Santorini Island is the caldera of a prehistoric volcano eruption. We parked up in the Santorini Gulf and were taken ashore by ferry. From there we scaled the cliff by donkey to the capital, Fira. A taxi took us to the small village of Oia where we ambled around taking in the sights of this beautiful place.
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| Church in Oia |
The village of Oia is perched on the ridge of the 'caldera' and at the tip of the main island. The buildings are densely packed over that landscape and not an inch of wasted space. It's clear their main source of income is from tourism. There were two ships in today bringing in around 6,000-8,000 visitors to an island of 13,000 permanent inhabitants. Our cabbie said that it is not uncommon to have up to 5 ships in the same day during the summer.
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| The view from our lunch table |
I'm intrigued by what motivates anyone to establish a community on the ridge of a volcanic caldera. I guess this is what makes this place so unique.
The cabbie waited for us and took us back to Fira where we had lunch with a view to die for. We ended our day by walking down the cliff to the water where we boarded our tender to take us to the ship in the bay. The walk was a challenge for the crook knee - took about 40 minutes to scale down. The donkeys took about 10-15 minutes to take us up the same path.
A great day was had by all with a few firsts chalked up. Went to Santorini, rode a donkey and walked down the cliff. Well it was big for me!!!
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| The path up/down the cliff face - by hoof or by foot |
We departed at 1700 and are headed for Piraeus (Athens) again.
Catch ya tomorrow...
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