Everyone has seen photos of balloons over Göreme.

Cappadocia has some of the best flight conditions in the world. Flights take place just after dawn when the wind is low.

Here are a few of my own photos.

Balloons fly most mornings but not all. One night I set up my tent up high hoping to see the balloons from above at dawn.

No balloons that day. Flights had been cancelled.

I didn’t sign up myself. Did not want to be crammed into a basket with the bus tour suitcase tourists.

There have been three fatal ballooning accidents here over the past several years. Still — that’s fairly safe considering the hundreds of thousands who have done it.

Albuquerque and Marrakech are two other popular locales for ballooning.