Crossing the Border
Each border crossing meant changing tour buses, a new local guide, and lots of formalities. MIR handled everything smoothly and off we bused into another country.
The route took us through the important wine-growing areas of the country with beautiful forested mountains as a backdrop, and little villages. Georgia's main borders are: the Peaks of Caucasus on the North, and the Black Sea on the West. It is still geologically active and suffers periodic earthquakes.
Times have been hard for Georgians since the breakup of the U.S.S.R. Their social security system is practically non-existent, the '90's were brutal economically, and some people still sell off their possessions on the streets to get by.
Don't even think of trying to learn their language, "Old Kartvelian", which is not related to any other group of languages. Russian, yes..."Old Kartvelian"... no. Georgian script is one of the 14 world alphabets (possibly influenced by Aramaic). That is why you need...A GUIDE!
