Santorini Bus and Boat Tour

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Our day started at 9:00 with a wait at the bus stop for our tour bus. We then headed for Pyrgos and the highest point on the island, Profitis Ilias. Most of us weren't terribly interested in the view of Santorini island from this vantage point as we had been there the day before but our guide, Dana, pointed out the Monastery (closed to the public as it is down to only three monks) which we thought we had missed but which was actually a very ordinary looking building that I thought was part of the military installation on the peak. One good thing about going up with a guide is that she explained that the traditional churches are white for the waves with blue domes for the sky. Dana also explained that the houses used to be very colourful but after the devastating earthquake in 1956/7 and the economic collapse, Santorini had adopted the white with blue accents colour scheme of the other tourist islands. Tourism restored Santorini to profitability around 1970 and it is now a big industry. We then went into Pyrgos to view the Venetian castelli and have a quick look around the center of Pyrgos explaining why we had encountered so many buses and tourists the day before. After that we drove to Athinios Port to catch the King Thiras three-masted schooner.

We motored along the coast for a bit and our onboard guide, Gregory, pointed out Fira and Fira Port and said that there were 600 steps to climb the steep cliff from port to city or one could take a cablecar. The next town along the cliff top was Firostefani with Imeroviglia on its left. At that point we motored across to Nea Kameni to climb the volcano. That was a bit of a disappointment to me as I was expecting something like what one sees on tv of the volcanos in Hawaii but instead we had a long hot climb for basically some scenery as the only signs of activity at the top were a few puffs of sulphur gas instead of lava and clouds of gas. However, Gregory said that Santorini gets a lot of earthquakes but eruptions aren't as frequent with the last big one being in 1956/7 and that was mostly gas. The volcano did create a new crater in 1940 and the newest lava we saw was the blackest and it was deposited in 1929. We then motored over to Palea Kameni island and anchored, which was a surprise as I had thought the hot springs would be 'inland'. We climbed or jumped off the boat into shockingly cold water when you are expecting a hot spring. We swam towards shore which was warmer and then some of the people headed toward another boat anchored closer in where it turned out to be warmer still. Apparently there are hot vents under the water close to shore that warm some of the sea water but there is also a 'hot stream' that drains into the sea.

Afterwards we went to Thirassia port on Thirassia island where most of us elected to remain in the port rather than climb to the top. Some of the adventurous in our group went up the cliff on mules or climbed up but said there wasn't much up there. We had lunch in one of the many seaside restaurants which was a huge disappointment as it sounded good but was actually very ordinary! I had kalamari pasta and the kalamari was very tender but the orzo type pasta was very blah! After that we went to Oia to see the sunset. Most of us opted to ride the mules up the extremely steep cliff and even then it was a struggle to get up the few remaining steps after our extremely active day climbing the volcano and swimming at the hot springs. Since we had several hours until sunset around 8:30 we looked around the town. We first went into the church in the main square and there was some sort of ceremony being performed with a priest in black robes moving around in the back and chanting in response to a man in the main room who was chanting from a book. It was very interesting to hear and the acoustics in the church were phenomenal. The church was of course very ornate and stunning as are all the orthodox churches we have seen. We then wandered around the shops that lined pretty much every street in Oia. The sunset was a bit of a disappointment as it had been built up so much as the most spectacular in the world but it was really quite ordinary. An unfortunate end to what could have been a spectacular day and what would probably have been a more enjoyable day if we hadn't had so much fun the day before.

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