Santorini

On April 21, we arrived in the dark early hours of Thursday morning at Athens’ port to catch our ferry to Santorini. The idea our eight hour ferry ride would be a “Mediterranean cruise” was hopeful. The first 2.5 hours were spent on the deck until our feet no longer had feeling from the wind, but at least we could sit. We moved inside and hunkered in the hallway with the four of us rotating between the floor and two chairs. At the first port, we were finally able to snag a table when some passengers disembarked, so the last three hours were bearable. Welcome to “OIKONOMIKH θEΣH” or economy class. The ferry ride outside was beautiful past islands, distant coastline and the occasional cruise liner. The water was a gorgeous dark blue water with strong winds creating miles of white caps. When we made it to the Athinios Port in Santorini, we caught a bus to our hostel in the main town of Fira. After check-in, we had dinner, explored Fira’s downtown with window shopping. We wrapped up the day by spending over twenty minutes watching the sunset over the smaller, adjacent Kea Kameni island that house Santorini’s volcano.

Friday morning we took the brief cable car ride down the island west cliffs to catch our sail boat to Kea Kameni to hike around the volcano. There are lots of black rocks that serve as the remnants of century old eruptions. Yellow lines stained some of the black rocks from the high sulfur levels. Steam seeped through the ground that was hot to the touch. Our boat then carried us to Palia Kameni, which is the even smaller island next to Nea Kameni. Here we jumped from the boat into Ballos Bay to swim 50 meters into an alcove of natural hot springs. Once back on the main island, we rode donkeys into Fira to allow us the opportunity to rinse away the salty sea from our skin and hair. In the evening we rented ATVs for the next couple of days. We rode them up to Pyrgos for their Good Friday celebrations. They line all of their buildings’ roofs with large torch candles. Once the sun set and the Greek Orthodox service ended, the village lite up. As we drove away from the Pyrgos in darkness, the village looked ablaze with three light cross to mimic Calgary where Jesus was crucified.

Saturday was our first full day of ATVing around the island. We headed south out of Fira with our first stop being the Red Beach. Because Santorini was built through several volcanic eruptions, the island has several different colored beaches. The Red Beach consisted more of giant rocks than sand, but it was beautiful. The water around Santorini is a deep healthy blue, but the closer you get to shore and the shallower the water, it turns a turquoise color. We searched fruitlessly on the ATVs for the White Beach. Instead we found the light house at the very most southwest tip of the island. The view from there is lovely, because with your back to Santorini you see nothing but the ocean bending over the horizon. Back on the ATVs we found another beach nook with a Greek snack shack where we feasted on Greek yogurt and honey, spending a few hours staring into the distance trying to decide where the ocean ended and the sky started. We then went to the most opposite end of the island to Oia for the sunset. Unfortunately, dinner at a terrible restaurant caused us to miss the sunset. Oia however is a lovely town, so we decided to return tomorrow.

The 22nd was Easter Sunday, although we did not dawn our Easter best for the second day of ATVing. We went first to Kamari Beach – one of the island’s black beaches. We stayed long enough to watch the tide come in before driving up to ancient Thira to find it closed for Easter. At this point we headed back to Oia. We had lunch and wandered around the cute shops. Like most places in Santorini, the view is postcard perfect. ATVing was surprisingly cold from the wind chill off the ocean and the fact we under packed expecting warmer weather as the temperature hovered in the low sixties. Back in Fira, we had two hours before the ATVs were due back. Amy and Bri decided to do more shopping, so Mary and I took-off towards Kamari and went off roading on the first dirt road we found. It was a blast as the ATVs went much faster with half the weight as Mary and I took turns literally eating each other’s dust. When I was leading us back to Fira, I must have driven onto private property as I was charged by an angry German Sheppard trying to get back to the main road! We made it back onetime and said good-bye to Thelma and Louise as we had dubbed our ATVs. We watched the sun go down over the caldera and our last night in Santorini. Back at the hostel we packed up and showered to wash away the road dirt and sea mist.