Almati, continued

We met our guide, Jama, and the rest of our Road Scholar tour group this morning.  We then spent the day getting the feel for Almati, the biggest city in Kazakhstan. Today afforded a small taste of this enormous country (the ninth largest in the world, and the wealthiest of the Stans). Almati is the jumping off point for our tour of the Silk Road. Tomorrow we head for Bishkek Kyrgzstan.

Paul at the Falcon Center puts a raptor through its paces. 

Sergei, on horseback, with another big bird.

Zenkov Cathedral is being refurbished. It is one of Almati's few surviving tsarist-era buildings.

St Nicholai Church.  Stalin closed all the churches in the USSR except this one.

Mosaic wedding in the subway station.