Tesekkür Çirali

As you know, we went to Turkey for about a week.  Our first stop was Çirali. It's on the southern coast of Turkey and it's a small rural town surrounded by the most majestic mountains.  Up until about 10 years ago, there were no roads.  But now, it's starting to boom with tourism, which is good because we got to go there, but bad because I think it will become overrun with cheesy tourist joints in a few years.  We stayed at Arcadia and honestly we couldn't have picked a better hotel.

  

{the view from our porch}

{pomegranate flower}

{our beach set up}

{banana tree}

{the coastline}

Every morning we started with the most amazing breakfast of fresh jams, fruits, vegetables and cheeses.

{fresh breakfast}

{tomatoes with fresh goat cheese}

{homemade jams}

While we were in Çirali, we spent a lot of time at the beach.  But we also took a couple of excursions.  We went to Olympos, where there were ancient Lycian ruins that date back to the 2nd century B.C.  

{nate in front of ruins}

{more ruins}

By far the best part of our trip to Çirali was our boat trip.  We had this big boat all to ourselves for a day and we saw parts of the southern coast that we would never have been able to see any other way.  A lot of the coastline was reminiscent of Hawaii with its vast cliffs and mountains.  

On the boat trip, we swam through a cave, which was a little scary but also super fun.  We had the best lunch, which consisted of fresh fried fish, an herb green salad and some of the most delectable fruits, including green plums, which look like miniature green apples but they are really tart.

{olympos castle ruins}

{boat with mountains behind}

{cave we swam through}

{me swimming in the most gorgeous setting}

Last but not least we visited the Chimaera, which is a mythical beast that breathes fire and has the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent.  Supposedly the Chimaera was killed by Bellerophon with the help of Pegasus at the command of King Iobates of Lycia in the mountains near Çirali.  And there the beast lives today beneath the ground.

{the Chimaera}

The mountainside is littered with these fires that continuously burn.  We were told that some people have even snuffed them out, but they spontaneously reignite and no one is really sure how or why.  
And that was our trip to Çirali.  For more photos, check out our Picasa site.  Next stop Istanbul!  ~Daughter.