Lost in the Mountains of Uzbekistan

After our visit with the Uzbek family we loaded into private cars driven by locals and took an excursion up into the mountains of Uzbekistan! 

 It is definitely rugged country! 

Not on the normal tourist agenda! 

These children were going to the local water source to get water for the family.

 Can you see the boy on his donkey? I think he was just hanging out watching the strange American tourists. 

Our journey took us to a medieval mosque.

The very fun mullah greeted us.  When our guide asked him how he was today, his reply, "I don't know.  Do you have any pretty women with you?"  He was quite the flirt, mouthing "I love you" to every attractive woman in our group.  He is the one in the blue coat. 

I had never seen anything quite like this place. 

 Beautiful ceiling.... 

In the courtyard there were some very heavy stones.  Tradition has it that if you lift one you will live to be 100 years old.  Most of the men in our group posed for pictures but didn't dare risk a herniated disc to actually lift it. 

I took off my shoes to go into the inner mosque.  This is the prayer niche that shows believers the direction to Mecca.  They face that way to pray.  I used my phone to take a few photos. 

 I sat down on this bench to put my shoes back on....and I must have put my phone down beside me because when I got back to the train I discovered that my phone wasn't in my purse.  It was lost! 

The local guides told me that I had lost my phone in the absolute worst place on the whole trip.  It was more than an hour away up a terrible road, in a place with no phone service of any kind, no internet and no way to contact anyone.  The guides did the best they could and sent someone from the family we had visited up there but no one could find it.  

To give it a positive spin - How many people can say that they lost their cell phone in a medieval mosque in the mountains of Uzbekistan?