Turquoise coast, Turkey (english version)

Good bye Malawi. Hello Turkey.

That is how fast I have changed continents and culture. I haven't been here for long but so far so good. Istanbul is huge and has thousands of little charming corners, but I will have the time to stop to talk about them some other time.

It's best if we talk about the Turquoise Coast today, it's located south Istanbul, closed to Antalya, to the Mediterranean sea. Around Butterfly Valley (Kelebekler Vadisi) there are a few villages and towns to visit, more their braches than for the villages itself.

Ölüdeniz is where it all starts before getting to Butterfly Valley. It is very touristic (very!), they offer you places to eat, boat trips and many different activities. Here comes decision time: either you spend the day (and even a night) at the valley or a day boat trip around different beaches in the area. If you choose the first option there is a taxi-boat from Ölüdeniz to the Valley at various times during the day (first one on that direction leaves at 11, right noe it costs 20 turkish liras ruturn ticket). Many of the other boars will try to convince you that the taxi-boat is either broken or it doesn't exist (or so they say, we didn't have that problem), but the boat will get there. It's different from the rest that it says Butterfly Valley, it is also smaller than the others. The trip takes around half an hour. 

And all of a sudden the valley. A small beach between two massive mountainside, you can only see from the boat the green trees, the white sand (which is not sand but small rocks) and the turquoise water.

 The Rock Bar

We decided to spend the night in the only accommodation place there is (there is a village about 1 hour up the mountain called Faralya). Butterfly Valley is a very basic place, backpackers acco,odation, small huts with a mattress, lots of hippies and volunteers. The price includes breakfast and vegetarian buffet dinner (but the price is per night/person, so it's a bit pricy). You can also have lunch there or go to the other end of the beach to the Fish Restaurant (where they serve everything).

It's true that for a few hours a day there are plenty of boats and many tourists stopping at the valley, but around 2-3 in the afternoon the beach is basically for those who are going to spend the night. 

And then enjoy the sunset.

Back in Ölüdeniz, we had lunch in a cool restaurant (pricy again since it's just for tourists) while watching paragliders land just in front of us. One of the nicest things in Ölüdeniz is its Blue Lagoon. The lagoon is a protected natural beach and to get inside it costs around 5 turkish liras. On the inner side the water is quite warm and it's mostly families with kids. On the outer side you can do some clift jumping or just swim around to cooler water.

Yarin (see you tomorrow)