July 11 - Terskol

Today we ate breakfast and took our first hike together to an observatory perched on a hilltop. The trail was just an acclimitization hike up a dirt road. It took us about 3 hours to reach the observatory, which was shuttered. The best part of the hike was all of the flowers that were in bloom along the road. Some I recognized from home, but many of them I have never seen before. After the hike and lunch we found a small climbing store which caters to the groups here to climb Elbrus. We discovered they had free reliable Wifi. That is how I am back blogging. We walked back to our small hotel to repack our packs and have dinner. I hope you have noticed by now that we are doing a lot of eating. Our cook, Fatimah, is supposed to be the best cook in the valley and I assure you that she is! Every single dish she has made has been delicious. We have had dumplings, stuffed peppers, donuts dipped in red raspberry jam, caviar, borsch, you get the idea. Yummy!