A spectacular and eventful trip to Lake Ritsa, the jewel of Abkhazia, awaits you!
We start the excursion by visiting Gagra’s once most luxurious resort. The tour includes the ancient Abaata Fortress, the Gagra Church built by Greeks in the 6th century as well as a wonderful hundred-year-old park and the reconstructed imperial recreation complex. Gagra used to be famous for its luxurious recreation centers; today, Gagra impresses its visitors with the magnificent ruins standing in their former place. Also on the agenda is a visit to Georgia’s once most beautiful and prosperous castle, now lost in the thick forest surrounding it.
Optional is the tour of the noisy local market where you can buy local specialties such as nuts, churchkhela, fruit jams and different kinds of fruit as well as other items of local color (eucalyptus switches and bay leaf crowns).
After Gagra, the road takes us to the breathtaking Bzyb River valley. The first stop among many on our way is at the ancient Byzantine temple built in the 10th century. After the temple visiting Maiden’s tears falls awaits you. The «tears» flow down the rocks as silver threads from emerald “Blue lake” — the dead lake and Men’s Tears falls.
Through the Yupsharsky canyon, reminding the movie “Avatar”, with the rocks up to 400 m high, covered with the lianas hanging down from rocky cornices we will come to the jewel of Abkhazian mountains — emerald lake Ritsa.
After that we will visit a national café on the shore of the lake where you will get to know the life and furniture of indigenous Abkhazians and of course will try some national dishes prepared on fire, enjoying the views of the mountains and the emerald lake. After this nice lunch we will go to the beach of the lake where you can cool of the summer heat. After Ritsa we will visit noisy and foamy «Dairy falls» with roary rapids and once secret place — Stalin’s dacha. On the way back we will stop by Pitsunda with uts grape and fruit farms and meet a sunset on the seashore among relic pines.
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