I can't describe how much I love Kas (pronounced Kash). The towns of Kas and Kalkan (the next town over) reminded us a lot of Amalfi and Positano. Both were once fishing villages turned into tourist destinations, built into the the side of a mountain right onto the bluest Mediterranean Sea, but these overlook Greek Islands and the Turkish people are so warm and friendly.
So after breakfast on the roof deck of our hotel, we ventured out for a day of swimming.
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| breakfast with the Greek island of Kastellorizo directly ahead |
First stop was Kaputas beach. Oh my God! That's all I can say. This beach was much like the one yesterday, when we pulled over at the side of the road, except it was farther down from the road and the water went from Turquoise near the beach to a purple-blue out farther. It took something like 189 steps to get down to the beach and once we were there, it was spectacular. Jason declared it one of the most beautiful locations on the planet. Certainly it's the most beautiful place I've ever been.
Since there is nothing at Kaputas except beach, we decided to pry Jade away and head to Kalkan for lunch, where we found a little spot with a view and sat down. We were the only customers there, so the owner chatted us up; he was a very nice man who told us all about the growth of this town. He said that when he first moved to Kalkan 17 years ago, there were no homes to the right and left of us, but now the mountains were full of homes. The British are building them at a rate of 400 per year, he tells us, to live there in the winter months. In fact, in the months between November and March, the populations is 50% Turkish and 50% British! While it's quite hot in the summer (today was 100 and tomorrow will be the same), in the winter it only gets down to the 70s. He say this February he even went swimming in the Mediterranean. Not a bad life! This man loved Jade, too. He brought her over to the aquarium he had and let her feed and hold a small turtle.
This little turtle is from Patara beach (our next stop). They close the beach at night for all of the turtles that come ashore! Patara was nice, but nothing we would recommend to any Americans, especially from the East coast, because it was sandy and wide with waves. The locals and Europeans love it, but to them it must be exotic because they are so used to pebble beaches, but to us, it was like going to the Jersey shore. Of course Jason and Jade went and played in the waves anyway and I took a nap under an umbrella.
We left Patara to head home and decided to check out what everyone was calling "the platforms" in Kas. There is no real beach to speak of because the mountainside descends right into the water, so they've built platforms to dive from and lounge on. I don't know what I was expecting, but this was so much better than I imagined. We didn't even bring our camera because we assumed it would be nothing more than a big cement slab with a ladder to the water... duh! Everything here is beautiful! Actually, it's a few levels of wooden decks off of the back of a restaurant with these white bed like chairs and white umbrellas overlooking the bay with steps down to the rocks and a ladder from the rocks into the water. It was glorious and I don't have a picture.
After that little surprise, we got washed up and watched the sunset from our roof deck and headed into town for dinner.
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| The theater ruins next to our hotel |
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| view to our left |
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