Ahoy, Land Lubbers!

A blue voyage on a gulet is a pretty classic Turkish (tourist) thing to do, and even the most cynical of the cynics I know (not mentioning any names...) rave about how great a blue voyage is.  Add us to the list of those raving - we just got back from three nights at sea with Before Lunch Cruises, and had the most amazing time ever.  There is nothing quite like 72 hours on a boat, disconnected from the world, swimming in the Mediterranean, taking little hikes to scenic vistas in the morning, eating fresh and tasty meals like they're going out of style, spending the afternoons reading and playing backgammon and relaxing...

I think you get the point.  First, though, we had to get to Fethiye, the town from which we departed.  This involved a five hour bus ride on a totally ghetto bus through some crazy mountain roads.  Lucky for us the scenery was amazing and we made a Turkish friend who spoke very little English but liked us enough to buy us tea to help us relax when the bus stopped for a break.

Little did we know while waiting at the Denizli bus terminal that we would be heading over these mountains in a crappy bus on a questionable road.

We stopped in a very cool little town for the bus driver to take a break. 

Twice the road was marked at higher than 1,500 metres - higher than the summits on the Coquihalla.

Our new Turkish friend made the bus driver stop in the middle of the road so that we could take this picture - the first glimpse of Fethiye before you wind down to sea level.

We spent our first evening in Fethiye finding and booking a cruise (Before Lunch is a little pricier than the others but has an excellent captain and crew, amazing meals, and a way better boat according the research done by our shipmates and what we observed while out on the water.  We totally recommend them!)  

The next day we hit the water around 11 am with 10 new friends plus captain and crew for three days of awesome.

I'm ready!

Required activity #1: Lounging on the deck while sailing to the next destination.

The ice cream boat that visited every afternoon to see if we needed treats.

Required activity #2: Swimming in the blue, blue sea.

Required activity #3: Wine before dinner (and at dinner, and maybe after dinner).

Morning swim!  This is actually taken out of the window of our cabin.  We showed up at the boat early and lucked out with one of the best.

The boat at anchor while we take a morning hike.

More ruins... These ones aren't considered important as nobody has yet bothered to find out what they once were.

The captain introduces us to a turtle.

Chad climbs a cistern!

On the way down from required activity #4: A morning hike. (Okay, this one wasn't required but we went both days).

Chad spiced up his hat - okay, herbed up his hat.  The captain picked fresh sage, oregano, and rosemary on our hikes and they made their way into our evening meals.

Required activity #5: Eat.  A lot.  So fresh and tasty, and they made special meals for me and my vegetarian shipmate each night.

Required activity #6: Read.  A lot.  Like, say, three books in three days.

Part of our group atop a particularly scenic vista.

Scouting locations.

Required activity #7: Evening dance parties!

A hard working crew member cleans the prop to help keep us sailing smoothly.

After all that excitement, we are now spending another night in Fethiye (Before Lunch also departs from and returns to Fethiye rather than doing the more common Fethiye-Olympos route).  And tomorrow things get really fun with an overnight bus ride to Cappadocia - 15 hours, arriving at 5:30 am.  And yet somehow we still feel lucky.  See you in a few days!