After our fabulous lunch at the fake waterfall restaurant, we got back on the road. Driving along this road provided a lot of truly satisfying visual experiences for this girl from Ohio. While climbing up the mountain, we were treated to views of coniferous forest with amber carpets of dried shed needles. As I gazed into the forest, my mind wandered all over the place. I got to thinking about pine nuts, for example. Pine nuts are sort of a specialty culinary item in States, but here people just scoop up the fallen cones and fish them out. The bigger the cone, the meatier the nuts inside. It’s one of those things we’ve got going on in Turkey.

We drove on and on, passing through sleepy villages and open pastures. Another sight that grabbed by attention was the burnt sienna color of everything around there; the soil, the rocks, the mountainside. And because we were there in winter time, which is the rainy season, there were a lot of russet-colored shallow pools of water dispersed throughout the emerald green pastures making for a delightful contrast of color and texture. If I were an artist, I would have just slammed on the brakes, hopped out and set up my easle full stop. But because I am just a tourist, I took some pictures instead.

However, driving along a mountain road in wintertime does have some disadvantages. While we weren’t ever high enough to get snow, the rain did pile down at certain points rendering visibility sparse. Looking at the map, we realized that getting all the way to Kaş, our first true destination point, was going to be more trouble than it was worth.

So when we arrived in the town of Finike, we started our hotel search. We were just passing through and thusly only needed a place to lay our heads for the night, so we didn’t have very high standards or expectations.

As we drove through the city proper, I was much amused by the bizarre sculptures around. These people grow citrus and they are damn proud of that fact; celebrating it in artstic renderings for all to enjoy. Take the fountain, for instance. It was a normal enough round shallow concrete pool, but the centerpiece is a giant hand holding an orange. Another fountain nearby is a more complex tiered variety designed, I think, to look like calcified rock shelves, but what is the crowning achievement of this fountain? You guessed it: a big fat orange proudly perched aloft! A smaller sculpture in the park featured a little girl, pig tails and all, standing on a globe clutching…..can you guess what?

After nearly an hour of driving around and Barış ducking in and out of hotels, we found the one hotel which was truly functioning. It’s on the main road and so it is open year round mostly for local business conference needs and also for truck drivers passing through. It was nothing posh, but Barış felt satisfied that we would be in good hands for the night.

We ended up with a pretty nice suite with a small living room and all. We took a wee nap and got dressed for dinner. Barış checked in with the receptionist and got the good word on where to eat.

We crossed the road and walked back to a small almost country road along the marina. The sea was dead calm and the moon sparkled along the surface. It was a very peaceful place, this Finike.

We ended up at a place called Altın Sofra, or Golden Table. It was housed in an old wooden building with exposed rafters. And because the main lighting was from little lamps on the tables, it had a golden glow as though it were candlelit. It felt so cozy and right, that place. We enjoyed a fine three hour meal, sampling many meze (small appetizer dishes, usually cold salads) and tucking into a small bottle of rakı (anise seed liquor, which is an acquired taste). We went back to the hotel happy and full.

We got up pretty early and back onto the road towards Kaş. I don’t seem to have any notes from that journey, so it must have been more of the same. Although now that I think about it, we did exchange the pine forests for a Pacific Coast Highway kind of feel. The sea began to open up and even the waves were thrashing against the rocks, which is something I have never witnessed in Turkey (mostly because the seas are calm in summer and that is when I am on them). We could have been in California, seriously.

We got to Kaş in the early afternoon, with plenty of time to do our hotel shopping before getting too hungry for lunch.
Again, Kaş is bursting at the seams in summertime, but isn’t really hopping in the off season. In fact, when we stopped by a travel agent back in Istanbul, we were told that only one hotel appeared to be open. So, guess where we ended up staying? Luckily, Kaş is a diving center and because this was mid-term break, the hotel was full of university students that bussed down for some excellent diving.

The good news is that it was so nice, we stayed there two nights consecutively. And we we gazed out at the sea from our outstanding terrace, we mused about using it as a base for the rest of our trip.

We wandered into the town for lunch and settled upon Küçük Ev, or Little House. The over-eager waiter practically tried selling us a chunk of the moon, he was so happy to finally have something to do. He was also keen on using his broken English, which is not necessary for me with my level of understanding, and so I smiled through it.

It boggles the mind how I am able to ramble so. I am nearly at 1,000 words again and I have not even gotten to the day’s sight seeing. I suppose it will be shelved for a future entry then. Don’t you love a good cliff hanger?