From Kekova we sailed to Finike mostly because it was a good starting point for a road trip to Cappadocia. As we finished docking in the marina, another sailboat, a Jeaneau 54, came in and docked right next to us. Apparently I should have given way because they were under sail and we had taken our sails down and were motoring in. Whatever! We would have just had to bob around in the water waiting for them to catch up. No thank you.
However, the three men on the boat were very friendly and struck-up conversation immediately with John. They were probably shocked that John had actually sailed from USA. The majority of boats here carry a U.S. flag and are registered in Delaware because of a tax break. So most people just assume we’re one of those boats, but when they hear us speaking English, or should I say American, they know we’re authentic. By the way, Barclay says he’s going to teach me English. I had no idea that being ‘pissed’ means being drunk.
Anyway, the guys on the Jeanneau invited us over for drinks and we found them to be quite interesting. Jean is Lebanese and lives in Beirut running the family fashion business. He has previously lived in Texas, Singapore, and Paris. Ziad is Lebanese and lives in Paris. And Giovanni is…I let you guess at this one. Right, he’s Italian but lives in Cannes.
The next day was filled with boat projects for John and reading for me, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walters. We arranged for a rental for our road trip. That evening we invited our neighbors to join us aboard Quetzal for Captain’s hour. Then we all headed to the local fish restaurant for dinner. Ziad took it upon himself to order for all of us, only the freshest fish would be allowed.
The following day, the 11th, we packed up and began on our drive. Some people told us it would take about 6 hours to Cappadocia, others said it would take about 8 hours, but it seemed like forever. We first drove to Antalya and spent a few hours exploring the old town. We managed to escape the rug vendors by telling them that my dad is in the rug business…and the world over knows Persian rugs are the best.
After lunch we continued towards Konya, the place where the Persian poet Rumi has been laid to rest. Of course, that’s according to the Turks. I’m thinking that might be a bit controversial with the Persians. The drive through the mountains was pretty spectacular and not just visually. Every time we stopped for gas, actually propane, everyone was very keen on coming over to talk to the Americans. Everywhere we went people asked where we’re from. John would say United States, but I would say America which they seem to understand better. “Ah, you come from Amreeka! Please, we have tea, is free. The bath is free”. That’s for the WC, a.k.a. toilet. Everyone was always so kind and helpful.
Once we arrived in Konya I noticed that every single female was covered-up, in hijab. I was starting to feel a bit self conscious with my shorts and tank top, so I changed right in the car putting on jeans and a button down over my tank. We drove around in circles in search of our hotel. Based on my research, reading reviews on TripAdvisor, I was determined to find this one hotel…although we didn’t have any reservations. We called the hotel and they had availability and gave John directions on how to get there. Something must have been lost in translation because we continued to drive in circles with no luck. John was ready to stop at any hotel.
Here’s where I need to explain something very basic. John and I have completely different vision on hotels. He just wants somewhere he can sleep at night, me too…but it has to be clean. I don’t care about tv or channels or size, I just want it to be clean. I finally turned on data on the iPhone and plugged in the address in Google maps. Good thing because he had already sussed out some other place that didn’t look very appealing.
We finally arrived at the Hich Hotel. Even John was happy. It was such a beautiful hotel, more like a pension or B & B. We were given a little history of the building and shown to our room, named Arap (Arab) that overlooked the town’s main mosque and Rumi’s tomb. The room was not only immaculate, but it was comfy as well. Hell, it had a real bed and a real shower…that’s enough comfort for me.
After a nice shower with hot water, we went out for a walk through town. It was the second night of Ramadan so I don’t know if that was the reason there were so many people around the mosque. Another odd thing was that I’ve never seen so many people eating ice cream. Just about everyone was walking with an ice cream cone in their hands. Of course, they had been fasting all day so I guess a little ice cream was well deserved.
The next morning we had a delicious breakfast and then went to the Rumi museum before continuing on our drive to Cappadocia. We arrived at hour hotel, the Sultan Cave Suites, which is probably one of the coolest hotels I’ve ever stayed in. We went for a long walk to the ‘Open Air Museum’. It literally is a museum in the open air. You pay an entrance fee of 15 TL and you walk through all the caves where you can still see the frescoes from the Christians of the Byzantium era. There were caves that were churches, others were living quarters, others where they dined.
The following morning we rose at 4:00 a.m. Went to the lobby at 4:30 to meet up with all the others who were going on the hot air ballon ride. We were picked up by the folks from ‘Butterfly Balloons’ and taken down the hill to their office. It was packed with people already. They had a nice breakfast set up for all the passengers and then we all drove off to the site where the balloons awaited us.
On the way I started wondering if I would get scared going up or maybe I would have some motion sickness. Once we arrived those thoughts quickly evaporated. I was in awe with the size of the balloons and just the whole set up. As we began to rise I was a little nervous, but it didn’t last long. It was the smoothest ride ever with the most spectacular views. It was not an inexpensive thing to do, but it’s something I’ve always wanted do and I was so happy that I got to do it in Cappadocia. We were back at the hotel by 7:30. I took a nap while John worked on his book, Sailing a Serious Ocean.
After breakfast, or should I say our second breakfast, we went to visit the underground city at Kaymakli that was about 80 feet deep . After that, we went to Avanos which is known for its pottery. Neither one of us has much interest in seeing pottery, we just wanted something cold to drink. However, we walked by a shop where the owner was hand painting Hittite symbols on a ceramic plate. He was painting such unique and beautiful designs that we decided to take a look.
We both fell in love with a wine decanter that he had painted in the same Hittite style. We now have our one Turkish souvenir/artifact and if it makes it home in one piece, you can come over for some wine poured from the decanter. After that, we went to see the ‘Fairy Chimneys’ at Pasabag so called because they look like giant monks running up a hill. It became somewhere for monks to have a solitary place.
I have to fast forward in this blog to what is going on at this very moment. We are anchored in the bay just outside of Marmaris. It’s 10:00 p.m. and I’m sitting in the cockpit writing this blog as I’m listening to Gangham Style blaring from one of the clubs to my port side. On my starboard side there’s a party boat, a Gulet, which is coasting through the bay blaring G6. And all this was happening at the same time as the ‘call to prayer’ is being broadcast over the loudspeaker from the mosque. This is the true definition of ‘east meets west’.
After Cappadocia we returned to Quetzal in Finike. The next day was filled with more boat projects, cleaning, laundry, and some provisioning. We sailed to Kas and anchored in the bay. Then we sailed to Kumlu Buku bay where we met up with Oya and Barclay. They even had Captain’s hour waiting for us aboard Mr. Bojangles. Oya and I kayaked in a one-person kayak to the ‘Yacht club’ for a drink, the men came after in the dinghy.
On the way back to the boat, we took turns paddling the kayak and while I was paddling we somehow managed to capsize. The fact that we were in the middle of the bay and it was pitch dark outside didn’t worry me one bit. On the contrary, I couldn’t stop laughing. We managed to right the kayak and just swam to the boat pulling the kayak by the painter.
This morning we sailed to Marmaris and anchored here in the bay. We had a near disaster because a gulet pulled on our anchor and we dragged and went up right against another sailboat. The thing is, we were ashore and not on the boat. We had walked to the marina office and then on the way back we sat to have something refreshing to drink. John decide to take a look out into the bay and make sure all was ok with Quetzal. It wasn’t. He saw the guy from the other boat fending off from Quetzal. He jumped in the dinghy and made it to the boat just in time.
Another amazing thing happened today. It rained. It has been unbelievably hot and dry here that I didn’t think rain was a possibility. And then I was a bit confused on whether it was actually raining or not. Everyone just kept on their way without giving a second thought to the rain. It was quite refreshing.
