Summer sun 2017 Day 10&11 - Santorini part 2

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It was a perfect day today with the winds calming down to a cool breeze, the sun shining brightly and sea looking blue and calm. It would have been an ideal day for sailing, an activity which is very popular here and takes you to amazing places. However we were late as all the boats were booked for the day. So we booked for tomorrow, a catamaran sun set sailing tour of half day and checked out of our hotel.
In Santorini, we had planned two days of stay atop the caldera while two days by the beach. Our next hotel was right beside the Kamari beach or the black beach as it is called. Our hearts weren't content as we descended the caldera and wished we had a day more, but all those thoughts vanished as we checked in to our new hotel at Kamari beach.
The hotel was luxuriously beautiful with it's white exteriors, pink bougainvillas and attached restaurant right next to the blue sea. Our room was small but very creatively designed, making Swati take notes for our house, while the other room was almost a suite with a living room, 2 terraces, and a big bathroom. Between the hotel and the beach was a pedestrian street which was the main beach side street of Kamari and had all the top hotels along it. Most of the hotels, like ours, had their restaurant by the street on the hotel side and few rows of tables on the beach side just before the black pebbles of the beach started.
The term black beach comes from the black pebbles the beach is made up of completely thanks to the 3000 year old volcanic activity and with no sand at all. All along the beach were neatly arranged umbrellas with beach bed under them. A shower and a changing room were never afar.
We immediately settled down besides the beach in our hotel restaurant and ordered chilled Greek beer mythos. The clear blue waters were too inviting as we 'slid' into the sea. Due to its pebble nature, the bed of the sea is also 'pebbly' and rocky with moss all over it making it very slippery. Not wanting to injure myself I came out sooner than wanted to and did the next best thing - order another beer.
It was an afternoon well spent at the beach as we decided to take shower and walk the pedestrian street in the evening.
That beach side street of Kamari really comes into its own after sun set with each restaurant outdoing the other in terms of; various menus on display, soft lighting's, harmonious music and inviting settings. We resisted all the temptations to get into the restaurants as we had heard of this highly rated Asian restaurant; ironically named kiwi and wanted to check it out. When we reached the restaurant there were at least 6-8 people waiting their turn to get seats. The manger of the restaurant asked us to try our luck after 30 minutes. It gave Swati and Pradnya the perfect opportunity to explore more shops along the beach road as they checked out various designer jewellery stores, classy boutique's, innovative souvenirs shop and run of the mill utility stores.
After 30 minutes of mostly window shopping, we returned to the kiwi restaurant and gorged on Asian 'spiced' food. For desserts we hit the beach road again picking up home made ice cream at one place and then settling down by our hotel restaurant for some unique desserts. Finally around a little after midnight we left that enchanted place, with soft sound of waves crashing on the black pebbles, to crash in our beds with a thud.
It was a lazy start to the next day as we all assembled for breakfast by the blue sea in our hotel restaurant. Today was sailing day! Although the sail boat was going to leave the harbour by 1500hrs, our pick up was at 1300 hrs since we were staying on the other side of the island and drop by 2130hrs, so basically the whole day. Everybody other than me was in double mind whether to go for sailing or spend another relaxed day by the beach as today was our last day and from tomorrow our return journey would commence. We had paid Euro 200 as advance and there was no way we could get them back or make a shorter sail tour, so finally with no option left and everybody else insisting on we going for sailing we decided to go for it.
We quickly packed our swim suits, wore attractive sailing clothes and got on to our pickup van which took us to the Bay of Aboudi near the village of Oia. There were around 30-40 people, our co sailors, assembled to get into our catamaran boat. And what a boat it was. The boat was almost 50 feet long with high masts. On the front side of the boat was an open to sky netted area directly above the waters and beneath the sails, the middle portion had covered benches and tables, the rear side was the captains wheel and a makeshift buffet counter while in a corner was a big grill barbeque!
There was visible excitement as all the passengers were asked to embark the boat, take off their footwear and take places. Most of the passengers including Akshay and Anvi rushed to sit on the net. Swati and I settled on a table and
bench just behind them. No sooner had the anchors gone up, the ropes undone and the hooter sounded, that the music blared, drinks flowed, clothes came off and the barbeque fire lit. It was like party on the sea.
Our first sailing stop was on an island having hot springs, again thanks to the 3000 year old volcano. The boat stopped around 59 meters away from the island as Akshay, Anvi and me jumped into the waters along with some others and started swimming in direction of the muddied, sulphurised hot water spring. After 10 minutes of natural spa we returned to our floating party only to make another stop 20 minutes later on the red beach, where only Akshay and Anvi jumped out again. The last stop of the day was after another 45 minutes of sailing on the white beach. Here there was an hour long halt. We were provided scuba gear while the crew prepared our dinner. For next 45 min we all got into the water, saw fishes, made merry before getting onboard for dinner. All the swimming had made us really hungry as we had a wholesome dinner freshly cooked on the boat. Post dinner people lazed around the boat till it was sun set time. The captain of the boat steered the boat to a very vantage point from where we could see the orange sun slowly sinking in the blue waters of Mediterranean for one last time. It was a magical moment as we recalled the whole vacation from day 1 till now. Today was our last day of vacation and from tomorrow we would begin our return journey. I would not bore the readers with it although it has been a relaxed, fun filled and luxurious one.
Watching that sun go down and leave the colours of dusk on the sky, we hugged each other and did a dance choreographed by Anvi, summing up the wonderful past 10 days of Summer sun 2017.

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