Lake Turgoyak

Yesterday was great because I did yoga and then was on the computer all day. Sooo relaxing. But today was phenomenal. Marina, who again, I am so lucky to know that I can’t believe it, went with me to Lake Turgoyak. Now, when Jon and I saw this on the satellite map it looked so far away, but it is so close and I can’t wait to have repeat visits there. We took a shuttle bus (a yellow van) to Turgoyak Town. It is a cute town with little log cabin style houses that remind me of Switzerland or Germany with their hand painted and carved window frames. This one has a burnt out room with flowers growing on it.

This is the catchy visitors center.

There are also newer fancier houses, but they clash with the more charming cottages in town. The church is my favorite building! It is a log cabin church with onion domes. Now if you know me, there could not be a more perfect blend of the two. I love both features. This church was so charming. Turns out Marina and Artem were married there! Good choice, although it was long – a 2 hour Russian Orthodox Christian wedding.

A little further down is the lake. I guess it gets really crowded on warm days, but it seemed spacious empty today. As soon as the weather gets warm I can’t wait to squeeze in just one towel spot!

The lake is huge and clear. There is a sand beach and pebbles line the bottom of the lake. No dark scary stuff that you would be afraid to step in (Jon’s worst nightmare, lake scum). The water was already warm especially compared to my favorite Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester, MA where you wince in pain as you wade in during the middle of August.


Next, we hiked up to a log cabin lookout at the top of what I dub to be butterfly hill. The hill was a meadow of wildflowers and blue, orange and white butterflies danced about- it was like a dream. From the top we enjoyed the view. The lake has a trail that goes around it that would take all day to hike. We watched a thunderbolt in the distance and decided to go. Unfortunately we got caught in a huge downpour, but Marina saved us by calling a cab.



Then, she came over and had tea and I showed her wedding photos and pictures of Ethiopia. She wants to go to Africa for her next exploration and loves coffee. Now I miss my friend Mahlet who I went to Ethiopia with! Marina has been so kind to me. I hope that she’ll show us her pics soon. I know American weddings are so fancy, I didn’t know quite how to approach a cultural conversation about the difference between our weddings. For example, she thought 75 is a huge wedding because she had 30 people. In the US, 75 is considered “small” not that I can even believe it. Hopefully, I’ll become more comfortable soon with how to approach these topics and we can have some fun conversations about cultural differences.

Marina teaches Japanese class by the way, so we’ve had some nice conversations about teaching. She found out that I teach yoga and there might be a class for me to teach sometime soon!