Cotton and Turquoise

I spent today my most favorite way: bathing in a series of seven turquoise pools set against walls of white calcium, giving myself facial and body mud masks. And I would have never known this is my favorite way to spend the day if I hadn't come to Pamukkale.

Actually, the very best part of the day was when I asked a girl to take this picture of me and then I returned the favor for her and her mom - and we ended up spending the next five hours together. Khadijah and Jamilia are Pakistanis living in North Carolina. Khadijah is in med school at Duke and Jamilia is a family practitioner. Nicest people in the world - and pretty smart, too. Here we are at the end of the day, hoping to make ourselves look ten years younger with the magic mud of "Cotton Mountain" - what the name of the town means:

Our favorite spot was this ravine... when you sit in it, it's like sitting in the ultimate hot tub with jets. Here is Jamilia (they didn't bring suits, but couldn't resist getting in, clothes and all):

I know it looks dirty, but the color on the sides is actually red - all minerals. Here is another view of the ravine:

After a while, a bunch of people joined us in our "hot tub" - and it was one of those moments where everyone was talking about where they were from, etc, etc, - a great travel moment. They all gave us credit for the "hot tub idea." So Khadijah and I took it further. We knew that UNESCO had saved these terraced pools after they were almost ruined by tourists (they turned all muddy), so we thought we would make a few more suggestions for UNESCO to consider:

1) Get rid of all the people. My pictures do not do the crowds justice.
2) Place some umbrellas over the pools. It was too hot!
3) Get some servers to provide drinks and food. Like Margaritas. Or, just water. I kept thinking of one of my favorite childhood books - The Hat Book (produced by Dr. Seuss). My favorite hat was the one that had a water faucet on top. Perfect. I was thirsty all day. Probably because we took a break from the pools and hiked up to this Greek amphitheater, built in the 100's:

Here's one more view of my all-time favorite terraced turquoise pools, but my pictures just can't do it justice:

So happy I didn't do a tour today and met these two - when our bus got into town this morning, it was high pressure to take a $40 tour, I was very firm when I said, "I just want the pools today." The three of us are going to meet in Istanbul when I get back so that I can "show them around" my city - they were only there two days before taking this side trip. And tomorrow I will take an eight hour tour of Ephesus, which I hear is absolutely stunning as far as ancient ruins go (the Temple of Artemis is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world). Mom, wish you were here!!

Oh, and I had mixed shish kabob with a side of roasted eggplant for dinner. I really like this town, called Selcuk...