Excursion to the Volcanic Sunset
Trip Start
May 21, 2011
1
4
20
Trip End
Jun 11, 2011
Where I stayed
Kamari Santorini, South Aegean, Greece
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
After several courses of breakfast we made our way over to the excursion office, boarded the bus to the port and set sail on King Thiras. Santorini is a moon shaped island. At one point in it's history it was a completely round island with a mountain in the middle. In one of the largest recorded volcanic eruptions in history parts of the mountain were blown as far away as Iceland and other parts fell into the sea. Since that time (700 years ago) two new islands have formed in the middle of the Caldera. These islands are of course volcanic islands and are actively growing. Our first stop was Nea Kameni which is the bigger of the two island where our guide explained the history and geology of these events. This was followed by a short hike up to the top of the island amidst the volcanic rocks. At the top there are steam vents that are evidence of the active state of the volcanos in the area.
Pala Kameni is much smaller and is home to a geothermal water source located just off one of its rocky shores where you can swim to and experience hot tub warm temperatures right in the sea. Owing to Renata's condition and our short amount of time there we did not manage to swim all the way to the hot tub, but we did feel the water warming along the way. As Renata got tired on the way back my swim became much more difficult as she "hitched" a ride for the way back.
The next stop for King Thira was the largest and only inhabited Island of Thirassia. We opted to have lunch down by the port and relax instead of braving the steep climb up to the town itself to see what the shops might hold. We finished off our stay on Thirasia with a short walk along the beach and a rock skipping competition with the guide from our boat.
The remainder of the time of the boat was spent cruising the cliff shores of the Caldera and viewing the picturesque towns on it's edge, although there was a bit of a storm blowing in so it was quite a bit chillier than expected. Our guide spoke to us with great happiness about the joys of children (he has a young daughter) in what was our second confirmation of the day that Greeks like babies. We then boarded busses from the main port to take us to the town of Oia (Ee-aa) which is famous for it's beautiful sunsets. Normally the boat would take us right to Oia, but the road from Oia's port to the town had collapsed two days earlier. We all rushed from the bus to get a spot amongst the other tourists to take in the sunset. It was a very nice sunset, but due to both the haze and cold from the in coming storm it was slightly spoiled ... we'll have to try again on another day. After the sunset we boarded the bus back to Kamari thoroughly exhausted from our day ... but we did have energy left for a little pizza to fill the gap before bed.
