GREEK ISLANDS – PART 1

It took 22 hours door-to-door to reach our hotel in Firostefani on the island of Santorini where we were welcomed at our small hotel, Remvi Suites, by a smiling hostess who went out of her way to help us get orientated. The hotel hangs on the cliff edge, overlooks the caldera and offers spectacular views of the sunset as it falls over the nearby island of Thirasia. Just outside our door is the “Caldera Trail”, a bucket-list hike that runs from the main center, Fira, to Oia, the island’s northernmost town. A “caldera” is a large volcanic crater, especially one formed by a major eruption leading to the collapse of the mouth of the volcano. Although this is the shoulder season, the Trail was wall-to-wall people on the Sunday afternoon of our arrival.

In land area, Santorini is about the same size as Charlottetown and Stratford combined, not that big really, with a permanent population of about 15,000. It is visited by 2 million tourists annually, compared to the 1.7 million who visit our province. Santorini is one of the chain of islands called the Cyclades, over 2,000 in total, 33 of them inhabited. The eruption that formed the caldera and all but destroyed Santorini occurred about 3,600 years ago and is thought to have been the second-largest eruption on earth in the last 10,000 years.

On our first full day, we hiked the Caldera Trail from our hotel to Oia, a 10-kilometer stretch along the cliff edge featuring jaw-dropping views of the sea far below. Much of the Trail is lined with hotels and restaurants though some sections are barren and rocky. We passed several blue-domed white Orthodox churches on our way. The volcanic landscape reminded me of other islands we’ve visited, Iceland, the Galapagos, Cabo Verde, Dominica, and the Canaries, for example. The countryside is barren and dry, not much to look at really, and I wouldn’t want to try growing anything here. Arriving in Oia, we were surrounded by passengers from the four cruise ships in port that day, many with stickers on their shirts, dutifully following tour guides they probably couldn’t hear. After a refreshment stop at a nice outdoor café, we took the local bus back to Fira. My Garmin showed almost 20,000 steps and over 100 stories, not bad for Day 2!

On Day 3, we walked from our hotel to the bus station in nearby Fira and rode to Akrotiri. Local buses are cheap and reliable, but don’t expect drivers or the fare collectors to be friendly or helpful. They aren’t! Akrotiri has been inhabited for at least 6,000 years and was a major fishing and trading center in its heyday, featuring paved streets and an extensive drainage system. It all came to a sudden end with the eruption of the volcano, burying the city under many meters of ash and volcanic debris. As with Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy, much of Akrotiri was preserved, and extensive archaeological digs have been underway since the site was discovered in 1867.

The modern excavation of Akrotiri began in 1967. Frescoes, pottery and a few golden objects have been recovered and preserved. A roofed structure covering three acres protects the excavated ruins and allows visitors like us to see and imagine what life must have been like in this surprisingly advanced society. The bigger houses were a full two storeys with an open rooftop area and had their own indoor “bécosse”, a lavatory that drained into a piped sewer system.

We walked from the site to nearby Red Beach, so-named for the ochre-coloured rocks which make up the nearby cliffs. “Beach” is a relative term I suppose since, in this case, what they call sand is just gravel to us. Still, the water looked very inviting and the place was packed.

Santorini is a busy place, too busy really, and we were there in the low season! It reminded me a bit of Bali and some places in the Caribbean: nice but overcrowded to the point where the attraction becomes secondary. And very expensive! Staff in the higher-end tourist establishments are well-trained and friendly but get away from the Caldera and you find the locals to be impatient at best and very rude at worst. I hope our island never gets to be that way.

We took the bus on the morning of Day 4 to the port of Athinios where we met our Intrepid tour guide and the skipper of our sailing vessel, Jiorgos, a handsome 30-something from the Greek island of Chios. We took a ferry to the nearby island of Ios and arrived there late afternoon, got settled in our tiny cabin, and went for dinner with our fellow passengers. There are ten of us in all, squeezed into very tight quarters: 3 are from the UK, 2 are from New Zealand, and 3 are from Australia. Most are experienced travellers and have been on adventure trips like these before.

We didn’t have much time on Ios, just enough to have dinner together at a nice restaurant. After a fitful night getting used to our 56-foot home for the next nine days, we sailed out of the harbour headed for Amorgos, a four-hour sail away. We stopped for an hour for a swim break and I took full advantage of the crystal-clear water that must have been about 22C, warm by my standards. The last leg of our journey was quite rough and a few of us were looking green about the gills by the time we motored into the harbour at Katapola, a village of some 500 souls.

Jiorgos told us that a visit to the Holy Monastery of the Virgin Mary was a must, so eight of us piled into a taxi and drove to the other side of the island. The pure white structure clings precariously to a cliff some 300 meters above the sea. We climbed the 300 steps to the building, entered through a low, narrow door and began our exploration of the interior. Though all of it is not open to the public, one gets a taste of how it must be to live there, a spartan existence, totally removed from society. Only two monks remain, both in their 80s, and one of them proudly showed us the icon brought from a monastery in Palestine not long after it was built in the ninth century. In the August high season, as many as 1,000 visitors per day make the climb. It is one of those places where time seems to stand still.

Next morning, we sailed out of Katapola harbour and headed toward a chain of islands called the lesser Cyclades. Our target for the day was the small island of Koufounisia. It being a very calm day, the skipper didn’t bother to hoist the sails. After the mandatory swim stop, we motored into the small harbour and moored the Serendipity before heading off for a walk along the coast. We walked past multi-coloured limestone cliffs carved into interesting shapes by the force of the ocean.

That evening, we dined al fresco at a local restaurant and I had my first feed of grilled squid on this trip; the biggest I'd ever eaten and it was amazing! The small town of the same name is quite beautiful and many locals were out and about as we walked back through the narrow streets on our way back to the dock.

We sailed past more interesting rock formations on the way to our next port of call, the town of Chora on the island of Naxos, largest of the Cyclades with a population of 20,000 or so and an area about one-fifth the size of Prince County. Chora is the largest town we’ve visited since leaving Santorini and is a much more laid-back and easy-going place. We took a walk through the lower town and located the place where we’ll stay for three weeks after finishing our Intrepid adventure. We took Jiorgos’ advice and dined at a quaint restaurant in the Old Market that reminded us of Le vieux Québec. It was a pleasant evening for a walk along the waterfront and, although the peak season is over, there were many people around.