Into Town

April 29:

I felt rather sick last night, something I attribute to dehydration and heat. Needless to say it took us a while to get going. Our plan for the day was three fold: to head into town to find an ATM, to get some food and later to hit the grocery store. As we departed a member of the hotel staff offered to give us a ride into town. We gladly accepted and once in town we proceeded to wander around. We saw the sights, including the windmills and Little Venice as well as the town mascot, Petros the Pelican. 

I made sure to get lots of fluids into me buying, a liter and a half of water for while we walked around. Once we got food we headed back to the hotel for a while to rest and get out of the sun before we went to get groceries. While getting groceries I loaded up on juice and water so I wouldn’t get dehydrated again. When we got back we marathoned the last season of Archer and soon called it a night.

To Mykonos

April 28:

I was up at 9am today to meet my 9:30 appointment at reception. Once there the owner looked up the ferry info and found that it was running on time so far and that we should come down at 11 for a ride to the port. We packed and rested until it was 11am. At the appointed hour we headed down to the reception. The owner gave us a gift of a bottle of white wine as we left.

We have had a great time at Villa Manos. The family that runs it has always been more then hospitable to us, giving us rides to and from the port, giving advice on things to do, and giving us gifts of food from time to time. It was a truly great experience on a gorgeous island. It now seems a shame that we spent our first few days so lazily. Though they were likely what we needed it was much more rewarding to get out and see the Island. The beautiful painted cities built into the caldera of a largely submerged volcano create amazing views. As we headed down to the port we were reminded of the beautiful place we were leaving. We were able to get tickets without a problem and soon we were off to our next paradise isle.

After the two and a half-hour ferry ride we were on Mykonos. Fortunately there was a staff member waiting to whisk us off to our hotel, Hotel Milena. Our plan once there was to settle into our room for a while then to walk into town and check it out. Soon enough though we were both asleep. When we got up it was getting late so we went to the local supermarket and grabbed some sandwich making supplies before we called it a night. 

Red Sand Beach

April 27: Today we managed to get up around 11am. We knew that our Quad bike was due back at 3pm so we got going to the beach fairly quickly. Pat’s feet were indeed burned from his jog on the beach the day before. We were able to find Red Sand Beach without much issue. The Akrotiri beach is somewhat secluded and once ATVing near to it we had a small hike to take us there.

The red sand beach was even more beautiful then the black sand beach the day before. The water was a beautiful azure blue and on the other side of the beach was a rough, ferrous red cliff.

The sand itself was a dark red mix of the red iron stones and black volcanic rock.

Today was another gorgeous day and may have even been hotter then the day before. After only a small amount of reading I was soon sweating. I was quick to grab my goggles and head into the sea. The water was warm and after a bit of swimming around Pat joined me. We stood around in the water and looked down at the fish swimming around our feet. It was too soon time for us to head back to Fira to return our ATV. We stopped at a viewing platform by the side of the road on our way and got some great shots of the scenery.

An older couple stopped by while we were there and asked if I could take some photos of them. They took some photos of us after, though those are on Pat’s camera. We were making good time getting back, so on our way we stopped into a grocery store and a bakery to get some supplies for that night. We dropped the supplies off at the hotel then I went to drop off the ATV. The rental company had given us a ride into town to get the ATV and once I got there they offered me a ride back. I deferred their offer temporarily as I had decided it was about time I got some souvenirs. After a quick walk through the town I had found what I was looking for and got a ride back to Villa Manos. We had only the one more night booked at the hotel so we got around to looking up ferries. There was a ferry to Mykonos the next day at noon. The woman who ran the hotel had told us earlier to tell her the day before we checked out, so once Pat had booked a hotel I went down to tell her our plans. She told us to come down to reception around 9:30am the next day and we would sort out the ferry and our ride there. A short time later there was a call from outside our window to come to reception, when we got there she had made us some salad and pasta. My computer charger has developed some issues over the past few days where even though attached to the computer it doesn’t always charge it. This caused it to die at one point while I was using it this evening and I had to get a boost from Pat’s charger before I could get back to my shoddy charger. While my computer recovered I finished The Blind Assassin. I think Pat will soon finish his collection of Hitchens essays so I may devour that next. Soon enough we called it a night. 

Black Sand Beach

April 26:

Today we had planned to get up early so we could get to a beach by a good hour. This plan was foiled somewhat because Pat was unable to sleep until about 6am. Once he arose we decided to rent an ATV for 24 hours and use it to get to one of the black sand beaches. On our way we managed to get somewhat lost but this turned out to be not entirely bad. In our search for sea level we had somehow made it to the highest point on the mountain. Soon we realized that the top was a military base and the only way down was the way we went up. On our way down we stopped for some photographs of the stunning scenery. 

Once we got down we used our aerial lay of the land to figure out which way we had to go to get to Perissa Beach. There is actually rather good signage on Santorini but many of them have had stickers put on them, which obscure them unnecessarily making them difficult to read while zooming along on a quad-bike. Also of note is that we only rented the one ATV because Pat didn’t bring his drivers license with him. Once we got to the beach it was hot, nearly empty, and beautiful.

After some brief reading I was in the sea for a swim. The water was a beautiful blue and I promised myself the next day I would bring my goggles with me so I could look around underwater. The beach was surprising in that once in the water it was fairly stony and when you got beyond that the floor was seemingly cement, perhaps to stop erosion. Once back on the beach I went back to reading. All the beautiful weather meant that I was zooming though The Blind Assassin. Pat decided he was going to take a jog along the beach before he jumped in the water. The sands colour meant that it was terribly hot but he figured as long as he kept moving his feet would remain unscathed. Once back he went in the water for a bit. We each read for a bit more before we decided to call it a day. It was at this point I realized that the small, light, white rocks I had been messing with were around in larger specimens to. Even the larger pebbles seemed to have almost no weight to them and we realized that these were pumice stones. We collected a few samples then headed back to the hotel. We managed not to get lost on the way though we did take a slight detour to get some food as we had yet to eat that day.

It was pretty late by the time we got back so we went to our room for the night.