Rain!

When we woke this morning the mountains around us were shrouded in cloud and by the time we got underway that had turned into a light rain forshadowing the rest of the day. This (the rain) was such an unusual occurrance that Nina and I spent some time discussing the question of "when was the last time we had rain" - our conclusion was Almaty, Kazakstan.

From last nights camp we made a spectacular descent through a dozen or more tight switchbacks to the village of Abhar, where Nina searche the "shops" in the main street for some surplies. Again it was evident that tourists are a rarity here as we had many locals curious about us .

From Abhar we wound our way along a series of minor roads through the village of Rudbar, around the city of Rasht and thence to Fuman (a village) and finally to the village Masouleh.

By the end of the day the desert or semi-arid countryside that has characterized all of our stay so far in Iran had transitioned to steep hills or mountains and very wet forests reminicent of Washington's coastal areas. The rain just added to the feeling of being home.

Museuleh was on our list of things to see because we had been told that it was a quaint mountain village that was very popular with Iranians and where one could see houses built on such steep slopes that the roof of one house formed the pathway for the entrance to the houses above.

When we arrived the village was largely deserted as the local tourist season is over. As promised the terrain was steep with buldings seeming to be stacked on top of each other. But to be honest we were underwhelmed by the place. Lots of trash/rubbish laying around the streets and in the river, a lot of makeshift building construction and repairs. We concluded that the Lonely Planet got it right when is said (to paraphrase) "Iranians are attracted by the novelty of rain but few foreigners find the place as attractive."