Searching for the Sunken City

The water was crazy blue!

We got up early and a shuttle came to pick us up for a boat tour which went to the island of Kekora.  The bus ride was a very long two hours of twisty roads that wound along the ocean in places and through the mountains in others.  When we got there the boat was waiting for us and we set off right away. However, me and mom found out a bit of false advertising. One they said only 20 people could go on the boat (there were atleast 40-60 people on the boat) and they said they had a glass bottom (LIE it only had like 3 squares that you could see through a table thingy mabober). Well I was kinda mad about the ‘glass bottom’ because we were going over the sunken city and we were going to look for sea turtles. Anyway we headed off to the sunken city.

When we got there, they explained how it sunk and whatnot. Well after the sunken city we headed to an island across from the sunken city. This island

The Sunken City of Dolchiste, an ancient town which was destroyed by an earthquake during the 2nd century. Rebuilt and still flourishing during the Byzantine Empire period, it was finally abandoned because of Arab incursions

One of the old walls submerged.

had an ancient castle that was on top of the island. Well the 45 minutes we had there went really quick and before we knew it we were back on the boat and it was already lunch. For lunch it was an assortment of rice, chicken, salad, and something else that was white, mushy and had something purple in it (you can probably tell I didn’t try it). Well I ate a bit of chicken and rice then we jumped into the water to go swimming. Holy cow it was neon blue!! It might have been bluer than the blue cave. Well I saw Jenna and dad jump of the top but I didn’t want to. See I’m not afraid of heights but I’m afraid of jumping of off heights. Anyway when we got to this bay we had about 30 min. to swim and jump off the boat. However when they dropped the anchor when they just started to serve lunch (You can imagine that with 40-60 people it took a bit to actually get food on your plate). By the time we got in the water after eating lunch we had downgraded to about 5-10 min. Well after getting back in they had nice cold fresh water to rinse off with. Sadly because everyone came back on cause the boat was leaving soon I only got a 3 second rinse.

It was a bit of a climb but worth the views.

On our way to the next bay we laid on the front of the boat in the shade enjoying the nice mix of the warm sun and the wind. When we got to the 2^nd bay me and dad jumped off the back of the boat on our way to snorkel around some rocks that went into the water. We wanted to get away from the area that everyone parked their boats. If we didn’t stay near the rocks we were worried we might get hit by a boat. We saw a few neat things but not much for color or really anything but rocks. On our way back to the boat we saw what they call a trumpet fish. It was really neat. It was quit long and had a mouth that looked like the end of a trumpet along with a pair of tiny little fins that kept its self still. It was also a bit clear along with a greenish tint.

We stormed the castle.

When we got back I wanted to try to jump off of the top of the boat. Well I got up to the top and looked down, major mistake. I got scared, it was so high! Well a kid that we met on the shuttle jumped off 4 times before I got the guts to jump off. Jenna also went 2 times. When I jumped off I plunged into the water but made the mistake of not pointing my foot. Well it felt a lot like doing a belly flop (but on my foot). It was a lot of fun and I did it like 4 more times and convinced mom to do it.

When we got back on we headed to our final bay. On this bay we had an hour on which only me and dad went in the water. We went snorkelling by the little islands in the middle of the bay. We saw fish, scallops, coral and other things, sadly no turtles. We headed back onto the boat and had a nice long rinse off with the refreshing water. Sometimes at home or at the beach in other places you may say “I wish the water was warmer.” Well I’ll tell you one thing, not here. Its sometimes so hot you need to dive down deep to get nice cold water. Well after the nice refreshing rinse off we headed back to where we sat and I had a bit of a nap. When I woke up we were back at the dock and our shuttle was waiting for us.

The view from the castle.

We were told that we were going to stop of at a few places before being dropped off at our place. Our first stop was at a church. We didn’t know at the time so we just looked at shops. I bought a mini turtle made out of the rock onyx. It was litterly 10 times cheaper then at the onyx factory we went to when we were on the green tour in Cappedocia. If the factory doesn’t sound familier (Well it won’t unless you went on the tour with us) it’s because dad didn’t mention it in the blog that day. Well after me buying the turtle and looking at a few different stores our time was up and we headed back to the shuttle. Ugh more windy roads. This route home was making me sick!

Our second stop was for a old ruiny place. This time we knew what we came here for but also knew we would see stuff like this in Ephesus. So we didn’t go. However we also got ice cream bars and it was double the price at Cirali. Whenever me and Jenna watched TV we saw this one add that had ice cream, that looked like caramel and peanuts. I was convinced it was caramel until I tried it. It was peanut butter. Anyway we sat down and me and mom looked at shops. These two shops we went to there was this one girl who followed us around not even a meter away. We started to wonder what the word ‘stalker’ in Turkish was. I wish I knew.

One of our swimming spots.

Well back onto the road still feeling sick but gladfully no more twisty roads. I fell asleep until we got home (back into Cirali). We said goodbye to the people we met and went to drop other people off. Dad found entertainment with a little kid ahead of him. He taught him how to fist bump and high five. He also held his arms and for that the little kid tried to bite him. Well when the family got off the little boy didn’t stop waving until we left the driveway. After we went home, ate dinner, wachted TV, and went to bed.