First Visit to Lake Baikal

Today we go to Listvyanka, a fishing village on Lake Baikal, prominently featured in Clive Cussler’s book Treasure of Khan.  But first a trip to Taltsi, a museum outside Irkutsk on the Angara river where 200-300 year old wooden buildings are preserved.  Some are residences, fully furnished; some churches; some administrative buildings.  The wood holds up well for being so old.

The museum in Listvyanka is on the shores of Lake Baikal and has two 3-D models of the lake demonstrating how amazingly deep it is over most of its area, even a mile deep in spots.  Also there are two nerpa (fresh-water seals) in a display.

Finally, we stopped "for something hot to drink" which turned out to be vodka with snacks.  During the return trip to Irkutsk, Andrei, our ice fishing guide for the weekend, called and said Jim and I needed "resin boots" for the weekend.  So Gala knocked on the door of a just-closed sporting goods store that re-opened for us after her entreaties and we bought our boots.  Think cow-milking boots with liners!