We have a very slow morning at home stay. We have to hang around until 12 noon to transfer to our hotel. So we have a bit of a lay-in, have some breakfast and then take some pictures before just hanging out. We are picked up just after noon by Andrei and taken to our hotel for this coming night. We will meet up with the rest of the group today.
Once at the hotel, we meet up with our kind host from the home stay - she works at the hotel reception. We get our room, drop off our bags and then head down to the hotel restaurant for lunch. Lost World has set it up quite nicely - very relaxed. We just order what we would like from the menu. They actually have quite a good selection, mainly Russian dishes. The menu is in English, so we are able to try out a few more dishes. We had some more pelmeni (the meat dumplings with sour cream) and salmon cooked in wine sauce. Very good.
After lunch we went on a city tour. Not too much to see here in the city. Our first few stops were shopping - we bought some books and postcards on Kamchatka and then some mosquito netting for the head. We have been warned that the bugs are very bad. So, as they cost just a dollar, we figured, what the heck. We will not make a very positive fashion statement, but if the work, who are we to argue.
As we drive along, the guide tells us that for the past few weeks the temperature has been in the 30's. For this city, that is a heat wave. During the summer, the temperature here rarely exceeds 20°C. Our next stop is at the harbor and beach. The beach is a stone one, but people seem to be enjoying it. Many are just hanging out and looking like they are posing for a show. At one end of the bay is a port, which seems pretty busy. Our guide tells us not to swim in this water - pretty polluted from all the boats and port activities.
Then it is on to the Hill of Love. The bus drops us off at the base of the hill, and we have to walk up the slight slope to the top (navigating our way around one very drunk young man who took some interest in us), and then down a bit on the other side. Here we have another nice view of the channel and all the ships at anchor. Just through the haze on the other side of the channel, we can make out a large volcano. The view must be amazing on a clear day. Here are located the cannons that were used in the old days to fire off the noon day gun. Given the heat wave, the beach is pretty full with locals hanging out and swimming.
We finished off the tour by heading up to the top of the hill that overlooks the whole city and channel. It would have been an excellent view except for the power lines that traversed the hillside just below us. From there, we drove back to the hotel, making a quick stop to take a photograph of the other side of the city with the three big volcanoes as a backdrop.
We reached the hotel just before 6 PM and after quickly checking our emails, we joined the group for a pre-departure briefing. The number of people in our group is 12, plus the guide, translator, cook and porters (for those who have hired one). We have a fairly wide range of nationalities represented - Malaysian, English, Australian, Hungarian, French and American. It looks like a good group. We learn a bit more about how the trip will go and what to expect and have our questions answered and then we break up for dinner.
After another very good and filling dinner in the hotel restaurant (the only problem was how long some of the dishes took to be served), we return to our room to organise our stuff and pack our bags. This takes an hour or so and then we are ready for bed.