Envoy Hostel was a perfect launching pad for us, 2 fiftyish American women cyclists, on our 3-week plus bike trip around Armenia with a 4-day detour to Tbilisi. With our bikes safely stored in the luggage room, we got our bearings by getting streetwise in Yerevan. Our cycling tour took us first to Gyumri, where we got to see how funds that we had collected for an NGO called Ajakits was assisting women and children victims of domestic abuse. Then we continued to Vanadzor and up the Debed Dzor (gorge) to Haghpat’s magnificent monastery, and from there we ditched our bikes and travelled to fascinating, ethnically-diverse Tbilisi by marshrutni.
Reunited with our bikes 4 days later, we pedaled to Ijevan and on to Dilijan, where we hooked up with some fun Peace Corps volunteers (thanks Sam, Brad, and Sarah). Brad accompanied us on his bike up the high pass leading over to Lake Sevan, a lovely spot for two days’ rest. Then we continued along the west shore of the lake and the next day headed up the Selim Pass-a highpoint in more ways than one! - once part of the Silk Road. We stopped to tour a 14th century karavanserai before dropping down to the flat major road in southern Armenia, which eventually led us to Sisian and Goris, where we pedaled to Armenia’s Stonehedge, Karahunge, and even to Tatev, a real feat on the steep, unpaved road! Thankfully, our guesthouse owner’s warning to watch out for the village dogs was unneeded -although they were the bane of our travels in other parts of the country on the otherwise safe roads.
Exotic as our tour was, the warm, hospitable Armenian people were the real highpoint. We thank them for the many apricots, bags of cherries, invitations for coffee, smiles, and gestures of welcome and friendship… and we look forward to a return visit.
