"If you do anything dangerous, just don't tell me until afterwards please"

These were the last words of advice from my mother before she dropped be off at the airport.  I'll get to that part later, but first my favorite day thus far.

When we left Ephesus, we headed to Fatihye so that we could hike 14 km of the Lycian Way, to Butterfly Valley. After a dinner at the fish market.  Where you buy the fresh fish and take it to the restaurant of your choice, and they will cook it for you.  This was our most expensive meal to date, and sharing did not work in our favor tonight, but it was good still.

Fish Market!

The restaurant, with pretty lights in the tree.  This tree also doubled as an entrance for the stray cats.

We started our walk early in the morning, circa 7 am, which was nice because the sun wasn't too hot yet. By about 10 am, it was time for a break and some lunch. We first spotted, at the top of a hill by two little girls holding hands, and then running to our trail tour guide to say hello. We asked if they were his kids, but he told us they were the kids of the family we were going to for lunch. One of the girls grabbed his hand and walked in her sandals down the path, as we walked along the dirt road, catching ourselves from slipping on the gravel. They were pros. We stopped at a natural spring to fill our water bottles, and they grabbed a two liter bottle, filled it with water and carried it back home, chatting merrily with our tour guide as we walked. We went into the village for our homecooked meal. Village is a bit of a strech. This place had 9-10 houses and about 30-40 people living there. The tour used to stop a little further up for lunch in a different village, but this family was hurting for funds, and the other family already had someone with a job, so they moved the lunch location in order to help their neighbors out. We all sat around a large table as we watched the wife cook us up a tradtional Turkish pancakes. She kneeled on the ground rolling out bits of dough until they were big enough, stuffed them with herbs, and put them on top of their open fire grill. While she was cooking the girls were entertaining us with normal children antics, except that we weren't able to understand a word of it. Sometimes they would translate for us, but either way, you could tell they were happy kids. Once we finished eating, the wife asked if any of us wanted to try to cook one of the dishes. So, of course I gave it a shot! (In spite of breaking my 26 and a half year streak of not cooking). She was much better than I was, but it was still neat to try. As others in my group tried, I played with the little girls, who were fascinated with our long hair, hung all over us and laughed and laughed. It was really great to see a Turkish family and be invited to learn about them, even though they didn't really speak any English. It was also very inspiring to see how happy these little girls who had next to nothing were; it made me very thankful for everything I have.

Hassan and our official greeters

The girls collecting spring water.

Look mum im cooking for myself!

Me trying to cook...check out the "stove" in the background

She cooks much better than I do!

The little girl was infauated with everyone's hair, but her's was cut so short :(

They loved playing pattycake, even though they didn't understand a word of it

 

The beach that can only be reached by boat or by one path in which 3 ropes are needed to get down there

Beautiful hiking views!

hiking.

After lunch, we hiked a bit longer and finally made it to our hotel.  PS, we hiked the entire way with everything we needed on our backs.  We all cooled off and relaxed by the pool until it was time to shuttle back down to the bottom of the mountain we just climbed for a bit of paragliding over Olumediz beach.  AKA jumping off the mountain with a parachute (and a man) on your back.  We swam and layed on the super rocky beach while half of our group jumped first.  Parachutes filled the sky all day, and we were able to watch them come all the way down.  When they all landed, they talked about how great it was, so that calmed my nerves quite a bit, until I reached the launch site.  This was just a cobblestone patio (ok, a very large patio) that tilted down the mountain and then seemed to disappear into the canyon below.  I watched as my tandem guy helped everyone else get their chutes ready and they all floated off into the sky.  I was suddenly by myself at the top of the mountain and was being barked orders in broken English to help unwrap the parachute.  They are then strapping me up, telling me to run, and I'm floating away.  There was no jumping off the side.  The wind just caught the parachute and I was in the air, over the cliff and drifting through the mountains, to the sea and the beach below, as the sun is starting to set.  It was a beautiful and enjoyable ride.  Until I made the mistake of allowing him to spin me, one that I payed for dearly.  It got to the point that I had to snap at him for taking my pictures, that he would later try to sell me, telling him I couldn't look over there and smile, I could only look in front of me, unless he wanted me to get sick.  A beautiful sunset back atop the mountain and a homecooked meal did the trick for feeling better, and in our bungalows we stayed for overnight camping.

nervous.

Check out Mr. Smooky behind Marnie

Jumping off the 2000m cliff

The view as I was flying

Paragliding with this beautiful view!

Olumdeiz beach where I landed!

Our bungalow for the night!

The next morning we set out for more hiking.  This time we were physically climbing up onto and over rocks on a narrow path directly next to the cliff.  And it was still hotter than ever!  Oh well, for me, going up is better than going down!!  After about 2 hours of hiking we made it to Kabak beach.  The shore was just made up of big rocks, but the ocean was so clear and blue and beautiful!!!  The kids were jumping off of rocks into the water (as their mom's watched).  But, I was just pretending to be Ariel the little mermaid, and saying a prayer that no one was getting hurt.

A blurry lense

Under water

Marnie's rando piece of hair

Ariel

Floating!

Soaking up some sun

Happy Fourth to everyone!! (officially over here)  Hope the beach is warm, the beers are cold, Jam sesh is solid, and the flags are prevelant!! :) :) God Bless America!! :)

 beach Olumediz