Bigasit Waterfall & Osumi Canyon

 Surprisingly, there is only one canyoning guide in Albania - especially given that there are so many amazing canyons in the country. Several months before I trip, I started looking into possible guides and it's true that there is only one - Komi. After some communication setbacks, we were finally able to book Komi as a guide for a canyon. For the canyon we ended up doing, we definitely didn't need a guide, but I am much more comfortable going with someone who knows where to jump and slide and knows where the bolts are for the anchors. Dan is great and all, but he's definitely not a local guide.

We met Komi and his buddy, Enea, on the street near our guest house and then drove 1.5 hours to the canyon. During the car ride, we learned the one rule for driving in Albania (take space when you can - this explained a lot), what many younger Albanians think about the changes since communism, that Albanians enjoy life and are not in a rush - there is lots of stopping to chat with just about everyone even if it means stopping your car in the middle of the road, and how our guide loses his keys, money, and phone all of the time. It was a good cultural experience for us to get to hang out with him.
Even the wildflowers on the street are tied up so that they don't get run over. Albanians love flowers.

The street our guesthouse is on.

The canyoneering guide's car.

There were two other women in our group and they were from the Netherlands. They had not been canyoning before, so we ended up doing the easier of the 2 canyons. Before we dropped into the canyon, the storm clouds had accumulated significantly and then it started to thunder. We discussed the safety of doing the canyon with a thunderstorm rolling in with Komi. He wanted to know what we thought - yikes. Then he made the call that we would do it...this would only happen in Albania! The canyon was fun, but we had to go really quickly to avoid flash flooding from the storm.
The beginning of the canyon.












After the canyon and lots of cigarette breaks for Komi, Enea and one of the Dutch women, we eventually made it back to Berat. Before we said our goodbyes, Komi and Enea helped us make arrangements for us to be able to do Holtes Canyon tomorrow. The we went to eat dinner at the place that Enea recommended.








And...more gelato

An Orthodox Church in Berat. Right across from it is a mosque. Berat is said to be a place where many different religions live together peacefully.

The Albanian food is so tasty! We have been so fun every night. It was another early to bed night because Holtes is a big canyon with some risk involved so we wanted an early start.

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