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Early on Wednesday morning, we heard the engines chug to life, and felt the ship pull away (finally!) from the Paros dock. About six very rough hours later – as expected, Abby failed to keep her breakfast down -- we were pulling in to the caldera of Santorini. For those of you who have forgotten your Greek geological history, Santorini was once an enormous volcano. It exploded about 1500 BC, causing earthquakes and tidal waves that wiped out the civilization on Crete (several hundred miles away) that controlled the entire region, and turning one big volcanic island into about 5, loosely shaped in a circle, of which Santorini is the largest. It is really an awesome site to see steep brown cliffs (the inside of the old volcano) rising up 1000 feet from the blue waters, with whitewashed towns perched on the top. You’ve all seen the pictures – they are no exaggeration. It is a very popular place, and there were three enormous cruise boats anchored along with us – we sure felt puny in comparison!
After a quick tender ride, we were at the base of the steep cliff. Having promised the kids that we’d go up on donkeys, we went to visit the donkey wranglers, who all looked straight out of central casting, with worn caps, cigarettes dangling, and animated conversations among themselves. After a bit of negotiating, we were loaded on two donkeys and heading up the hill. The donkeys know the drill, so we had no leader or guide. What a ride it was. There were various other donkeys heading up the hill, and tourists trying to walk down the path (500+ steps) at the same time. Different donkeys had different ideas as to who ought to be ahead of whom, and so there were some great moves going around sharp corners. It kind of reminded me of Dot Racing on the Diamondvision at ball games. The funniest part really was seeing the middle-aged pedestrians plastered against the side of the wall, trying not to get run over by a donkey. We had absolutely no control, so were just cracking up and apologizing. It was quite an adventure, and I think may be at the top of Abby’s list of best experiences of the entire trip.
Anxious to enjoy the nice weather, we hopped on a local bus and headed to the black sand beach village of Kamari, on the east side of the island. Coming into it, it looked familiar to me, and I told Christina that I thought that my family had spent time there in front of a restaurant called Irini’s in May of 1975. Darned if we didn’t turn the corner and see “Irini’s” plastered on a wall. Walking down the path in that direction, further darned if we didn’t see Irini herself, yet another character straight out of central casting. She was stout of build and had a very grandmotherly look about her. She spoke in Greek with a smattering of Italian, I think – apparently catering to tourists for 40 years has not caused her to learn any English – but seemed to be saying all sorts of nice things. Her job was to sit in front and greet passersby. She has expanded from a little taverna to a restaurant, a café, rooms for rent, and a shop – quite the enterprise! And you can’t beat the views out over the beach and water. Later, I spoke with her daughter, and admired photos from the era of my last visit. It was very cool to be greeted like family. Definitely a place to go.
We spent the afternoon on the beach in front of Irini’s, then headed back to the main town of Fira. There, we watched one of the best sunsets I have ever seen over drinks with Monica and Jose, our Spanish friends from the boat. The sun went down between two of the other islands that comprise the caldera, without clouds but with enough other stuff in the air to make for awesome colors. We were due at the bottom of the cliff at 7 pm to catch our tender back to the boat, but at the top we found that all of the donkeys had gone home for the night. So, we hiked down in the growing darkness, dodging the donkey droppings that covered the pathway. On an island that is desperately short of water, they apparently can’t afford to use any to wash down the path, so it is really covered with little and big landmines! It was tough to drag our eyes away from the views out over the caldera, though, to watch the path. Thankfully, we did make it, hopped onto the tender, and headed for home. Santorini certainly lived up to its reputation as a spectacular place.
previous travel blog entry
MissErker says:
I would have loved to see the donkey ride. I think I might of laughed out loud when I was reading about it. It sounds like you are all having a blast.