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Friday, May 9th.
Today we had a full day of travel to get to Baku, Azerbaijan. We had to show our visas when we checked in for our two flights. Due to the low-volume nature of this route, we flew from Bishkek across the Caspian Sea and along the south shore of the Black Sea to Istanbul, Turkey! This route is at least four hours longer than necessary and takes us well west of our destination. From Istanbul we had to fly east again on another flight to Baku. As a result we did not get there in time to have the traditional first night meeting with the new travelers who will be joining us for the Caucuses leg of our tour. That has been arranged for tomorrow morning. During the flight I watched a movie about a new take on the Boston Strangler case and caught up on my blog notes. We arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan about 8:00 and met our bus and our new guide, Elmar. He outlined the highlights of what we were passing as we drove into the city from the airport. It was dark at this point and we could see how modern and lit up the city was. The city stadium is all lit up in the colours of the country’s flag. We checked into the Radisson Hotel for three nights, which sadly has no pool. We both were tired after a long day so we went to bed straight away. (side notes: two American passengers did not apply for Azerbaijan and Armenia visas before coming on the trip and as a result had to apply for an emergency visa and pay a premium the night before; another passenger put the entry date on her Azerbaijan visa as the 10th instead of the 9th, not sure what will happen with that, but both cause poor Jordan unnecessary stress).
