The Turquoise Coast


On the way to the ships where we would spend the next four days we stopped for the obligatory carpet factory tour. We have been through several of these but this was by far the most amusing and informative.		Most of the weavers were young girls; they can start as early as 15 and some, but not all, leave when they get married. The center was set up to preserve the art of carpet weaving as well as to provide employment for women.

Then came the showing of the carpets, rolled out one after another, ranging from a thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.		You could be taken to a private room where salesmen would exhibit carpets meeting your specifications.
		On the road to the coast we passed endless great vistas of olive groves (a major crop). Turks eat olives only at breakfast. Gökhan was surprised at the idea of eating them as an evening appetizer or as part of another dish.
Did we buy a carpet? Of course.

We stopped at an overlook at a bay. When the island of Santorini in the middle of the Aegean blew up around 1600 BC, the tsunami reached as far as this bay.		While at this stop we came across an interesting insect that the proprietor said was a diurnal moth. Any lepidopterists in the audience to help ID it?
		The gulets are simple ships, manned by a captain, a deckhand, and a cook/deckhand. Our captain was very friendly, despite his very limited English.
The gulet - our home for the next four days. Each held 12 or 13 passengers so the group split into two groups. Believe it or not, we were not placed with the party group.

I adore sailing. Call this Total Contentment. Note the slippers: shoes were not allowed on the deck.		As we sailed along we saw the occasional herd of goats.

One look at the water shows why this area is called the Turquoise Coast. We spent the night anchored in quiet, secluded coves.		The cabins were tiny but adequate, unless I (sleeping on the inside) wanted to get up at night.

Mostly the gulets operated on motor power, but one afternoon they put up one one of the sails. Quiet and peaceful progress, but slow.		One day the captain brought out the chart to show where we were and where we were going. "We are here. You go here to river. Putt, putt, putt. You come back, we go here.
So the next day we went to the "putt putt putt"--little boats that took us along the Dalyan River to see the Lycian rock tombs and the Mediterranean coast.
		Well, we were warned. The boats were OK, the scenery was nice, but we didn't forget the gulets.

The rock tombs are a mystery. No one knows quite how they were accessed.		The river ends at the Mediterranean Coast, a popular beach. Along the way we stopped to look at Mediterranean loggerhead turtles but they were uncooperative for photos.
		In some ways, the hardest part of the hike was getting from the gulets to the dock in tippy little tenders. Where are the Zodiacs when you need them?
We debarked to hike to the top of St. Nicholas Island, one-time home of Santa Claus. No reindeer in evidence.

The trail up the island looked fairly steep, but most of it turned out not to be too bad.		Along the way we visited the ruins of several Byzantine churches.
The best part of the hike, though, was the scenery we could see from the trail.
		The remains of the apse from one of the churches. It was a convenient place for people to take a rest on the way up.

When seen from the rear, or from the sea, you could see the cross built into the top of the apse.		The view from the top of the island was worth the walk.

Our ships at anchor in the cove next to the island.		"Ice cream!" said our captain when we returned. We were confused until the local equivalent of the Good Humor man arrived in his boat selling ice cream bars.

Our next excursion was to Kayaköy, an abandoned village in the hills. In 1923 the Greeks and the Turks exchanged populations. Greek Muslims were sent to Turkey and Turkish Christians to Greece. This village had been inhabited by Turkish Christians and has been preserved as a monument to that that event.

During our walk we saw an unusual bird. Research in the bird books after we returned to the gulet established that it was a European roller. The birders had never heard of it, but I had seen rollers in Africa.		The Greek Orthodox Church in Katakoy has been partially restored but there is no longer anyone there to use it.
		There are also the ubiquitous camel rides and, in this case, a newborn camel just learning to stand. These dromedaries (one-humped camels) shared the tourist trade in Turkey with the Bactrian (two-humped) camels.
The local people scavenge items from the ghost town and turn them into objects to sell to the tourists.