Border 2 Border

Last June, I participated in a project called Border 2 Border. Two groups of six walked the entire length of Armenia. One group started at the Georgian border and my group started at the Iranian border. We met in the middle of the country. Along the way we taught health classes in various villages and towns. Each group walked about 275 kilometers (171 miles) in 17 days. Here are some highlights.

We had to carry everything, so we had to get the most out of the food we carried. Homemade granola was a must.

We usually started walking as early as possible. We would walk about 7-8 hours a day.

The best part of the walk for me was getting to see the beautiful landscape of the southern part of the country.

This is Tatev Monastery. It is the most impressive monastery that I have seen in Armenia. The world's longest tramway leads Tatev from a village located 5.7 kilometers (3.5 miles) away.

Tatev dates back to the 9th century. It was destroyed many times, once during an earthquake and a few times by invading armies. It is still undergoing reconstruction.

Joel and Mike were in my group and were constantly singing or playing guitar. Hippies.

During the physical fitness portion of our health classes, I would demonstrate various exercises. For some reason the kids really liked running in place.

The kids that attended our classes in Tatev.

We didn't always walk on paved roads.

Sometimes we didn't walk on roads at all.

We found these two puppies at the top of a mountain that we had to hike over. They had rope leashes attached to them. Somebody brought them to there to die. We cut the ropes off and they followed us/we carried them to the next village. We found 2 kids who were wanted them. A Peace Corps volunteer lives there and checks up on them.

Back on paved roads and avoiding cars.

This is Vorotnavank. Another amazing monastery that we passed along the way.

A goat path that we had to walk to get to our next stop.

A small lake.

The Southern Team after we passed the border into the Vayots Dzor region.

Almost everybody had some sort of foot problem. Blisters were most common. I lost 2 toenails.

Vayots Dzor was beautiful, but by far the hottest place that I have been in Armenia. Walking here sucked.

The Peace Corps region manager for the south joined us for a day on our walk to Vayk.

The southern team at our final destination. For those of you who can't read Armenian or Russian, the town is called Yeghegnadzor.

We had one final health presentation. For this one we were able to make a lot of posters. This one says "Run!" and "Don't Smoke!"

An anti-smoking poster.

Both of the groups together. That is a big jug of homemade wine in my hand.