Our tree house, in all its glory. I just hope it doesn’t rain while we’re here because there is no glass or pro­tec­tion on the top of our door.

Chris and I are in Olympos. Yesterday, it took us 5.5 hours to get here by bus.

The hotels here are called tree houses because of their style of build­ings. The entire area has a very relaxed, almost Caribbean feel. Little roofed wooden plat­forms line the river. In the high season they are all covered in rugs and cush­ions, but since it’s the slow season only two are equiped at our pension. I am sitting on one right now. A light breeze slowly moves my hair. The sun beams strongly on my white Canadian skin. The rhythmic, con­tinu­ous flow of the river is peace­ful. There are a few ham­mocks in the main court­yard. It didn’t take Chris too long to find them.

For 50 Turkish Lira (around $38.00) Chris and I get our own little “tree house” which is a wooden shack on stilts with a mat­tress, sheets, 2 pillows and 3 blankets. The bath­rooms are com­munal. Included in the price is break­fast and dinner! Last night dinner was prob­ably more food than we usually eat in two nights. It started with a lentil soup, fol­lowed by two dif­fer­ent types of salads, and for the main course a heaping plate of couscous, and a chicken veget­able dish.

Chris looking very serious, even though he’s chillin’ by the river.

The pillow-covered plat­forms by the river. A lovely place to spend the day.

The com­munal sinks at our tree house hotel, Saban Pension. Ah, to get to know your neighbor.

Lemon and orange trees grow between all the shacks and tree houses here at Saban Pension. Visitors are free to eat as many as they like. I suppose when we’re des­per­ate it’s a cheap option for lunch.

I think we all know what Chris is doing, and I think most of us are jealous.

Roosters are every­where, just like cats.

Ben and Pen are in the back left corner. They are an Australian couple we met during our tour of the Gallipoli Battlefields and happened to meet again here in Olympos. It was a lovely surprise.

Upon arriv­ing last night we were sur­prised and happy to run into a couple we met during our tour of the Gallipoli Battlefields almost two weeks ago. They are a lovely and friendly Australian couple who are cur­rently ten days into a hike known as the Lycian Way. The hike is about 500 kilo­met­ers long, but it is not neces­sary to do the entire hike. Lots of people just do part of it as a day hike. During the hike there are some places to stay to take a break and to restock the food supply. That’s how we met them here. It’s one of their breaks.

I was excited to come back here where there is a moun­tain that burns fire, oth­er­wise known as Chimaera. I saw the moun­tain 11 years ago when I came with my parents and two friends, Lindsay and Casey, but was excited to see it with my best friend/husband.

Just after arriv­ing last night, we walked 1.5 hours one-way (3 hours total) with 4 other tour­ists, includ­ing Ben and Pen, up Mt. Etna — the moun­tain with the Chimaera flames. It was a lovely evening to be in such a mys­tical place with fire spewing from the moun­tain, the full moon and the ocean in the back­ground. In another post we’ll put some photos and  video clips of the fire on the moun­tain. Find out what happened when Chris dumped a litre of water on the eternal flame...