Kyrgyzstan Landscape

Pastoral

Kyrgyzstan, south of Issyk Kul Lake 2012

It was October. Maybe the Ala Too Mountains south of Issyk Kul Lake are always covered in snow, but it had snowed on the peaks several times as we toured the area. I think the temperature where we were was in the 60’s. We were driving back to Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan and we jumped out of the car for one last shot of a Kyrgyz horseman.

Most visitors to Kyrgyzstan go for the hiking, mountain climbing or other sports like fishing. It’s a beautiful land with poplar trees lining the roadways, snow-covered mountains, rushing streams and pristine lakes. The population of the country is only 5 million so, if you want nature, you’ll have nature.

The Kyrgyz people are outnumbered by people of Russian descent. Russian is the lingua franca, but the Kyrgyz speak their language as well. They still roam the open land on horseback as they did in nomadic days. Now and then we did see a yurt, but they don’t live in them anymore.

I crawled across a culvert to get this shot. I didn’t want any weeds or bushes in my photo. I was concentrating on the horseman and his sheep. I didn’t remember including the mountains. And when Torie said she had made sure to get the mountains, I had a moment of panic thinking that I had missed the drama of the scene. But here they are in all their glory.