In the Kyrgyz mountains

Earlier this week our camp group took an environmental science field trip into the mountains north of Lake Issyk-Kul. The Kyrgyzstan we visited is more typical and representative of the entire country than the urban capital city of Bishkek in which I've been living.  This is the Kyrgyzstan of the herder and the yurt. I will be moving in a few weeks to a place that much more closely resembles this rural and mountainous slice of Kyrgyzstan.  I wonder what vistas will await?

In the meadow where we had our picnic lunch 

A Kyrgyz beekeeper and his mobile colony selling honey along the roadside

The roadside teahouse where I had tea with the Kyrgyz drivers of our vans along with the yurt where the family operating the makeshift teahouse lives.

Our students coming down the typical Kyrgyz mountain road to meet the vans after completing their environmental studies