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Tuesday was really the first day that warrants some serious narrative. On Monday, part of the reason we went to the conference hotel was to see about taking a little boat tour along the coast; the conference did offer some, but not at convenient times. So, I suggested that we go talk directly the yacht captains to see what sort of prices they would quote for random (Turkish-speaking) tourists. It turned out to be pretty expensive, though not prohibitive, so we went up to a harbor bar to talk about things. Ahmet started talking with the folks working in the bar, and somehow learned that one of the guys, Ediz (who is an electrical engineering student at Mediterranean University), used to work on those boats. He claimed he could get us a trip for free! So, we made a plan to meet him the next morning, which is more or less where our story begins today. There were some shenanigans about which boat we were going to be on, and what time we were going to leave, but we ended up having a 2-hour boat tour for about $15. Not bad!

We were a bit anxious about getting back to the harbor on time, because Tuesday night was a big 'social event' night at the conference. So as soon as we got off the boat, we grabbed a taxi and hustled over to the conference hotel, where we were packed into buses and shipped off to the ruins of Perge, a Greek-then-Roman town about half an hour away.

After our tour (about two and a half hours), they threw us back on the bus and took us to the "National Golf Course," one of many golf courses that have sprung up in the Belek region in the past 10-15 years, as an enormous tourism enterprise. It was all-you-can-drink, but there was a really bizarre shortage of food. I'm quite familiar with strange problems in Turkish planning, but I've never seen a food shortage at a Turkish event. Very shortly after the hot appetizers appeared, the trays were empty (there were a lot of people!). It became clear that they weren't going to be refilled, which caused some grumbling. But there was the hope that these were, after all, just the appetizers, so perhaps the main course was on its way. But no: occasionally the kitchen emitted a couple plates of hastily soy-marinated chicken breast, and some pretty good kofte, but they were woefully underprepared. Unfortunately, the busses didn't leave to go back to the city 'til 10, and taxis were forbiddingly expensive, so all that remained to do was drink and listen to a pretty hilarious cover band. At least the sunset was nice.