hand side here is a lake of wishes and you can wish something. You can throw coins, $100 also is not a problem.
It’s so wet and cool here, and the surroundings inadvertently make your imagination run wild. Walking around the cave and looking at the natural forms of crystals and stones, your consciousness itself begins to form images and silhouettes of monsters lurking in the shadows. Here there is a saber-toothed tiger waiting for its prey, and here Golum is fishing and cherishing his ring, here is the place to look for inspiration for stories in the genre of mysticism and horror. And who is this? Try to guess! I give you three seconds: one, two, three. Come on! Come on! This is the brainchild of Lovecraft, which waits for the correct arrangement of stars in order to fly to its planet, and drives random earthlings crazy, this is Cthulhu. So we met with him.
Since we chose not a highway, but some unknown road running through villages, the next day of our journey passed very calmly. We walked along houses and fields, passing various animals. The minibus driver gave us a lift for free, and during our route through the villages we were dropped off again about 5-6 times over a short distance. It is very quiet, the sun shines and we can see the mountains in the distance. This kind of hitchhiking is very pleasant and is more like a hike in the forest. *There are about six eagles flying here, but you don't see them* We got there! We're in canyon in Georgia. It cost 70 lary to get here for one person and for that price sometimes
you think: "Yes, humanity took all nature and there is no wild place in the planet anymore! And those waterfalls you cannot find them by your own self somewhere in the forest. And it's like more tourist attraction! But in that case, I would say that actually, is it really possible in the wild nature to find a beautiful waterfall? And is it possible to get so close to it? Without out those stairs, and bricks, and the bridges? I don't think so! Thus we have what we have and we could just enjoy this waterfall! When you see such a wonderful place in the nature, the human soul is always wondering what I am going to do if I fall down? So you know, the the human soul/ the human being cannot just contemplate and watch beauty of the nature, you always think that the nature is always about the death and the life so that's why we think about that when we're watching something like that - You just ruined the shot! We are walking and a dog accompanies us It swears at those who litter! Because the dog just took a candy wrapper out of a puddle, put it on the ground, drank from the puddle and barked! Because she doesn't like people who litter - it's an eco-activist! It is a good dog, it accompanies us until the road so we can go away! When you travel you meet a lot of those dogs who accompanies you, those are good dogs! We're going to Mestia. There is a it's a nice place with a lot of mountains and we already can see some mountains from here. There is snowy and the marshrutka driver said that it's probably snowing over there, so we're hoping to find a hostel there. We choose the different road to get in there not the main road with a highway but the small roads from the village to village.
That's why there is, here it's very calm, there's a lot of pigs, animals, dogs and a lot of persimmons. Finally we got picked up by a van who lift us for 15 km approximately - Take this chicken if you need! K: We have a bread! Huray! So we got the free bread, free three pack of bread from the person who is working as a delivery of bread in the small shops in the villages. Also we bought something to eat in the small shop. We continue to move forward from the one village to another. And we already passed
some quite a lot of villages and we're nearby the mountain/ the peak where we're trying to get, trying to be. And those villages are pretty nice because they're calm a lot of village animals... W: This is a bad spot! It's turn! K: What turn? W: There, cars are passing from the turn! K: But they see us from far away! W: Well, ok. K: Do you want to walk more? More uphill? W: I don't care. K: Oh, you're too strong! W: Yep, not like you.
W: So rude! ...Because in the small villages it's pleasant to do a hitchhiking, because it's calm, it's... there is a nature everywhere. But the issue is that actually there's not a lot of car/traffic and also the car takes you often (like each one third car takes you) but they don't go far away, they go just like five or 10 km, so you don't do a lot of route but still it's pleasant! Now we're going to abandoned sanatorium (like a hotel with a health recovery system: with a swimming pool and etc.) from a Soviet time. So as you see it's a souvenir from the Soviet times and today like not today but like 20 years ago the immigrants from Abkhazia were living over here so you will see how it's inside. In this region there's also some other abandoned houses. The abandoned houses are all like memory from the Soviet times. We will se how it's inside and we have a dog.
This is a Mr Boy. Hello dog! You're owner of this house now, right? We are going to the top of the stairs to look at it and now for the people who were leaving over here there is a new brand new uh house also with a lot of floors over there which was built by Georgian government and the people who are living there is living over there right now. But still they don't like it because in Abkhazia it was better. Let's go over there! K: Oh! I don't like it! K: It looks dangerous! W: No, it's okay! K: I don't want to die, you know? Tight now we're on the roof - on the on the top of this building/of the abandoned house and as you see from here over there there's another building exactly the same and over there there's one more! And now I can show you the houses where the immigrants living right now so it's over there brand new houses beautiful ones W: Hello doggy! W: Mr. Doggy, Mr. Doggy? W: Is it good? Have you petted this dog yet? W: You are so active! K: Congratulations, now we have a dog! K: Do you want that someone throw a ball for you? K: That a beautiful stairs! W: Be careful doggy! Here is slippery! W: It is young, it runs and runs!
2023-12-21 14:58
