Well, Tex, I think you found another box canyon.

I was in Fethiya for two nights— and Saturday, after seeing the old abandoned Greek city, and buying some cool (real) stuff, I headed to see Tlos and Patara, which I could have seen in a really busy Sunday but thought I’d take two passes at them.

And so on Sunday, May 3, I didn’t want to pick up the trail on the same road I’d already gone out and back on Saturday.

I mean, if you are going to McMinnville one day and all the way to the coast the next day, you’d want to go on a different road, wouldn’t you?

So I looked at my little map and headed out.

And about two-and-a-half hours later of one-lane stony dirt roads, no gas stations, and climbing so high and steep above the water and really steep canyons that the only other people up there were the outfitters taking the hang-gliding customers up on big Land Rovers, I wussed out and headed back to Fethiya where I began. . . .

I did meet these really nice people up there, who stopped to try to advise me about the route, and the dad’s English-- which was much better than my Turkish: he knew maybe 100 words--- got me back on the road to where there were people and not just goats.



So, of course, I asked if I could take their picture.









They were great. He apparently operates some kind of campground on the south coast somewhere, and since he doesn’t have e-mail, I’ll print and physically mail him some pictures.

And once I got on the right road, I hit two great ruins today,

Letoon










where I met a really nice couple from SE Portland and whom I directed toward the Humanist chapter, and

Xanthos, a Greek hilltop complex: Acropolis (means, actually, citadel), theater, residences, temples, walls, etc.










and am now in Kalkan, described by more than one guidebook as one of the best small towns in Turkey.

This is the town from the road on the way in.




And the little room I found for $21--- includes breakfast.



And the view from my balcony.