Almaty State Nature Preserve - Talgar, KZ

Yesterday was our last practicum day. For the last 6 weeks we’ve been visiting organizations in the local area and learning how non-profits operate in Kazakhstan. One of my organizations was the Almaty State Nature Preserve in the town of Talgar. Previously we’d only been in the office but yesterday we were given a short tour of the park. The woman we’d been working with got us through the two security check points which keep people out of the preserve, so that was nice.

The preserve itself is huge, taking up somewhere around 180,000 acres. It is a specially protected area within the boundary of another national park. There is only a couple of short roads and trails on the boundary, but nothing on the interior.

This sign says roughly, “scenic lookout.” I thought it was pretty neat

Same pic with the colors.

The first picture is of the visitors center/administration building. They are in the process of improving the building and I thought their ideas for the building were really neat. As you can see, a nature scene will be carved and painted on the building

It was a pretty tight fit in the little Peace Corps SUV and the roads were pretty rough.

The park is home to an endangered species of apple tree. We stopped and had some- they were really good!

This is statue of a mountaineer that died in an avalanche in the mid-70’s.

The week is almost over. Our plans for the weekend have changed a little. There is a bbq this weekend and it seems our trip to the Russian rock opera has been cancelled. Apparently we will go and see a version of Romeo and Juliet that apparently is a response to the movie Borat. I have no idea what to expect.