Bandar-é Anzali is a harbour city along the Caspian Sea. This city is an ideal place for a boat trip. But this trip turned out to be a little different than we had expected. Anzali is not the place for a dull boat making a slow tour though the harbour.

Anzali is the place for speedboats.

We did make a tour through the harbour, but it wasn't slow neither dull. If you try to do this is any Western harbour, you'll have the police behind you in no time. After the harbour, we set course for the Mordab-é Anzali or Anzali Lagoon, an area of 450 square km of water, reeds, water birds and lotus flowers. In other words: a lot of nature. Because the lagoon is so large the speedboats come in handy. However, we do feel a little ashamed we are disturbing peace and quiet in this area.

We try to explain the boat drivers speeding like this through a nature reserve in Europe would get you in jail, but they just don't believe us.

It was already dark when we left the lagoon en went back to the city. There are a lot of boats without lights. We almost crashed a little boat that was going into the lagoon.

Back in Anzali, we headed for the bridge to Beheshti Island to have a wonderful diner with the local fishermen.

Fish, of course.

These are local fishermen from Beheshti Island, a small undeveloped island connected to Anzali by a narrow bridge.