We are leaving Azerbaijan now, but I thought I would make one more post, just to add a few things about the country before we leave. I'll start with a couple of food photos. I haven't shown much food yet so I want to add a couple of main dishes that we were served in Azerbaijan.

The first photo was our main that they served us at lunch one day in Shaki. It was lamb with potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, onion, mushrooms, and lemons. It was all very tasty.

The next was our main dish that they served us for one of our dinners in Shaki. It was called 'shah plov' and was beef, jasmine rice, fruit, and nuts cooked for three hours in phyllo dough. It was served as a big ball and shown here is after I cut and pulled it open.

As we live on a farm and are part of the agricultural community, I always have my eye out for agriculture on my trips. As we neared Georgia, I saw some bigger ag in terms of the size of the herds of animals and the size of the fields of crops, as you can see.

While Azerbaijan definitely seems like a first-world country to me, agriculture and all that goes with it was still very evident. One thing I noticed was that very few fields have fences around them. But the country is chock full of livestock, so... stop the bus!

Azerbaijan was not notable for its wildlife, but you know how much I like wildlife. This was my first sighting, up in the Kish Village.

As we approached the border between Azerbaijan and Georgia, it hit home to me that while the days of the Silk Road are long gone, this whole area of the world is still very much a crossroads of commerce. Our guide said that one traveler on one trip had counted the trucks waiting to cross the border and she counted 2,000 trucks. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait in the truck line.

It was an experience crossing from Azerbaijan into Georgia. The area between the borders was something like 600 yards long that we had to drag and carry our luggage. We also had to cross the bridge over the river that separates the two countries. Some people hated it but for whatever reason, I find it thrilling to find myself in "no man's land." Here, we were waiting to get inside in order to exit Azerbaijan. And yes, that's a border-crossing dog. But for the most part, Azerbaijan was more of a cat country, with cats all over the place.