Being out on the Steppe I felt so free, especially through the vast area of Hustaii National Park. We walked out about an hour from our cute little cottages cutting through the dense fog and dew-covered grass. There were finch like birds chirping and freshly made holes by the waking marmots. It felt so lonely but so filled with life. Ariuna pointed out the potato flowers, lavender and effluvious sage that we thought we smelled. It was like falling right through a marmot hole and waking up in Alice’s Wonderland.
We were all laughing together, dodging the pesky little flies and searching for those bright orange-red potato flowers; when we thought heard a bunch of horse neighing! We crept a little bit farther up the mountain, and wuh-bam! A male Tahki horse came and stared at us for a long time with his hair flapping in the wind. It was so glorious. Matter of fact, this horse is so wild and rare, that we were told it was a rare horse reintroduced to the wild slowly over time. They even contain two more chromosomes compared to the normal domestic ones. With their cute little legs and thick hair, they are just such beautiful beasts.
On the second night we stayed up until real late, and watched the stars come out under the calm countryside sky; free of traffic noise and skyscraper lights. The sun was being stubborn and took forever to get dark, but once it set, the planets and milky way came right out! We could see Mars to the right, and Jupiter I think? Krista let us borrow her phone that had that one app where you could point out the constellations. We all laughed until the cuddle train didn’t keep us warm anymore. Such a cared for, and absolutely dreamy place.