Kapadokya

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Last night in an out post town of Goreme, after a long day of visiting underground cities and the fairytale landscape of piers and floating rocks, of dervish shaped spires, ant-like hills and turrets - all gigantic, all unique, all quite unimaginable, fanciful and powerful creations and a dawn hot air balloon ride, which incidentally was breathtaking as we floated above Kapadokya's volcanic, eruption and wind and water erosion created realm occasionally brushing the tops of apricot, apple and olive trees before our balloon became entangled in an orchard upon landing (after 4 aborted attempts!), but that is a whole other story. Upon returning to the solid ground of a local bar, Stewart overheard the conversation of some folks who had just returned from some waterfalls. He asked for more details and within a half hour, thanks to the help of the bar's owner, we located Kapuzbasi falls near Yayali on our GPS and rented a car (they actually came to the bar to sign the rental agreement!) for our adventure. Woo Hoo, more waters! Through some mistake in our travel planning we happened to have an entire day of unscheduled time, before our bus and flight to Istanbul, in which to explore - synchronicity and magic!

Anyway we headed towards Yayali only to find ourselves in the midst of something reminiscent of both the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, 3000-4000 feet deep in a canyon driving along a river riddled with small rapids until we reached a most awesome display of waterfalls cascading from the canyon walls enveloping us in mist so thick it engulfed our every sense, the turquoise pools washing our bare feet icy clean. We walked to the nearby village and encountered a tribe of the most enchanted, happiest children we have ever encountered who ran up to us all practicing their English, asking us, "What is your name?" And then we met Ali, a young Turkish history teacher, who led us across the bridge to the grain mill where the waterwheel turned great big stones that pulverizes the village's wheatberries into flour. Ali introduced us to the village elder and the miller, all timeless men.

I am learning how sometimes it can be the unplanned moments that are the most enchanting.

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