10-7-13 BODRUM, TURKEY: A lot of Bodrum streets are too narrow for the big bus so we were using vans, and our first stop was at the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, the INA. They refer to their ship salvages as digs. They map each site in detail and try to recover everything at the site to preserve and restore it all, including the wood from the hull, tools, cargo, supplies down to the olive pits for carbon dating. Their goal is one ship from each century from the Bronze Age ~3000 BC to ~1000 AD, that would be 40 ships.
Metal objects are encrusted in coral and shells and the metal disappears, but can be recovered using the encrustation as a mold to recast the object in epoxy.
Their US affiliation is with Texas A & M, which sends lots of aggie-interns to Bodrum.
Next stop, the waterfront for our afternoon cruise on two Turkish gulets, large, roomy two-masted boats with half our group in each one. The Greek island of Kos lies just outside the harbor to the north and Rhodes is farther off-shore to the south. We anchored to two different spots for swimming in the clear and very salty Aegean. The water temperature was in the seventies. In between swims we were served a lavish lunch.
Back on land we had enough time to pack for our late evening departure before a viewing of our guide, Ruya’s, movie about a remote village and its loss of the old customs and younger generation to the city—very poignant.
Our farewell banquet at the hotel was preceded by ‘tails on the terrace with a sunset and appearance by the crescent moon and Venus in the western sky mirroring the Turkish flag.
Institue for Nautical Archeology-pieces of amphora, a dozen jigsaw puzzles with the parts all scrambled.
Ta-Da, puzzles completed.
Afternoon cruise in a Turkish gulet.
Crusader castle and harbor from the water.
Loungers...
Aegean swimmers invading Poseidon's realm.
The Star and The Crescent ala the Turkish flag. Sunset at the hotel overlooking Bodrum harbor.
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