Prize for Best Road

I need to mention the food portions here - enough for a trucker. The other morning in Batumi I looked around for a place to eat breakfast. Unlike Turkey there's not much of a selection, but I find a place that has a picture on the front door of the typical breakfast food eaten here. A longated bread with an egg in the middle.

The center of the bread is pulled apart and cheese is melted in it. A very soft fried egg is dropped in the middle. By just slightly stirring it it cooked all the way through and on top of that (I swear) was a half stick of butter. I quickly took it out before it melted. Still it was so large and rich I only ate a third and felt stuffed.

This morning I got up really early to get to the marshratka (mini van) stand before 7 am.I heard you needed to get there early because once they leave, and it all depends on the cargo or the amount of passengers, you'll miss it until the next day. From Kugdidi to Mestia the mountain village I was going to takes 5 to 6 hrs. There were two marshratkas waiting with no one in them. As soon as the two owners of each van saw me they started to fight about who was going to get me. I was not going to get involved and I could see neither was going to leave any time soon so I started to look for coffee.

Finding beer was no problem even at this hour. Don't they drink anything but beer? I walked towards the market and suddenly saw a woman with a tray full of the little tinto cups of strong coffee. "I'm so happy!" Because I'm so animated pointing at the cups some of the venders invited me to sit down - sit down with them on the venders' side. Then when they find out I'm American they wouldn't let me pay for either of the two cups I got. I'm also given candy. I made it understood to them that I write on the internet. Internet, like no problem, is an universal word. They tell me all their names and every person who passes name. I have a crowd around me.

Back to the van stand. The fight between the two men insues again. I decide to leave with whoever goes first. There's a semi-truck blocking both of them so again it won't be anytime soon. I go on the other side of the semi and sit on the curb where they can't see me. Right away another van pulls up and the owner says "Mestia". I hop in and we're off.

This ends up being the best one because not only does it leave immediately but half way there the driver, his two sisters and another passenger stops for food. It's 10:30. It's 10:30 and they get a table full of food: tomato based soup with beef, baskets of hearty bread, bread stuffed with meat and bread stuffed with cheese. I'm glad I didn't have breakfast. They won't let me pay for a thing.

I almost forgot to tell you about the road here. I have not been on a road this bad in 17 years, since Flores, Indonesia or maybe Equador or the road from Manuas, Brazil to Rio Vista. Some of the road was gravel - the best part- the rest was just one pothole connected to another pothole or mud where we slid from side to side and, of course, so narrow only one vehicle at a time could pass. The only difference is, amazingly, we didn't get stuck in the mud or have a flat tire. But there's always the return trip.

Starting tomorrow I'm going on two long day hikes then Sunday I leave for a five day trek. If you don't hear from me that's why. Hopefully you won't