Action Packed Day

Friday June 17

We woke the kids up early to go see the balloons rise with the sun. Got a few more balloon pics, pretty sure I did not need any more but I got a deal on digital storage.

We stopped by Pasa Bagi to check out the Fairy Chimneys. That was fun and there was a nice climbing challenge in one of the dwellings. There are some ancient hand holds in these rocks.

There was a young Spanish girl who was lamenting all the activities that her slightly long nails kept her from doing, but she went for it on one of the climbs and made it nails and all. Patti was remarking on how good, rather perfect, her English was. To which Tara replied "She spoke English, very well English".

Next stop Zvelve. This was a V-ish shaped canyon with dwellings in all the cliffs. There was a fair bit of it closed off due to rock fall but we pressed on to the furthest part of the canyon. It was there that we found the best exploration site yet. We were able to climb all over this thing by ourselves and get up to 3 stories. Reaching story number two was enough to freak Patti out. Tara and I stemmed a chimney and got to the highest level. Riley's Tevas were not cutting it for that final ascent ;-(.

The Uchisar Castle, as they call it, was pretty fantastic. A very large wall with dozens of dwellings. 

In Uchisar we decide to just drive around a bit. After that we found an off-road way to get back down to Goreme, at least we hoped that would be the case. Patti had her concerned backseat driver voice activated for most of the ride while Tara kept up the encouragement. I think I am a carrot guy more than a stick guy.  The most dangerous part was heading down a steep tight one way the wrong way then having to turn around. Here is the one way sign for future reference.

Tonight Patti hooked us up with a dinner and dancing spectacle with all you can eat. It was a set of dances that are representative of the Turkish culture. We seem to do something like this in most countries we visit. The Whirling Dervish was pretty impressive, I felt sick to my stomach just watching them, so much for all you can eat.

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