A note from Robn

A day in Finike.

Arising around 7 AM we had some water to drink, got dressed, carried pee buckets ashore to empty, and headed out for a morning walk. I get a head start since a slow start is less likely to invoke my intermittent hip troubles (sacroiliac) and because Dave, with his long legs would otherwise get little opportunity to stretch out and use his ground covering pace. I head for the stairs going up out of the Marina in the back corner, follow the coast road a short distance, cross over, and climb more stairs. Continuing up hill I reach the top of the long flight of stairs that Dave uses for exercise. 132 uneven steps – both height and run are inconsistent. You must pay attention. I go down watching for the cats that live nearby who beg for attention – at least they do when Dave is there. No sign of them all the way down. Dave joins me shortly afterwards and several cats immediately show up. They like my attention as well, but it is obvious that it is Dave’s presence that attracts them. He is a regular Pied Piper and it is something to watch him. He stops to visit with everyone, human, dog, or cat. And all lap it up. He also gets lots more exercise than most walkers because he picks up trash all along his walks and checks the dumpsters for treasures that have no business in the landfills. Some of it gets sold at fund raisers – primarily for animal welfare, some of it goes direct to war refugees. Some of it is deposit beer bottles that he turns in for the cash.

The only time he gets out of the Marina without the resident dogs in tow is if someone else went for a walk sooner and they have already left. Usually the dogs are with him and he talks to them, explaining what is desired regarding their behavior in positive terms. “Be nice now, be polite. Watch out for the car. Leave the cats alone.” And for the most part they do. You can see how torn they are. They want to please him and they also want to chase the cats.

We climb the stairs together – sometimes going back down for a second climb. 264 steps up, not counting the down! It is a good way to get some low impact aerobic exercise. Heart and lungs get a workout with having to run. Where we go from there varies depending on time, energy, weather, chores and whims. Not that the route to the stairs is consistent, if we go there at all, but we usually do except for yoga days.

Sometimes we go out to the end of the breakwater. The last time was quite impressive as we could see that the storm of a couple days earlier had actually stove in sections of the fencing and shoved storage containers around. Portable buildings. It destroyed one and damaged another. We had stayed snug aboard Alegría and had not bothered to poke our heads out into the wind and rain. The boat was surging around despite the shelter of the marina but not to the point that we thought much of it. Neighbors said their wind indicators claimed 38 knots of sustained winds gusting into the mid 40’s. Then we saw a video showing solid water coming over the breakwater where we saw the damaged containers and fencing. There are other impressive videos taken along the coastal road as well, see end of text. Most of the time, however, the weather varies from cool to cooler. Rarely getting truly cold (IMHO).

And also getting pleasantly warm on occasion.

The Saturday market here is about 2 kilometers away and we go there for our weekly produce shopping which takes care of nearly all our grocery needs. We get fruits, vegetables, nuts, raisins, olives and olive oil, yoghurt, cheese, and Tahini. There is also a much smaller Wednesday market which we sometimes use to fill in any gaps, such as when the bananas ripen quickly and get eaten faster than planned.

The town has two main rivers each walled in with lovely walking along each side. Orange trees are everywhere – being probably the largest part of the economy – judging by the amount of art work commemorating them. The river closer to us is small -about 20 feet wide – with many foot bridges spanning it in addition to the occasional single-lane car bridge. The orange trees that we see everywhere along the roads and the rivers are bitter oranges and/or ornamental, I’m told. Certainly most are still laden with fruit. The farms fill the local stalls, stores, and markets as well as the export markets with luscious navel oranges and mandarins and probably other varieties.

The town and farms fill the base of the valley and climb the steep rocky hills on all sides. A building can easily be 7 or 8 stories high – even more – without blocking the view of the next building up. Our 132-step stairs climbs up beside a single building (under construction) from one street level to the next. On the other side from the building are several homes – each behind and above another.

Well, these walks hardly constitute a day’s activities. Once we return to Alegría we spend probably too much time with our computers, the latest of which Dave is still getting set up. The task of the moment is to set up Dragon Dictation software so that he can minimize his typing.

For a week we went to the animal hospital a couple times a day to visit with the local cat, Chat-a-Lot who had gotten an abscess on his elbow from a cat fight and needed to have some dead skin cut away and the wound sewn. Since a conical collar was needed to keep him from removing the stitches prematurely, and a marine environment involving jumping on and off boats was hardly a safe place to wear a cone, he had to stay there. He made it clear that he appreciated the visits and the lap time.

I am quite impressed by the size of the stray dog and cat population who all seem to have no private home, yet are mostly healthy and friendly. Spaying and neutering are the primary purpose of the animal welfare fund raising mentioned above but it also covers additional care such as Chat-a-Lot’s abscess.

Culling and organizing everything from electrical parts to clothing to movie collections consumes a large part of most of our days, but we also spend time on Silva Mind Control practice, socializing, and more private activities.

One time I went shopping for an electrical adapter (220V to 110, what else?) and stopped in at a store that I thought just might have one. There were three people there chit chatting. I had no idea whether they all worked there or some were customers or just friends, but they looked at my sample, verified that I wanted one like it and conferred amongst themselves. They told me to sit tight and then each of them whipped out a cell phone and three simultaneous calls were made to locate the desired item. A few minutes later someone showed up with the item in hand and I followed him to his shop so that I could get a second one as well, and also to know his location.

This is fairly typical with people very generously helping out. Some would like to but their English is not up to it and I can hardly fault them since we are, indeed, in Turkey not an English speaking country.

We are often accosted by school children proudly introducing themselves and asking for our names – practicing their English which is generally well pronounced even if limited.

If you are interested in the videos of the storm even though it couldn’t compete with a hurricane or a Tsunami, by any means, being nothing more than a gale force storm, then here are links:

Michel and Martine of La Foret Deau provided a short video of the weather on 13 January.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnaBklUGrMQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8GPLhb32d4

Cheers, Robn

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