Too Poor For Passports: Azerbaijan

So, that Chile station was pretty meh, eh? There sure were a lot of accordions – which we love, don’t get us wrong – but it was so early in the morning!

Howsabout we head over to the politically seething Caucasus where the next world conflict is most likely to occur. Let's stay out of Russia for the time being. Also, Pinky is feeling kinda passive-aggressive against Georgia right now because he drank some crappy Georgian wine a week or two ago which was probably his own damn fault for automatically buying it because it was the slightest bit exotic even though he knew good and well that it was cheap wine (plus he’s a beer guy anyway), and we’re just gonna go ahead and stop this run-on sentence right here.

Moving on.

Want to do Azerbaijan today? Good! Us, too.

Although after WWI they established themselves as the first modern republic in the "Muslim World," granting women suffrage before the US and UK, Azerbaijan was invaded pretty quickly by the oil-hungry Soviets and ended up supplying a lot of the oil that Russia consumed in WWII.

Just to give you an idea of where in the world Azerbaijan is... right in the thick of the crazy.

All that oil has kind of defined what we think of Azerbaijan today. The area is so saturated with oil and natural gas that spontaneous fires erupt. This is simultaneously awesome and terrifying. Imagine walking your dog when SHAZAM! The park bursts into flames? Like we said: awesome and terrifying. During the Soviet period they definitely suffered through some extreme environmental degradation because of it, but there's a whole lot to offer here beyond liquefied dinosaurs. For example, there have been folks living there since the Stone Age! There's even a village that's been inhabited for 5,000 years! It's called Khinalug (Ketsh Khalkh as locals call it) and you definitely need to check it out:

PS: we'd totally live here for 5,000 years!

Let's head over to Baku - the capital city nestled on the coast of the Caspian Sea (more like PRINCE Caspian Sea) - and see what's emerged from all those ancient cultures and empires and forgotten names.