Larry Memmott's Blog

It takes almost an hour to fly the 150 miles from La Paz to Rurrenabaque.  Alternatively, you could drive.  The road is almost twice as long, at 270 miles, but is reportedly pretty poor and slow going.  Still, it would be an adventure.  Flying is an adventure, too.  Not the adventure it used to be, […]

The mine tour in the Cerro Rico de Potosí is not to be missed if you can handle the physical demands and the tight spaces involved.  I’ll provide more details later, together with my recommendation for a tour guide, but for now, just a few reflections about the tour and the mountain, itself. Legend has […]

Sary Chelek lives up to its billing as one of the gems of Kyrgyz natural beauty (a pretty tall order). A large alpine lake set in a deep mountain bowl and surrounded by pines, Sary Chelek reminds me of the rugged beauty of the mountain lakes high in the American Rockies (specifically, since they were […]

Millennial Walnut Tree Arslanbob is a wonderful little village north of Jalalabad. Surrounded by ancient walnut forests, and with a particularly hospitable population, it is a great place to just relax. Arslanbob lies some 30 miles off the main Bishkek-Jalalabad road. The road is good, and it’s a pleasant drive through the countryside. Attached you […]

Alexandra, Christina and William arrived on July 1! The adventures have already started. On July 2, they came with us to the U.S. Embassy 4th of July celebration. It rained a bit, but we had chosen our spot well, and just slipped into the yurt which had been set up on the Embassy grounds. The […]

We had a good New Year’s celebration, shooting off fireworks at home. On New Year’s Day we went downtown to wander around a bit. That was about it for the kids trip to Kyrgyzstan. We are looking forward to having them here again in the summer.

From the Burana Tower, we went up the mountains to Issyk-Ata, a Soviet-era “Sanitorium.” Traditionally, in this part of the world, whenever you had hot springs you turned them into a place for treating the ill. Issyk-Ata means “Father Heat” and it is a hot spring with a large complex of treatment facilities, a couple […]

We spent one day visiting the ruins of the ancient Silk Road City of Balasagun, including the thousand-year-old Burana Tower. Balasagun was the capital city of the region when Genghis Khan showed up in the 13th Century. He didn’t destroy the city (which was apparently quite out of character for him), but just renamed it. […]

William, Aliciya and I took a great trip up Alamedin Gorge to play in the snow and the hot water of the Teplye Kluchi Hot Springs. We started out playing in the snow. After we got good and cold, we decided to warm up swimming at the hot springs. There is an old Soviet-era swimming […]

This is one of our family traditions, everybody makes their own pizzas with whatever they want on them.