Day 23 was an early start — a nearly three-hour drive west from Tbilisi into the Imereti region, where two of Georgia’s most spectacular natural wonders wait underground and between canyon walls. The tour cost $63 USD, and for a private driver, a guide, and six-plus hours of driving, I still can’t figure out how the economics make sense. Georgian tourism math is a wonderful mystery. My local tour guide was named Magda and she had a wealth of knowledge about the area. She gave me a summary of the region, the fact that the area actually has at least 3 different dialects beyond standard Georgian. A wealth of knowledge she enjoyed sharing without hesitation and one of the best tour guides I’ve had in Georgia.

🌑 Prometheus Cave

Prometheus Cave (also known as Kumistavi Cave) is a 60–70 million-year-old karst cave near the village of Kumistavi, discovered in 1984 and opened to the public in 2011. It’s named after the Greek titan Prometheus, who according to myth was chained to a mountain in the Caucasus as punishment for giving fire to humanity. The cave does feel mythological — the kind of place ancient people would have called an entrance to the underworld.

The entrance fee was 40 GEL. The views were worth a thousand. The experience was worth twenty-five hundred. The first thing that hits the senses is the transition from light to dark — your eyes struggle to adjust, then the cave opens up and you understand. The second is the temperature drop — it’s cold, a constant 14°C, but also very humid. The third is the smell: earth, minerals, ancient stalactites and stalagmites, water that’s been filtering through limestone for millennia. It’s the smell of deep time.

The cave has a loop structure — a 1.4-kilometre walkable route that takes you through tight squeezes and then into towering cathedral-like openings where stalactites hang from the ceiling like pipe organs. The tours go in groups of no more than 60 people every half hour — that’s the recommended safety limit. If you like adventure and spelunking, it’s definitely worth a visit. The colored LED lighting is a bit theme-park, but the formations themselves are genuine and magnificent.

🌿 Khidi — The Smell of Green

On the way to our second stop, Martvili Canyon, we took the mountain drive route — and I have never smelled such green, earthy scents in my life as I did around Khidi and the surrounding region. The beautiful tapestry of trees, bushes, flowers, mountain air, and sun was almost overwhelming. No cars, buses, trucks, airplanes, or other modern pollution machines to be seen — or smelled. The car I was in was even an EV, so the only thing reaching my nose through the open window was pure Georgian mountain air. It’s the kind of smell that makes you breathe differently — deeper, slower, more deliberately — because your body recognizes it as something rare and worth savouring.

🚣 Martvili Canyon

Martvili Canyon isn’t a large canyon — especially not compared to the Grand Canyon or even Dashbashi from Day 13. But what it lacks in size it makes up in beauty. My tour guide and I got on a boat and rafted up the river. The water level was too low to go beyond 100 metres, but we were able to see the waterfall at the head of the canyon — a ribbon of white against the green walls.

We then walked the path along the canyon and saw some majestic waterfalls. The roaring sound of the water, the blue hues of the flowing music — it was spectacular. The water here has a colour that doesn’t seem real: an electric turquoise-blue, the kind you see in photos and assume has been edited. It hasn’t. The limestone in the water catches the light and produces something that looks manufactured but is entirely natural.

Our time ran out — as it always does at the good places — and it was time for the three-hour ride back to Tbilisi. Six hours of driving for three hours of wonder. The ratio was right. The day delivered.

By the Numbers

Item	GEL	EUR (≈)
Prometheus Cave entrance	40.00	€13.61
Day tour ($63 USD — driver + guide)	166.95	€56.79
Lunch (Martvili, 3 people)	64.00	€21.77
Total (all-in)	270.95	€92.16

Lunch was 64 GEL total for 3 people — my share approximately 21 GEL.