The twisting mountain road goes up and up. Small bus squeaks and roars as if it's going to fall apart. It smells with gasoline and cheap perfume. We are rushing through the thick northern wood surrounded by huge clouds of grey dust. It's getting hot inside. I'm thinking about stereotypes. Who will ever believe me that in the heart of Siberia it can be that hot? Nonsense! Everybody knows that Russians wear those funny fur hats all the time, bears walk down the streets there, and it is always so freezing cold that you cannot go out without taking a double shot of vodka...
             Thoughts are flowing slowly and peacefully. A hawk is silently soaring above, drawing complicated patterns in the sky. Cicadas are chirring in the grass; the air is sweet and balmy. We are driving up to the Irkutsk-city.
             Our guide, inspired lady, as tiny as a sparrow, becomes slightly nervous. Her old-fashioned silk dress rustles indignantly as she walks back and forth. She looks as if she had a present for us and was very impatient to see our reaction. I know what kind of present it is. She is going to show us the greatest mystery of Siberia – the Baikal Lake.
             The Baikal Lake is one of the most amazing wonders of the nature and one the most beautiful of its gifts. This greatest supply of fresh water is hidden from human beings in the middle of severe Siberian land and still stays almost untouched by their harmful hands. It is the deepest lake on the Earth, and nobody knows how it appeared, but most of the scientists consider that only a huge disaster could give the birth to this miracle. That's what books say – I've read plenty of them before the trip. Just in case.
             The road goes up the hill, and all you can see are majestic old pines and cedars, rising here and there, and boundless fields, playing with green and yellow in the rays of the morning sun. Serene northern nature...But suddenly the road turns, and the deep blu...