We entered the Turkish port town of Marmaris via hydrofoil
boat from Rhodes, and had heard to get out quickly. We were the only non-daytrippers on
the boat, and the only non-Europeans. Subsequently, we had to wait around until the
"visa lady" returned from break to take our $45 for an entry visa, then we had
to find our own way to the bus station (taxi seemed to be the only option), and get money
changed as soon as possible.
We tackled the first two, then went to one of the bus
station travel agents to change money (again, the only option). We had forgotten to check
the latest exchange rate that morning; our book said 77,900 Turkish Lire to $1. We were
totally confused by the amount they gave us for our U.S. $50 bill. We knew that Turkey had
an unusually high rate of inflation, but we weren't expecting the rate to be 400,000
Turkish Lire to the dollar! Talk about a pleasant surprise.
We had read an article on Dalyan, a small town southeast of
Marmaris, and thought that seemed like as good a place as any to start our trip through
Turkey. So we asked around until we found the small bus to get us there. We had to take
two--one to Ortaca first. It was filled with school children curiously looking at us and
our packs. They were very nice and yelled to the bus driver to stop when they saw our
connecting bus to Dalyan beginning to leave across the street. He stopped and we scurried
across an intersection to catch it.
Tourism was down in the little Mediterranean town of Dalyan;
bad for them, good for us. We were able to find a great room shortly after we got there.
We simply walked to a recommended "middle end" hotel and asked how much was
their lowest-priced room. Then we named a price we wanted to pay. It actually worked, as
did the air-conditioning in the room we got.
We wandered around the town and signed up for a boat
excursion the next day. For about $5 each, we took a day-long trip up and down the
reed-lined river Dalyan Cayi. Our journey started near the Lycian rock tombs dated from
4th century B.C. They were impressive facades carved into the rocks high above the river.
They looked more like houses than tombs. We heard from some locals that for awhile people
were allowed to climb around inside the tombs to poke around, but they finally had to be
closed off due to vandals.
The boat meandered along the Dalyan Cayi to Koycegiz Golu
and the Sultaniye hot springs and mud baths. We had been to mud baths in northern
California, but this was in a different league! To fully reap the benefits of the
mineral-laden mud, we had to climb into a 20 foot wide mud puddle and basically
"wash" ourselves all over with the stuff. Once we were fully covered we had to
stand around in the sun and let it dry until it felt "cakey." Then we doused
ourselves with a cold water shower to wash it off. Finally came the reward: a soak in a
warm bubbly thermal bath. On the way out we noticed photos of Sting and Dustin Hoffman who
had been there a few months before to promote continued preservation of the coastal
ecology.
Next we dived in to the gorgeous turquoise water for a quick
swim (which also helped to clean off some remaining mud) and then made our way down the
river to the ruins of the ancient city of Caunos. It included an agora and many temples;
the local farmers didn't let the site interfere with their task of shepherding cows and
goats. They had free roam of the ruins. We enjoyed our day of exploration and talked at
length with some Australians who recommended several unusual places for us to seek out in
the rest of Turkey, including a woman named Lily at a carpet shop in Selcuk.
Dalyan is probably most famous for its giant loggerhead
turtles, which despite a recent threat of extinction, continue to lay eggs on its beach.
The clincher is the turtles can only be exposed to natural light, as lights
direct the baby turtles as they hatch and need to find their way to the water.
Manufactured light was shown to confuse them, and they were beginning to die off. So local
environmentalists lobbied to keep the beach area free of hotels and restaurants with
lights, and restrict visits to daylight hours only. It seems to be working so far.
