Luciano Foglia is from Argentina. His girlfriend Caroline is from England. Together they travel the world in their camper van that they converted into a home. Once, on the way to Mongolia, they ended up in Kyrgyzstan.
We were on our way to Mongolia when we entered Kyrgyzstan and fell in love with the country and the people.
Luciano Foglia
Luciano and Caroline stayed in Kyrgyzstan to get to know it better. Their van allows them to live in remote areas of the country without the need of being in the city. Thanks to that, as Luciano and Caroline told, they discovered many incredible places in the countryside and made a lot of friends on the way.
— What surprises you in Kyrgyzstan?
— The hospitality of the people and their friendliness. It feels very warm and welcoming when you can feel that people connect with you in a genuine way. Every time we get invited to a yurt on the way, to a house in a village, it is an incredible manifestation of kindness to us. And equally the beauty of the mountains and nature.
— What in Kyrgyzstan reminds you of your home country?
— In Argentina we have similar mountains in the region of Patagonia and more north called «The Andes». In the area that borders with the neighboring countries Chile and Bolivia. Sometimes some writers call Kyrgyzstan «The Patagonia of Central Asia» and that is for a reason.
I also find similarities of the people in the jailoos and the cowboys of Argentina called «gauchos».
Luciano Foglia
They have similar ways of working with the animals in the countryside, though the seasonal movement of the nomadic families in Argentina does not happen.
I think it is important to take the country as it is and respect its culture instead of making comparisons with other places. Otherwise it would not be Kyrgyzstan.
— What is your favorite place in Kyrgyzstan?
— This is a hard question to answer. Some of our favorites places so far, and we keep discovering them, are Kel-Suu, the south coast of Issyk-Kul, the whole Naryn area with the untouched Chatryl-Kol lake, Barshkoon Valley, Arslanbob and much more.
— What national dishes do you like and what are you afraid to try?
— We like most of the cuisine, but our favorites are kuurdak, shorpo and tash-kordo.
The most important is that we love kumys, we become completely addicted to it after trying a good one up in the jailoo.
Luciano Foglia
I think that there are no dishes that we would be afraid to try now, because in the beginning is a bit hard to get used to the new tastes, aromas of the food and ingredients. But after some time you start to make a relationship with the local cuisine and become open to try new dishes.
— While traveling around Kyrgyzstan, you decided to benefit the country. Tell about your project, please.
— As a personal project during our time in the country we have created a guide to help Kyrgyz families living in the mountains to communicate with tourists in English.
The reason we wrote this guide was a request from the people living in the jailoos, whom we met during the trip. They often came to us and asked to teach them English so that we can meet and understand each other.
My girlfriend is an English teacher and as we were collecting some English books to be able to teach the local families, we quickly realized that there was nothing made specifically for Kyrgyz people.
So we came with the idea of making a simple English book for Kyrgyz nomads.
For them to be able to learn English in the context of the jailoos and the Kyrgyz culture. You can have a look at the book on the website we created for the project and download the book for free.
— What has fascinated you in close acquaintance with the local population?
— How people welcome you in Kyrgyzstan is very unique. What also surprises me is the positive forward energy of the people and how hard working they are. The Kyrgyz are very strong people that have to cope with extreme weather conditions in long days of work outdoors, battling with the forces of nature. That is very admirable.
— What disappointed you?
— In general, in every country we visit we have the same disappointments, which is about the way people use public spaces in nature. Sometimes we get frustrated by seeing so much rubbish left behind by the people in natural areas. The unnecessary use of plastic bags and plastic bottles. Also the broken glass bottles by the shore of the lakes and remote areas. This is not something that happens only in Kyrgyzstan.
But because Kyrgyzstan is a country that is still not so contaminated, it makes me very sad to see this problem starting.
Luciano Foglia
All the rubbish that we throw in nature takes hundreds of years to decompose. This country has an incredible nature that needs to be protected and respected by the people.
The change has to come from all of us and also from the companies that produce all the unnecessary packaging that we discard after buying products in the shops. Also the governments have to provide a sustainable solution to this issue by creating alternatives to the use of plastic.
People come to Kyrgyzstan to see the untouched nature and meet with the incredible people of the mountains. I think Kyrgyzstan is an amazing country that has the unique opportunity to do things differently. Only that way it could become an example to be followed by the rest of the world.
