After Alaverdi he enjoys a peaceful stretch of road along the river as the day starts to fade away. But it's not long and he takes another detour high up the mountain side once again. This time its up to another monastary and town of Haghpats. Here, according to the internet there's also a hotel. This means tomorrow he'll have to hike some 40 kilometers if he wants to reach Georgia in a day.
 
As he hikes up the quiet road that winds up the mountain, a group of young folks out on a a holiday trip invite him to come play som music for them . he'd like to, but really needs to reach Haghpats before nightfall.
 
Haghpats is really just a stones throw from the Salahin monastary, but thanks to another gorge running between them it's quite a hike... finally he reaches the town, which has more of a quiet farm village feel rather than an industrial town, with winding dirt roads between the fenced in homes and garden plots along the slopes. Finally he reaches the monastary which luckily is still open... and it treats him to another beautiful sunset view of the Debed Canyon and surrounding plateau. Around him are several groups of Armenian young folks out on a holiday or school trip... it is nice to see young folks out having fun and appreciating the beauty and culture of their country.
 
After taking his time soaking in the Haghpat Monastary experience, he heads on down to look for his hotel. Here the rollercoaster of a day continues. The one hotel that he'd seen on the internet here in Haghpat does exist... but for some odd reason it's full.  
 
Oh crap. Fat chance of finding another hotel in this little farm village ...
 
There was a sign he'd noticed on my way into the village about a home that offered lodging--I guess that might be my last comfortable option, he thinks. So he backtracks to the edge of town and up a dirt road up towards the mountainside and ask at a farm house if this is the place... Sure enough... and they'll host him and feed him supper for a reasonable price.
 
Looks like this is going to be a perfect day after all. Not only will he have food and lodging, but he'll be able to get a better glimpse into a rural Armenian home. But first things first--he hasn't done his parkbench concert here, so he heads off into the dusk to a hillside overlooking the whole region to encapsule this wonderful day into music. All is still around, no sounds of TV or music--and his voice probably carries a long ways... hopefully this won't be an embarrassment to my hosts... he thinks. No when I return to the house, they ask him to sing a few more songs.
 
At supper they all sit together. The father, who seems to be the tough, hardy fellow--but he does lighten up once they get to talking . The mother, the matriarch of the clan. The two sons who work the family farm (mainly dairy cattle) and the daughter in law who it seems does a lot of the work hurrying back and forth to the kitchen. She's also the only one who speaks a little English, so she's the translator for the Traveler.
 
Here he gets a very different feel of Armenia. Rather then a depressing feel of industrial decay where people see their only hope being to travel abroad to look for work, here he sees a family who is primarily living off the land (although with various side projects as well), working hard, and it seems are reasonably stable economically.
 
It is inspiring to see hope in semi self-sufficient mountain life.
 
And so his perfect day comes to an end.