Santorini - Sept 26

Our plan today was for a boat ride around the Santorini. We got up pretty early and then headed down to the bus station where we were met by the tour company van. The van took us to port in Amoudi at the end of the island. The boat docked at the port just after we arrived and then a second van arrived and a couple that is staying at the Alte Marre which is next to Armeni Village, showed up. We had seen them having breakfast on the terrace before we left. It turns out he is from Madrid and she is going to school there and is from Lausanne, France.

The boat headed to the Old port of Oia which is just below our hotel (we could have easily walked down on the switchback walkway there) to pick up more passengers. We sailed for the larger and newer of the volcanic islands in the center. Staying with our group from the boat, we walked up the island to the very top. There are 6 different volcanic craters on the island and two of them have active vents spewing steam and noxious gases. The geology is amazing but entirely different than the volcanoes of Hawaii or Oregon. Much more rocky and with no lava flows.

We walked back down to the boat (we actually switched boats) and then headed to the second volcanic island. The attraction here are vents that heat the water in a little bay. We dropped anchor about 150 meters off shore and then those who wanted swam into the bay. I enjoyed the swim in, but the warm water was a little bit over blown. It was not so warm, it was warmer….but.

After that we headed to the island of Thirisia which is the other 2nd largest island there to be inhabited, about 300 residents. At the port there were about 8 restaurants and you could walk up the caldera there to the town. Pam and I decided to stay in the port and have lunch (gyros). The only reason any of the restaurants exist is to service the people on the boat.

We headed back to the boat and back to the port where we started. We decided to walk up to town instead of taking the shuttle. After the walk up we headed to our hotel where we showered and hung out at the hotel a little and then went to our last dinner in Greece. I had also called the taxi drive that we had taken from the port to meet us the next morning.

When we returned to the hotel, it turns out that the power in our room was out. It took about an hour to get the power fixed. The light fixture in the bathroom was shorting out the electrical system, so while we had power elsewhere, we did not have light in the bathroom. We were about done with this hotel, I would never recommend this hotel.