The next morning we started driving at the first light.

At first we made slow progress because driving down a river bed is not easy, even in a soviet personnel carrier. And the vehicle had a few engine problems that required tinkering. Like my old Volkswagen, a soviet tank only sort of runs, but it does that very consistently.

After an hour or so, however, we managed to get back on the track on the side of the hill, and we made faster progress.

At the base of the valley, we passed the modern ghost town of Inylchek, an old tin mine with a huge set of soviet-era buildings. Only a few people now live there, and the road is abandoned except for hiking trips.

There was about 10 centimeters (4 inches) of snow at the pass we needed to cross, but that was no problem for a soviet personnel carrier.

We were happy to get back to Karakol and a good shower.

—– end of detailed Kyrgyzstan postings ——