The Eternal Flame......Cirali (by Josh)

I am sitting on the beach in Cirali as I write and once again feel like I could stay here forever. We found a pension not in the Lonely Planet guide called Olympos Oase. It's run by the friendliest man and his wife, Suphan and Viana. He has such a gentle demeanor and waits on us continuously. Sometimes the hospitality here makes me feel sheepish and humble because we are paying so little for our stay yet we get so much. Kazeem, the owner of our last pension in Patara has a sign in the sitting area saying " may everyone enter as guests but leave as friends"

I have learned this is the intention of most pension owners here in Turkey as I feel the same of Suphan.
He has a unprecedented garden in
the center of the pension
with grape vines falling through a woven branched roof so as you walk you can just pick grapes as eat them as you meander.
Even more amazing he took us on
a tour of his garden in the back and it's is covered with beautiful Avocado, grapefruit, grape, apple,orange and olive trees so he let us pick our own fruits and sit and munch on fresh fruit as we chatted.
Just the nicest and gentlest man you could ever meet.

Last night we hiked up ( hour and half each way) to the legendary Olympos flames. They are the inspiration for the present Olympic Torch used in the Olympics. They are methane flames (though scientists are not completely sure of the gas make up)
that spew out cracks and holes in
mountain rock and have so for long before man was around. In ancient times, the Lycians thought they were fire from
the mouth of mythological
beast they thought had the head of
a lion,body of a goat and tail of a serpent.

< It is quite the site at night to see the eternal flames just flying out of the rock.(I'll upload the video to this blog soon)
All in all, been a great day and a half in Cirali but the trouble with traveling( and not technically having a home to go back to) we feel so comfortable here we feel like staying longer. But, we felt that in Patara too. Tomorrow we
go to Antalya and I know it will be amazing. It's our first "city" in Turkey though not our last( We end our Turkish journey in Istanbul!)
So Antalya will be a different experience than wandering through mediterranean beach towns and ruins.
I'll will let you know soon!
Our German friend has offered us her snorkeling gear to use so we are off into the water!
Over and out! :)

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