Paleochora and Samaria Gorge Western Crete

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After winding our way through the maintain roads of Crete and stopping to buy some blueberry Raki from a farm stand we arrived at the main drag of Paleochora. A few blocks later the town ended at a church. We started to turn around while taking a picture of the church (i.e. being extra touristy) when a local on his bike named Niko offered us a room at his family’s hotel named after his mother Margarita. Margarita spoke very little English but she demanded that her son introduce her then smiled and said, “welcome.” Niko’s English was hilarious. I wanted to keep asking him questions just to hear his accent. We didn’t realize it till later but the town of Paleochora is on a peninsula surrounded by water. Niko pointed the other direction from the pier we saw and said, “that way for the swimMinG.” We assumed he was confused and headed for the rocky beach we saw not knowing that there was a sandy one in the direction Niko pointed. It was very relaxing to float in the water on our bright orange floaties we bought at the market. The town was in siesta mode so we had to wait for everything to re-open around 6 to buy our bus and boat tickets to get to Samaria Gorge. In order to do the 13 kilometer one way gorge you have to take a bus to Omalos at the top and then take a ferry at the bottom from Ayla Roumeli Our stop in Paleochora was just supposed to be a home base for our trek to the gorge but it ended up being a place we loved. The small town came alive at night. The main street was so full of tables and chairs no cars or motorbikes could possibly get by. When we discovered the sandy beach we also spotted a sign advertising a vegetarian restaurant called The Third Eye. We tried it that night and ended up coming back for more it was so good. Polle kalo! (very good) In that restaurant we met an American x-pat that had lived in Europe for over 30 years. He was the only American we encountered. In the early morning we barely made it onto the bus to Samaria (about an hour and a half). By 9am we were hiking down into the gorge. We went down hill for at least 3 hours. There were old building and an old small village revealing just how long the gorge had been inhabited. It was a place of refuge during times of war and apparently lots of doctors used to live inside. Once we got to the bottom of the gorge it slowly began to narrow until the high walls of rock on both sides were only a few meters from each other. There was still water flowing in the river, which I wasn’t expecting. Theo told us he thought the water had dried up. The gorge ended at the beach. It took us a total of 6 hours to walk through. We had a hard time staying awake on the ferry ride home but we at least snapped some pictures of the coastline that prevents there from being any roads. Crete is much more mountainous than I imagined. In some places it reminds me of the landscape of California. The rolling hills are like central California and Samaria was like Yosemite, only its all a little more dramatic and steep on Crete.

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