Armenia ENGLISH

After resting in Tbilisi we set off towards Armenia, both countries share the same religion and have many things in common, though  luckily for us,compared to their Georgian neighbours, Armenian drivers are much more friendlier towards cyclist and we felt like riding along a bike path.

We crossed the river Debed which forms a natural boundary between both countries and entered a canyon full of copper mines, the water coming down the river was really polluted and when we reached the industrial city of Alaverdi we understood why, there is a huge copper smelter in the town centre, releasing a vast amount of toxic fumes into the atmosphere. This factory has seen little changes since the Soviet times, they have extended the chimney into a nearby hill however the town still has smog all over it.

Fernando who is very organized always keeps good check of the weather forecast, after few days of sunshine he announced that we would have snow on the following day. As hard as it was to believe the forecast was correct and next day we woke up to a freezing morning! Armenia is very mountainous and we had to cross several high passes on our way south so we had to rush a bit before we got into trouble. This has translated in less interaction with the locals who they all are very friendly, however we've been able to enjoy the ever changing scenery very much; going over rocky mountains, grassy plateaus  or  around the immense lake Sevan which takes up 5% of Armenia's land.

We now in the southern town of Meghri, just 10km away from the Iranian border. We've come across few travelers who just visited Iran saying nothing but great things about its people, we feel very excited about going in and I think it will be one of the highlights of this trip. On the downside they do have some internet censorship so I'll have to try to find a way around it, don't worry if you don't hear from me on the next two months:)

Cheers

Armenia-ENGLISH from lander on Vimeo.