Rainy day driving, mud and creepy Ekincik.

We left Kalkan in a cold pouring rain and a dark sky, k disappointed at not going out on the boat to the sunken city--we stayed over hoping to go in the morning. We drove through more beautiful farmland and mountains and breathtaking views, literally breathtaking for some people in the car as we careened around mountain roads.
I had a running joke going about kokorec vans--we passed a few different old crappy vans selling kokorec, kokorec is pronounced 'co-co-retch' and it is sheeps intestines wrapped around a stick and grilled, I wouldn't know if its delicious or not as I can't deal with eating parts. But, if I was going to eat kokorec, I certainly would choose somewhere other than a dirty van in the middle of nowhere; it seems that I am alone in this based on how many vans we saw.
This part of Turkey is very lush and green, trees heavy with fruit and nuts and olives and field after field of greenhouses. We stop for a snack of gozleme and tea in the rain by the side of the road--at first it seemed like it might be amazingly good as it was in a couples house and the man went out in the rain and picked us some fresh arugula for a salad with lemon and salt, but something funky happened with the gozleme involving running across the highway and it was greasy and not so tasty.
A note about young turkish men, they love the babies--everywhere we've travelled hip, cute young guys google at Mina, make funny faces and noises and ask to hold her. They have slicked back hair-dos and jeans with elaborate stitching and they are teenagers to late 20s. It struck me as a cultural difference from the US.
We drove to Dalyan where we caught a very short boat across the river to a mudbath and mineral pool. Of course Mina had to sit this out so we each took turns--I went first, covering myself with stinky gray mud, on a chilly drizzly day and then taking a cold outdoor shower with a horde of German tourists and then jumping into a warm sulfurous pool--I'm in the middle of the pool photo. By the time K went in the whole German bus tour contingent left and he had the whole place to himself. It was pretty fun. We both agreed that our skin felt nice but sun or warmth would have enhanced the experience. A group of about 10 Turkish people came towards the end, only one guy went in and everyone else laughed at him.
We were so enchanted by Cirali that we've been trying to find places like that since. We went over the edge this time. We drove off to find ekincik, an isolated beach town that turned out to be more of a ghost town but it was 36 kilometers down a beautiful road so we decided to stay even though the place was mostly closed for the season. The one hotel that was open was pretty spooky and they wanted too much money for a really crappy room with, gasp, no hot water! They didn't tell us that, of course. Oh and nowhere to eat except the hotel. And really weird furnishings like dayglo woven wall art and bad waterfall paintings. And in the morning we had to first wake up the cook for breakfast at 9, and then wake up the owner to pay so we could leave at 10.
This is what you get with spontaneous travel sometimes I guess. It did have a pretty view and we made it out alive, although without the last swim we were hoping for--too chilly.