More of Sunday, May 3 - Tavush

Then on the road again… towards our day’s destination of Ijevan, about 30 km further down the road. Ijevan used to be home of the finest carpet factory in Armenia, now a skeleton in the post-Soviet era. It is a town of about 20,000, 20 km short of the Azerbaijan border and a site of skirmishes during the war between the two countries. It is situated along the banks of a river, which have been bordered with red stone walls through the main part of town and dividing the town with just 3 bridges crossing between the two sides. I wonder about floods. Trees everywhere and a very different style of commercial buildings that was almost “alp-like” in some small way.

We went to the cultural center where we grabbed a guide to help us find the four bed and breakfasts where the group was to stay. Through some aid funding, Ijevan has set up a very impressive B&B system, complete with English language illustrated brochures and trainings for all the B&B owners. Now all they need are tourists. Four of us stayed at Gulnara’s house, an 8 bedroom, 1 bath stone house high on the hill over town, reached by a very rutted dirt road. There are few paved roads outside of the downtown area, and livestock are clearly an important part of the economy, grazing in every corner. Gulnara and her husband have been restoring their home for 3 years and have just moved back in. With only 2 kids – one in Russia in Med school and a son in the army, the house is big for Gulnara and her husband Michael. They decided to become a B&B and are building a second bathroom. Gulnara treated us to herbal tea, dried fruits and her own pickled baby walnuts.

After everyone’s bags are at their respective B&Bs, we go to “Dendro Park,” a small arboretum at one end of town. We pass an old abandoned ferris wheel where some boys are trying to make it move. We are surprised to see them get the gondolas to go up about ¼ of the way….luckily with no children on board. I am struck by the cows grazing to the side of the wheel. The cow’s amusement park.


The park is a labor of love, with patches of cuttings set out in many places, but clearly not tended to the level you’d expect in other places. Plus there was a strong windstorm two months ago which devastated the park, taking down scores of huge evergreens, making it somewhat eerie to walk through the park. It looked as if a giant had picked random trees everywhere and just tipped them over.


We walked till we came to a picnic area where we sat down and the group played games in Armenian. I walked a bit with one of the group, followed closely by a thin man we presumed as staff of the park. Turns out he was keeping us company as there was a rather antagonistic dog in the area and he wanted to watch out for us. We asked him a bit about the staff, but his answers were brief, vague and uninformative.

Finally we walked back into town. Ijevan has filled the downtown area with large, abstract stone sculptures scattered here and there and concentrated in a sculpture park. It reminds me of the metal sculptures that Raymond, Washington, have put out as a distinct local feature. We passed a few on our way to an outdoor riverside café for tea, beer, cake and ice cream. We went for the casual dinner. Slow service, more games at our tables and finally the chill of dusk signaled the end of our day and we all scattered to our B&Bs.


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