http://www.YaharaWay.com/KarpukhinPhotography<br />Tofalariya! Outstanding, wonderful, mysterious mountain country of taiga, lost in the heart the East Sayan. It’s a place of wild and severe mountain ranges, created by forces of nature. It’s an almost impassable region of taiga, where trees die from old age, and centenary cedars can shelter a traveler from bad weather. It’s a land of animal paths and pure rivers and streams. It’s easy to come across with a bear, but difficult – with a man. Only about one thousand people live on the territory of more than 21 thousand square kilometers. Less than a half of them are the Tofalars, descendants of a nomadic nation, who domesticated a wild deer many centuries ago.<br />Only three small settlements – Alygdjer, Verhnyaya Gutara and Nerha – stand apart from the civilization. There are not any roads and you can get there only by aviation or in a sledge during winter. Tofalariya doesn’t have strict borders and is a part of Irkutsk region.