Black Sand & Golden Sun
Trip Start
Mar 18, 2011
1
11
13
Trip End
Apr 02, 2011
Santorini, Cyclades, Greece
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Well, perfect until we found out that our tour boat left at 11am and not 1pm like we thought. That boat we admired from our balcony this morning was our boat! Ah well, we rebooked for tomorrow and shifted gears today. Instead, we'll head to the east coast and visit the black beaches of Kamari and Perissa with another hike (3 km to the parking lot, 1 km more to the summit) up to Old Thera.
Most museums and sites close for the day between 2 to 3pm. Old Thera closed its entrance gates at 2:30pm and we only started the hike at 1:30. Less than half-a-kilometer up, it was clear that walking a road that was as steep as climbing stairs, in the heat, wasn't going to work. We needed a car. So back we go into the village of Kamari to find a car rental. We found one; a lady from across the street called the owner on her cell phone to rush down to the office: 'I have two live ones who want a car.' Oh no! No driver's license! Not only was mine stolen but Susan left her bag at the hotel (bringing it on a hike would look like Margaret Thatcher). When the owner arrived, and booted her two protesting toddlers out of the family car, she heard my story and said like a true Greek, "No problem." Twenty Euros later, we had her car and her advice: "Be careful, and turn off the headlights -- it's sun out."
Old Thera was a city of 1050 souls on top of a promintory, like most ancient towns in Europe. This one had its heyday in the Ptolomeic era (331-31BC) when Santorini was a major naval base for the Egyptian/Greeks. Egypt colonised many of the southern Aegean island like Rhodes and here.
After walking in the footsteps of Egyptians, Greeks and Romans we drove further south (via a winery or two; good ones here) to the black beach resort of Perissa. These town are visited by a trickle of tourists from the US, Canada, Australia, China and other EU countries (in that order) but they are all dead.....as in Rhodes, bar owners, apartment renters and shop keepers are painting in preparation for the herd of tourists that come mid-April to early October.
We got the car back 1 minute early for the rental lady in Kamari (and her waiting two kids) including 15 Euros of gas. Then we hopped the bus for the ride back to our town, Fira. Appies on the verrandah with our adopted calico cat while watching the sun set before strolling over to Moma's House for dinner again. Another pretty good day by all accounts.
Comments
Rich and Susan
More than anything else, I envy you for the sun! Monsoons here through till the weekend. We love your attitude, no worries - oh well there will be another tour boat tomorrow.
Cheers. Lou