Last Day on Ios annd the Ferry to Santorini

Tuesday morning dawned bright and clear and then I put my contacts in and saw how truly beautiful it was. We enjoyed a light breakfast at the port (Norwegian Sailors were there, but not drunk) and then got the bus to Mylopotas Beach. The ride took us up and through the village and then down the other side. This is a long sandy beach framed by the mountains on three sides. The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful beach day.

We got back to the hotel to change and finish packing and then were driven back to the port for our ferry to Santorini. This ferry was the smallest and fastest ferry we were going to take (Flying Cat 4). Santorini is off the south end of Ios and it was about a 30 minute trip to Santorini.

Santorini used to be a fairly large island until about 640 BC when the volcano exploded and the center got spread over Mediterranean leaving only a scattered out ring. The outer ring is broken up into one large island, one smaller island and a few other islets. In the center are two basalt islands formed by lava flows since the main eruption in 640 BC. The caldera rim is lined with hotels and homes all the way around and is an impressive sight. On the backside of the main island (opposite of the caldera) you would hardly know there was a volcano, except for the thick layers of ash. In fact, along the caldera rim, you can see the level of ash, 10 or 20 meters thick with basalt rocks mixed in. You can see successive layers of eruptions on the layers exposed by the volcano, some are ash and some are basalt.

The port is near the center of the island and our hotel is at the north end. Again, we shared the taxi, this time with a Mother and Daughter from NYC. The road up from the port to the top of the caldera has many switch backs, once at the top, the view is impressive, both into the caldera on one side and the planes down below on the other.

We were dropped off first and our hotel is in the caldera rim. The taxi driver had contacted our hotel so that someone would be there to help us with our luggage. We had to walk from a parking lot up to the top of the rim, over to the hotel and then down the steps to our room. The woman who runs the desk of Armeni Village is a small, darkly tanned, older woman who speaks very little English. She took great pride in showing us our room, which is a nice suite with a real shower, not just a small square with a curtain around it. I think the shower here is about the size of the bathroom at the hotel in Ios.

Santorini amazing and we are looking forward to exploring the island.