The water in this lake is painfully blue. The lake bottom is made up of semi-precious gems, or so the locals tell you, and that’s what makes the lake so blue. It could be that, or it could be that the lake is high in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia and reflects an equally painful blue sky. I realize the pollution in Russia is as bad or worse than anywhere else, but standing on the shore of this lake, you believe that the Industrial Revolution never happened.