After talking to too many other travelers to count, we had
huge expectations for Goreme in the Cappadocia area of Turkey. It exceeded all of them! We
ended up staying longer than planned, and fell in love with the small town and fascinating
surrounding area.
We arrived at the bus station in Nevesir at 9pm and were
told the dolmuses had stopped running to Goreme--but that a taxi could take us for 5
million Turkish lira. Considering we paid 6 million to get there all the way from Konya,
we passed. Luckily Vija had given us the name of a woman, Marieka, at the Gumus Cave
hostel, so we called her and she sent someone by in a van to get us. It turned out to be
the owner. When we arrived there was a barbecue going on, so we threw our stuff in our
cave and had a great time chatting with 4 women from Chile, a couple from Germany, and a
retired British couple who were on their 9th year of sailing around the world.
We don't usually go on "tours" as a rule but we
had heard from several people that there were some interesting places in the surrounding
area of Goreme that would be nearly impossible to get to without a car, or within a day on
a bus; and that Otuken Voyage was a good choice. So we discarded our precepts and jumped
in the van with all the people we had just met.
One of the highlights was the Kaymakli Underground city.
There were 4 levels of "city" caves carved into a huge underground rock. It was
fun crawling around through narrow passageways and shining our flashlight into the small
clusters of rooms that comprised family houses. The city was exceedingly well thought out.
Instead of fighting, the people here just hid. They had a camouflaged water supply (so the
enemy couldn't poison them), huge stones to roll across entrances in times of danger,
communication holes to warn neighboring underground cities, and vats for wine. It was all
quite ingenious, and we wondered if anything like it could be constructed today.
We went to the Soganli Valley and hiked up and around the
hills there, and noted the cave formations. We basically had the entire valley to
ourselves. We also saw the Sahinefendi formations, Taskinpasa, and Cemil. Each was
slightly geographically different. The places got a bit fuzzy after this point, and that's
probably why we don't really do tours. But the fun and companionship of the people in our
group made up for it.
The moonlight was so bright the first night that we decided
to go on a midnight hike with Javiera and Valentina (from Chile) and we didn't even need
flashlights. The area across from where we stayed was filled with what looked like Smurf
houses, caves with frescoes, some in better shape than what we saw on the tour. The
preservation of the frescoes is attributed to the lack of light in the church caves.
As we're gluttons for punishment, we elected to go on
another day-tour; we decided to see a bit more as we knew we'd have the rest of the week
to "recover" from the frenetic tour pace. Besides, the fun British couple would
be there as would Linda and Marcus from Australia. First stop was Derinkuyu, another
underground cave city--this one was 8 levels down; twice as deep but we couldn't see as
much on each floor. The 8th level down was quite claustrophobia- provoking! The
renovations were still taking place; parts of the rocks were quite unstable. We also drove
through Selime village where the first Star Wars was filmed.
The highlight was the Ilhara Gorge, which we had heard a lot
about. It was gorgeous. We descended down lots of steps and then followed the river for
about 5 kilometers. There were great rock formations, little waterfalls, and thick forests
of trees. Next we stopped at a Karavanserei: literally a hotel for camels. It made sense
as this was part of the Silk Road. We ended the day watching a sunset in the Rose Valley
overlooking the Fairy Chimneys.
Fairy Chimneys? Yes, that's what they call them here. They
are the rather phallic shaped rock formations that you see on the photos at left. They are
natural, not man-made, as they would seem; especially in such a patriarchal society! They
were formed from different types of rock layered due to volcanoes. The most durable rock
was the most recent, so the deeper layer would erode underneath the protective coating of
the newer rock, and form a "chimney." Our favorite quote was from Tony, the
British sailor, who while sitting on top of a chimney at sunset said that if this was a
fairy chimney, then he must be a pixie.
Everyone we had met thus far had left by our third day, so
we went into a carpet shop to make a new friend. Actually, Mehmet was a friend of a
friend. Myrna James, otherwise known as Go Global Girl, met him last year and bungee
jumped with him in New Zealand a few months ago. Plus we were on a mission: we had gotten
a request to buy a kilim for our friends Carrie and Eric. The beauty of a digital camera!
We photographed a few from Mehmet's Sultan Carpet
shop and emailed them off.
Dave got sick later that day; fever, chills, body shakes.
Marieka brought him some Chinese herbal medicine, and then he just slept. Kelly decided to
take off and go hiking (so we'll move into first person...). On the way to the bus I ran
into Caleb and Mija, travelers from Berkeley who we met in Selcuk. I took the bus with
them up to Uchisar Castle (actually, I took it with them all the way to Nevsehir and then
back to Uchisar because I wasn't paying attention). They were going to one of the
underground cities we had already been to.
I made it to the town and climbed up onto the top of the old
castle. It was deserted at first and quite peaceful. There were lots of crevices that
offered great views of the valley below. On my way out the ticket guy persuaded me to try
on some "Turkish" items (see photo at left) and share some tea with him. I
attempted to find the valley path that would lead me back to Goreme. I found A
path but I'm not sure if it was the one. I had a compass but maybe I should've brought a
map... Several hours later I was still hiking through a gorge-like valley, with no sign of
a town. No sign of a person. I did see a camel tied to a tree on the way down, but he was
the only non-natural inhabitant I encountered. Eventually I came upon a small road that
led back to a main road, and subsequently to the direction of Goreme. I had been following
a dried up creek bed and had to push my way through lots of trees and climb under some
small caves; I emerged from the gorge near a small craft store and several people just
sort of stared at me. I caught a glance of myself in the window: I resembled a scary
bush-person with all sorts of twigs protruding from my head. Anyway, it was very a
tranquil walk and I got home before sunset & just in time to have dinner with a
still-sick Dave.
Caleb and Mija had been looking for some Turkish music to
take home with them, and befriended Idris, the owner of Beste Music shop in town. I met
them there that evening and we listened to a wide selection of music and drank Raki
(pronounced "rocky"). It was a clear, heavy liquorice-flavored liquor that
tasted a little like Ouzo. The Turkish drink it with ice and add water so it turns a milky
white color--its so strong even they dilute it a bit!
The next day, Dave's health was still "iffy" so I
went hiking with Caleb and Mija. Did I mention that they had met climbing mountains in
Brazil? And that they hike nearly every weekend at home in the Bay Area? Luckily, the path
we attempted was relatively benign and I was nearly able to keep up. If only we could have
found a path. The one we sought was hidden from view. Eventually Caleb took off
and found what looked like one, and we had a great hike. We saw the "most
phallic" of the fairy chimneys and kept hoping the weather would hold out--the skies
would darken up every once in awhile, and then miraculously clear up. We found our way out
and then hitchhiked to Avanos, checked out their famous pottery, had a late lunch, and
took the bus back to Goreme.
Yes, we stayed in a cave--albeit a cave with a bathtub. It
was surprisingly cool and quiet. Those cavedwellers knew what they were doing. We were
told it stayed quite warm in winter too. And according to Dave, it wasn't a bad place to
be sick either.
By the time our week in Goreme was up, we realized why
people usually plan to stay here for a week and then never leave. We had gotten to know
several people in the town and really enjoyed all of the areas to explore in the country.
We will be back!
