Lost in the valley and hills of wonder

The bus ride to Goreme was a long 10 hour trip which was nothing but on and off sleeping with no where to do any stretching but at least the charter bus made frequent stops at diner/gas station spots. The scenery was magical on the way to Goreme, this environment is something you can only visualize in your dreams. You could see the appearances of the small towns and cities constantly improving due to revenue of high tourism in the regions. There is nothing like it anywhere in the world due to the structure formations of the rocks appearing as very organic and natural but except for old town of Matera, Italy which is pretty close but at a different degree. Arriving in the town center felt very touristy but you had alot of items at your disposal for food to rentals to tours to lodgings. I selected a lodging that was a fair distant walk from the town center but it was close to the hills to get a good vantage point to observe the city from above for the main attraction of the area which was the rising of the hot air balloons.

The day I arrived in Goreme, I wanted to go and do some solo hiking after doing some research before I my trip to Turkey. But I realized after speaking with the owner at my lodging that the hills and terrain I was about to encounter was going to be brutal depending which hiking trail I chose to embark on. I made a very long trek to near the south end of Red/Rose valley which was next to the town of Cavusin and is probably the most easiest trail to navigate. The trail took about an hour due to stopping for taking photos at different locations and walking combined but basically there many paths to get to the south region of the Red/Rose valley and its all about exploration and losing yourself in the moment. I arrived in the town of Cavusin and was trying to hike atop of a isolated giant rock mountain that was adjacent to the town center where some tourists were appearing from above. But I ended up traveling further away into the open area toward the red mountains from not knowing the direct route to get to the top. So I went back to the town center and tried to look for another route then rain just came down slowly and to a downpour. Which I thought it would be a better idea to hike back to Goreme, and luckily I had a raincoat I brought with me which I originally didn't think I would need it on this vacation trip. Later observing past rain from previous stops I was at, it became clear it was invaluable for not only in Turkey but in my next country of destination. It was a shame not to take alot more photos since it was raining but I had a proper water repellent cloth to cover up my camera backpack and I was just witnessing countless people running toward Cavusin or a small cafe nearby to get out of the rain. While I was trekking back towards Goreme, I failed to recognize the route I taken was directing me to travel northwest away from my lodging destination and the terrain was very rough. Basically I was hiking in a enclosed valley where you have two options to either continue the same path or backtrack where you started from and for me not knowing the trail I just proceeded to follow the trail and hope for the best.

The trail I just entered was Meskendir and before arriving there it took 45 minutes to travel there in the rain but this particular trail was something I only see in horror films. The trail was very treacherous and trying to gain access through bushes, branches, mud and winding paths was very exhausting. I came across some camp grounds were someone or some people were staying in but I didn't come across anyone. Though the feeling that people might be out there and not appearing in sight just flashed through my mind like a villain preying on a victim from a scary movie. So that kind of thinking really triggered my senses to find the end of the hiking trail as quickly as possible which was nerve-racking. After about an hour later, I actually reached my end point which I had to ascend upward above the valley and looked back down where I came from which was pretty mind blowing and I didn't think I could go through something like this on my own. This was something you don't want to travel alone through when it gets dark, because the terrain has the claustrophobia feel to it and if don't have experience hiking solo. Then I had another hour to make my way back toward Goreme by following the main road toward the Goreme Open air museum but all in all it took roughly 4 hours to complete this hike even though I didn't get to take photos for the duration of traveling back to Goreme.

The following day, I didn't have high hopes of going on a hot air balloon ride early in the morning but waited outside for my 5:30 am transportation pickup which never arrived and I decided to go to a high vantage point to film the hot air balloons go into flight in different areas of town. It was very much a wonderful experience to witness these hot air balloons traveling in the sky and to have the contrast of the mountains, valleys and the town in the backdrop. So I took alot of photos and videos and shot a time lapse video of the beautiful surroundings which I believe will turn great in post production. I couldn't figure out initially how people were traveling to the sunset point to observe the flights of the hot air balloons so I did some research to look for this specific route to get there and eventually found it nearby some hotel lodgings off of on one of the many cobble stone roads. The high point of the hill/mountain view was spectacular to see the surroundings of the town and appreciate the isolated natural organic rock formations that appeared all over Goreme.

After taking photos of the hot air balloons and checking out the sunset point view briefly, I headed back to my lodging for the green tour I originally booked with a tour agency. I had no doubt that this agency will not provide the green tour as well and purchased the green tour through my lodging which left at 9am for a whole day event. I pretty much was taken for about $175 dollars in my deposit which is not to bad, it could have been alot much worse but I had to make the best out of my situation since I'm on vacation. It would of been non-productive day and I would of easily made the rest of my trip not enjoyable if I fought this issue of losing my deposit. So the first item of the tour we visited was Goreme Panorama view point, just wonderful location to oversee the town and its organic rock formations attraction and the perfect time with the weather working for us. In some sort of thrill-seeking perspective, if would of been unbelievable to para-lide or hand-glide ride off from this high point toward the town center of Goreme or even above the mountains.

Then we headed off to the Derinkuyu Underground City, which was amazing how the locals in the past lived in these tunnels on a several months span. I couldn't even imagine that over 500 people would stay in one underground city and there were over 40+ underground cities spread out to all different locations in Cappadocia. These tunnels were made for specific rooms to be used by the locals like they are living their own homes above ground but have to adjust the small quarter spaces that were designed enough just to get by. Also for the armies that were trying to conquer the regions, they would try to invade these underground cities but the locals would devise routes for a typical soldier to make it very difficult to access. This would lead to their deaths, their own capture or even to confusion. It was very interesting how their water system was constructed and how they maintained the temperature to be cool at certain degrees all year round in these underground cities. The Ihlara valley was next on the list to visit from Derinkuyu Underground City and was a very pleasant sight to see.

The whole valley felt like I was traveling inside a large protective zoo park even though we were at the bottom of the valley, the view of the mountains from below was something you would appreciate in person. There was also a small church constructed for people to worship even though it was carved out small part of the rocky mountain, it had frescoes being implemented in designated rooms to create the atmosphere for the people to congregate to. The hike was pretty easy to get around since we were mainly traveling on level ground and ended at the other side of the valley where we had lunch at a local restaurant. The whole area really felt like a open nature museum with alot of the rock formations protruding out of the top of the parts of the Ihlara valley which had many open pigeon houses all around up above. The pigeons were very useful in multiple ways whether it was for food, clothing, messaging, or other resourceful items, they were very essential animals for the locals back then.

After our time at the Ihlara valley, we arrived at the Selime Monastery which was located on a cliff overlooking the region. It was a very interesting location to have a place that was high above level ground for many different civilizations, it was more of a society for people to socialize and worship. There were many rooms that were carved out for sleeping areas to places to keep animals in to burial rooms but it felt like this large cathedral like structure could house a good size community.

Such a shame we didn't get to go to Pigeon valley and Uschiar castle due to the rain just pouring down without hesitation so we headed off to a couple of shops that carried local jewelry and Turkish delights. We had a good demonstration from the Onyx factory/store how the jewelry were constructed but I had no real interest in them due to how expensive they were and also I'm not much of jewelry wearing person. Though I was really intrigued with the Turkish delight sweets being made and what kind of flavors they had. We traveled to a shop where they made and sold different types of these sweets, basically they are tasty flavored chewy candies with the texture of eating gummy bears/worms but filled with different types of nuts. Pretty much this green tour was well worth the full day of activities and I highly encourage others embark on it as well since its not practical to go to all these attractions on your own even with a rental car, just spending alot more money and eating up to much of travel time.

Later in the evening, a friend of mine mentioned about going on a Turkish night experience at a restaurant which was basically dinner, drinks, and dancing in the city of Avanos, 15 minutes away outside of Goreme. I was curious what this activity was going to offer and I was very happy I chose to take part in this. The dinner was decent but the unlimited drinks (basically wine) was the selling point for anyone who wanted to go to this restaurant for the evening festivities. The gentlemen performers captured the essence of the Whirling Dervishes dances at the start of the entertainment program while the women followed with their own special dances in their themed attire. They had a special performance where one of my friends was selected to take part in role-playing of a woman trying to receiving the affections of a man that is trying to court her by showcasing his dance moves. Two guys didn't provide enough of outstanding moves to sway her attention till the 3rd individual that started break dancing infront of the whole crowd. The guy whom was a friend of mine, basically won over the audience and the woman's affection, to bad I didn't get record it on camera because the crowd went bananas over the dance moves. There was also a woman that performed belly dances and selected random persons from the crowd to join in trying to emulate the belly dance routines. The belly dance class was very entertaining since some of my friends were selected and one of them was their birthday so it made the whole night even more enjoyable for everyone attending.
My last day in Goreme/Turkey was focusing on doing photography at different locations in the region and part of the day I was fighting with the rain and sunshine but was able to do take great shots from the sunset point at different times. Looking back on staying in Goreme, I would of loved to do more solo hiking but the rain was an issue and plus not having a strong background of hiking in general in rough terrains is a big risk to take. Thrill-seeking is one thing but not understanding the areas you might hike around will get you into dangerous predicaments.

                                                                              Time lapse of hot air balloons flying around Goreme