July 14

We returned to the hotel from the balloon ride and had our regular breakfast and then headed out to see more of Cappadocia's wonders  The whole area is abundant with a huge variety of agriculture due to the rich volcanic soil and heavy winter snows to fill the aquifers for irrigation.  They grow everything from grain to squashes, wine grapes, nuts of all varieties, apricots & peaches, tomatoes and almost every other imaginable produce.  One of their priducts is dried sun dried apricots which are darker on color than the ones imported into the US, and they are much sweeter.  Goats & cattle are also raised, but not pork because the population is heavily Muslim.  Turkey is a secular and westernized state (so far, but nobody knows what the new government may do in the future) and it's a very enjoyable country to visit with it's history dating to a few mellinia BC.  We toured some more cave homes and, on other postings, a pottery and Spice Road caravan resting place.  We stopped in a small village to walk the streets and visit an antique shop which sold 200 year old Greek items left behind when Turkey became a republic in 1923 and ethnic Greeks relocated to Greece and ethnic Turks relocated to Turkey from Greece, avoiding ethnic conflicts.  We returned to the hotel late afternoon to relax or nap (since we awoke at 3:30 to prepare for the balloon flight) and all met at the open air bar at the hotel to enjoy the sunset over the valley while sipping wine.  After dinner most of us went right to bed.