Pamukkale Paradigm

As soon as we arrived in Pamukkale, I knew I would have difficulty with the travertines from an experiential point of view. From a distance the travertines look a lot like an early season ski hill or a small glacier- the ice falling over edges, the colour of the dirt and algae on the surface, the look of the slippery slope. We have had windy and cool weather while we have been here, adding to the difficulty of thinking about swimming in the warm pools made out of calcium carbonate rather than skiing down the relatively short slope. Even at night, looking up at the hill made me think of Red Mtn with night skiing. Added to this were the emails from Big Red Cats showing photos of the early season skiing back home.

It wasn't until we were walking amidst the travertines shoeless and geothermal water running over our bare feet that I really could get a grip of the fact that this was a very different formation and not ice or snow. It was a fantastic experience and today we are all back into the preset mind state as we slip on our words and say ice rather than salt to describe our experiences. It really speaks to the strength of our experiences as we try to change our paradigm of what really could be.

See photos in Emilia 's blog below.