Words can't do justice to the vistas and quiet beauty that we saw. We traveled about 15 miles on the smooth air over caves and rock formations. Hills, valleys, small farms, caves, and other balloons were all in sight. Amazing.
After a short nap back at our cave, we headed out on an all day tour. Oh at one point we awoke to see four or five hot air balloons floating right by our hotel. Vince was able to wave to one they were so close.
Tour Highlights:
Göreme Panorama - we were able to get a sweeping view of the valley near our hotel.
Ihlara Valley Hike - while most of Cappodocia rock formations were created by erosion on volcanic rock, Ihlara is a valley created by a fault line. It also has natural water sources in there so it is an oasis in the desert. We had lunch along the river. In addition to the living caved, there were over 5000 cave churches carved into the valleys in these areas over the years. Monks of multiple faiths over the years lived and worked there. We hiked about a mile along the valley. We even stopped at this cute stand for fresh squeezed OJ and Turkish kaveh (coffee) along the way.
Selime Monastery - This one monastery located at the northern end of the Ihlara Valley was a main, central headquarters of sorts during the 13th century. It had a kitchen, chapel, cathedral, mission school, and more. It's interesting to ponder the thousands of footsteps in the same places we stepped. Oh and our guide Kadir said this was an area that was scouted out for filming scenes for the first Star Wars movie. George Lucas loved it, however, they could not get final permission from Turkish government (and ended up filming in Tunisa). Rumor has it some of the original scouting pictures from Turkey were spliced into the movie though. The area did remind us of Sand Peoples and Jawas (Uuuuteeni!!!!).
Derunkuyu Underground City - one of ~35 underground shelters in the area that residents in the past to hide from passing armies. This one city is eight levels deep. It had stables, armories, kitchens, churches, schools, winery, and more. It allowed over 6000 people to hide/survive a few months at a time. It's almost impossible to imagine living here...despite it's amenities.
Pigeon Valley - the volcanic soil isn't great for agriculture so residents relied on pigeon poop for fertilizer. To attract the birds people have encouraged pigeons to nest in the abandoned caves on this area. They have even carved small holes in the rick to make little pigeons holes-nests. At this point we also had great view of Uchisar 'Castle' which is the highest point in Cappadocia which has these nifty stone houses carved around the base. We can see Uchisar from our hotel room too.
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