The mysterious island of Olkhon

Before my last concert in Russia, I’d have one spare week where I had not very clear what to do and where to stay. While being in Moscow, I heard stories from a friend about the Olkhon island and got interested. This island is located in the middle of the Baikal lake, we visited this lake with Tangel Trio last year from the city of Listvyanka (a turistic center where they mostly offer boat excursions through the lake), and this time I wanted to go back but spending some days somewhere near the lake to explore it further.

The Baikal lake stays near Russia’s border with Mongolia and is the deepest lake in the world and the biggest fresh water reserve. It’s dimension is so huge that you can get to it from a number of cities and directions.

I always thought great places inspire great things, and thus I though on a composition project at the Bailkal lake, in the island of Olkhon…

From the city of Omsk, I took a low-cost flight of an airline called IraEro (which I had never hear about) to the city of Irkutsk, a 3 hours flight that saved me 48 hours of train otherwise.
I arrived to Irkutsk at 1 am where a huge thunderstorm awaited me. I had to make time until 8 am to catch a 6 hours bus to the island, so I ran to a 24 h pizza place round the corner from the airport and spent the time making phone calls to Argentina, taking advantage of the 11 hours of time difference.
I arrived to the island in the afternoon after flight – bus – ferry and bus, 2 days without sleep… I slept 14 hours that first night.

Olkhon is a very mystic place. Inhabitants are mostly Buryats (a Siberian indigenous group), there are no banks, no sewer system and sometimes you don’t even see people in the streets, just some cows walking by and looking indifferently. Inhabitants practice shamanism, and through the island you can find many spots where they leave their offerings. It is very weird to listen some English there, everything is basically Russian, Buryat or Chinese which is the country from where most tourists arrive.

I stayed at a guesthouse near Shamanka rock, the main spiritual spot in the island. During my stay I met some people working there on tourism and with whom I spent most of the time outdoors.
The beauty of this island is overwhelming. I remember having seen some of the most incredible lake landscapes in the south of Argentina, and never though this island would be among the top most beautiful places I’ve been to in my life. I took some photos and uploaded them to an online album:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LxNQDu9jbd5KLfWL9

As for the composition project, I wrote a tango for piano and orchestra that I’ll transcribe once in Argentina, and I’ll be able to check if it sounds as good as it does in my head :). But that’s just a plus from the memories I save of that island, surely among the most beautiful places in the world, and mysteriously unknown even for most Russians..