Georgia Svaneti region

I first heard of Svaneti Region and Usghuli village in a documentary on geo( Italian programme on national tv). Ushguli is one of the highest continuously inhabited settlements in Europe ( 2,100 altitude).
 Because of it's unique, medieval defensive tower houses called Svan towers -Ushguli, Mestia, and the surrounding area was recognized as the Upper Svaneti UNESCO World Heritage Site. 
What I thought to find was a secluded place ( during the winter they get cut off because of the snow), waiting to explode with tourism. Well we got here a bit late🤣🤣. Not mass tourism yet but a good dose of international tourism. With the road that practically takes you under Shkara glacier.
 The views are incredible! You feel crushed by the sheer size of the mountains here!
The village preserved it's rural character with cow poop all over, guesthouses and improvised cafés😄.There are two roads to get here and all of them are accessible by 2 wheel drive. From the documentary it seemed you can only get here with a 4x4, well it's confirmed you should never believe it what you see in a TV! The next day we moved to Mestia which is a capitol of the region, lovely relaxed town where we got typical georgian bread 
and went to visit Chalaadi valley and it's glacier. We celebrated our 11th anniversary here with a typical georgian lunch that included adjaran katchapuri and local wine. 
There are a lot of anti russian vibes here.There are two separatists regions ( Abkhazia and South Ossezia)in Georgia ,being highly influenced by Russia. 
Also protests in Georgia in 2024 and 2025 were primarily sparked by the Georgian Dream party's decision to halt the EU accession process and the government's perceived drift towards Russia. This, coupled with disputed parliamentary elections and government crackdowns on dissent, fueled widespread public anger and resistance. 
We hope to get an inside view on the political situation from our friend Avdo which we will meet soon.
We left Svaneti Region by Zagaro pass road, finished last year.
 Extremely picturesque and less trafficked. We are now heading to Racha region👍.


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