A real mud bath!
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2008
1
42
188
Trip End
Jun 28, 2009
Dalyan,
Turkish Aegean Coast,
Turkey
Sunday, September 28, 2008
We stopped at a little cove right near Ekincik, a protected bay, and put down anchor. Dad and I went snorkeling and saw side ways fish (it had both eyes on one side of its body) and starfish. I got to jump off the gangplank and kayak some more.
I also caught a little fish with some bread and a hook that Luqmin gave me. The fish did not look real at all. Luqmin told me not to touch it when he saw it because it is a poisonous fish
I loved the mud!
. He used gloves and had to leave the hook in its mouth, because if it bit us it would be bad. We threw it back in and it will probably die. I felt a little bad for the fish.This afternoon, a little putt-putt boat came to pick us up to take us to Dalyan, the town nearby. It is called a putt-putt because that is the noise it makes - putt- putt-putt! Our driver Ilias was really nice and he let me drive the boat for a while. It was easier than Uncle Dave's boat.
We putt-putted into a small harbor and saw a huge beautiful sandy beach. On the left side, it is a protected beach because it is where sea turtles lay there eggs in May and June. The moms lay about 90 eggs. The baby sea turtles are hatching now. We did not see any babies, but we did see a big sea turtle eating a blue crab. That was awesome! One of the reasons the turtles like this place is because it is where a river meets the ocean, so the water is brackish. This area is called the Koycegiz River Delta and it looks like a huge bamboo swamp.
We then putt-putted to Caunos, which is an ancient city. It was built by the Romans and we saw their ruins - including another giant amphitheatre where lots of goats were roaming around looking for olives. Lu and I fed them olives and climbed on the rocks. The city had a great view of the sea and the river. It used to be right on the harbor, but the river has silted up. There were cotton, pomegranate, peach, apricot, and olive trees all around it. Before the Romans, people built a city there in 2000 BC! That is over 4000 years ago. We saw the tombs in the mountainside where they buried some princesses and other people
After the mud
. They were really, really old.After the ruins, Ilias took us to a mud bath. First, you put on your bathing suit. I was freaked out that the changing rooms were just these thatched huts and not very private! Luckily, I had on my suit. Then you go to the mud pit. It is kind of warm and full of gray mud. You jump in and put mud everywhere. Lu did not like this part, so she and Mom got out first. But Dad and I got completely covered. My friend Sophie would have loved it. She wanted me to have a mud pit for my birthday party last year!
After the mud, you let it dry a little, then take a hot shower. That felt good, but the best part was a hot sulphur spring. It smelled like rotten eggs but it felt so nice after the mud. We sat in it for a while, then dried off and went back to the town of Dalyan. There are lots of water paths through the bamboo, instead of roads, in this town. We had drinks at a place right by the water after we parked our putt-putt boat. Then we went back to the the gulet at sunset. The water was really choppy and there were big waves. Ilias let me drive some more until it got too rough. The waves were fun!
Tonight on the gulet we had a great dinner of chicken, rice, and French fries. Luqmin taught us how to play Challenge, which is a dice game. I won one game! It was a great day.
