Day 6 - Hot Air Balloon Ride

So the highlight for me was Cappadocia and I was super stoked to go on the hot air balloon ride. Not sure why but it has to be first thing in the morning. Murat, our 20-something balloon pilot, explained that there are only 200 balloons with permits - 100 can launch at 5am, then 50 at 5:30, then the last 50 at 6. This is to prevent traffic. We did barely touch with another balloon that launched near us but you cannot even feel it. 

Pilots train for 1 year. Murat was on the crew for three years before pilot training. He also works by night at a hotel concierge desk in town. He was born in Goreme in a cave! 

At pickup, it was a chilly 60 degrees out. We put on as many layers as we could. The shuttle took us to Butterfly Balloons, which we had walked past in town the day before. We ate fresh fruit and some pastries. Were assigned to buses based upon the pilot, and drove to the launch areas scattered throughout the Town.  As Murat explained, most services launch from Goreme, but Butterfly launches from outside of town to avoid the traffic and to have more valleys to pass through before landing. We took off and slowly dipped and rose in and out of Love Valley and other valleys with sheep, horses, and goats grazing. 







When r passed over Goreme, Murat looked at the hotels and said "let's wake them up!" He steered the balloon right past the top story of a hotel and a little boy startled when he saw us floating by. So funny. The tour was over an hour, so professionally run, enjoyable, and peaceful. You could see the other  balloons all around just like bubbles  wafting in the air. 

We ended in Sword  Valley. A huge Turkish guy lifted everyone out of the basket and we all helped deflate the balloon, had group photos, the crew was awesome and took a bunch of photos for us, then we all had champagne and a snack. 


Talk about service and making it memorable! then we went back and slept in our cave from 8 to 12!!

 

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