When we left Ankara, our destination was Cappadocia, a beautifully bizarre region of wind sculpted rock. The rock is soft tufa resulting from volcanic eruptions. Wind blows sand eroding the rock into fantastic shapes. And to see it best, we took an early morning hot air balloon ride. During our ride, we floated as high as a few thousand feet, and at times we floated near the ground among these wickedly sharp spires. There's not a lot to comment on, really, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Cappadocia was about my favorite part of the trip.

These photos were taken in April 2008 mostly with a Nikon D3.