The afternoon marshrutka went as far as Akhmeta, where I hired a taxi to take me to the village of Jokolo in the Pankisi Valley. Although Pankisi had a very rough start to the twenty-first century, it’s now a beautiful and largely undiscovered place for rural tourism. The inhabitants of the valley are Kists, a mainly Muslim minority in Georgia who speak a dialect of Chechen.
That night, I feasted on meaty kharcho soup, kaldeet (curds, butter and corn flour) with galana (boiled dough balls), cauliflower in a piquant sauce, and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.
The next morning, I went out on a tour of the neighbourhood, organized with the help of my hostess, Nazy. My guide and translator was Nika–or Nick, as he calls himself in English–a local teenager who was given the day off school for the occasion.
Then Nick took me to his house in Duisi. In the front yard, he had recently built a coop for his chickens. Chicken keeping is a challenge in the valley. Some weeks before, a goshawk had attacked his chicks, killing some of them. One pullet was still recovering from injuries and he was nursing it back to health.
I met Nick’s mom and tried a local specialty: non-alcoholic rose hip kombucha. This sweet and fizzy drink is apparently the product of a new startup business in town.
After that, Nick brought me back to the guesthouse in Jokolo. These tours are a great idea. They let the local young people, who have historically been isolated from the outside world, meet travellers from all over the globe. At the same time, they give us travellers an intimate peek into life in Pankisi. My guide Nick spoke excellent English and translated everything like a real pro–even the side conversations he had with neighbours and schoolmates he met in the street. He’s turning seventeen this summer and wants to get into an American college that teaches graphic design. Here’s hoping he makes it.
Kartvelian Adventures 