You may not know it, but Santorini is said to be the location of Atlantis, if you want to find out a bit more I have tried to distil the myth and origins of the story. See the end of today’s blog for my interpretation of the story.
And now, onto today.
We had a slow start to our day, we both got 9hrs sleep last night, getting very relaxed.
After breakfast we face-timed our mums to share where we are and see how things were going back home. Nice to hear everyone is doing OK, considering. Was good to chat to Craig & Cook & Von & Tom too and see Pipi.
A bit after 10:40am we took a walk into Oia, the small village at the northern most point of Santorini. The further we walked the busier it got. Along the way we noticed fairly quickly that the side facing the caldera was where it all happens, and it seems only on the cliff face. The northern side of Oia is spotted with small farms and sparsely spaced homes,
when you compare that to the south side where every square meter is built on and the paths/lanes are very narrow it is easy to see what the tourists want. We are very lucky being here at the beginning of the tourist season, there are relatively few people here. The paths and lanes are barely a third full, but you can imagine what it would be like here at peak season, wall to wall people in searing heat!! Not my idea of fun.
The paths and lanes are lined with tourist shops as you would expect, all selling the usual tourist trinkets and t-shirts. We did pass by a few quirky little shops and the odd ruin, these were interesting. I liked the crumbling old buildings and literal ruins, it reminds you that real people lived here.
It’s a beautiful day, the sun’s out, not a cloud to be seen, but very hazy. We have seen about 3 cruise liners call in and leave. Seems the cruise passengers get little time here.
A funny note, when we arrived we noticed that the distant cliff tops were covered in white rocks, it wasn’t until we got closer that it was obvious it was buildings, white buildings!
We spent lunch at our hotel, scoped out where we needed to be to be picked up for our tour, and then enjoyed the quiet relaxed setting of our Hobbit home.
We were picked up by a minibus for our Sunset Oia Cruise. It was a crazy ride to the wharf. We were the 2nd last people to be picked up. Once the bus was full, all 11 of us, the bus headed for the wharf. The fun started about half a kilometre from the wharf. Our driver did some fancy manoeuvring and started reversing down the steep narrow road! Yep, we were reversing for over 500m. To add to the excitement there were cars parked on the seaside (rhs as we headed down the hill and cars trying to comeback up the hill. The road was barely 2 cars wide. So for 500+m our driver reversed our minibus down the hill with about 4 to 5cm clearance on either side. I think he stopped twice to take some time when that clearance reduced a bit!! At the bottom I congratulated him on his driving skill, he just shrugged his shoulders and smiled. An amazing feat and no damage to any vehicle! 
While we were waiting for our boat I noticed a line of donkeys being led down a zig zag path from the Castle of Oia, not something you see everyday.
Our small group catamaran sunset cruise had 11 people on it, plus 3 crew. We were on a 5 year old catamaran named Sikinos. Captained by Alex and with Alice and Angel the crew.
We more or less headed directly south into the middle of the caldera, and Nea Kameni (Volcano ). It is an island made of black rock, essentially basalt, that froze when lava hit the seawater. We tied up to a bouy here and were invited to swim. The water was said to be a few degrees warmer than the rest of the harbour due to volcanic springs. This also meant that the water has a sulphur scent to it, yes it sort of smelt! I took a plunge and had a short swim, yes the waterways were a bit warmer than my last swim in Milos and yes it did stink a bit. I guess it was an ok experience, would I do it again, probably not. But at least my skin and hair should be cleansed in a sulphur sort of way.
We then headed further south to the south eastern Tip of Santorini, where the oldest light house in Greece sits above the waters at the top of the cliff. It looked like an interesting old building.
We rounded the Headland and made our way to Mesa Pigadia Beach, where we dropped anchor and had another swim opportunity, I resisted!
We set sail again and went to White Beach, where we dropped anchor again. This was party central, there were lots of catamarans anchored here, many of them with 40-50 younger types on-board with party music blasting, looked like they were having lots of fun. The crew cooked us a delicious BBQ dinner. Deb had pork steak, I had chicken breast, it was accompanied by a Greek Salad, tzatziki, pita bread, and a pasta salad, we shared.
We finished dinner and set sail back toward an area just east of Ammoudi where we would watch the sunset. On the way back we cruised past Athinios Port (the main Port of Santorini ) and then further around to the old port near Thira.
Throughout the cruise we marvelled at the geology of the crater, so many twists and turns and layer and intrusions and so much more. And it looked so beautiful, ain’t nature grand, lol.
We reached our observation area in the bay a bit east of the Castle of Oia. The captain was very clever, he gave us a nearly sunset over the north western point of Santorini by driving the boat towards the land with the sun lined up, as the land got closer the sun disappeared behind it, sunset!!!!! We then rounded the point and watched the sun set (for real this time) on the western horizon. The horizon had low clouds, so the sunset was very pretty.
Once the sun had set, all of the boats out on sunset cruises had to drop their passengers off at the same small wharf. We joined the queue, I would have guessed there were close to 20 boats. We eventually docked at about 9pm. As we were heading into the wharf there were fireworks set off up near our hotel, it was fun watching them from our boat. We were in our minibus by 9:20pm for the drive back up the hill! The drive up was similar to the one down with the exception that we were driving forward this time! It was the same sort of chaos as when we arrived. Once clear of the road to the wharf our driver went into rally mode and we were home in no time.
What a great day, so many highlights.
The Myth of Atlantis and Santorini.
Plato described Atlantis as being far from the Pillars of Hercules (today known as the Straits of Gibraltar) and the Atlantians were said to have had an incredibly advanced sea faring, technological and trading civilisation, and the Atlantians themselves were said to have god-like powers. The location of Santorini fits with this description of both Plato’s Atlantis and of a Minoan civilisation that was located at ancient Thera. (present day Santorini).
Mythology has it that the destruction of Atlantis was carried out by the gods in a single night because of the arrogance that had grown among the Atlantians.
Similarly, the ancient Minoen advanced sea faring civilisation of Thera, was destroyed by a great volcanic eruption that plunged the city into the ocean covering it in ash and mud.
So according to the myth, Atlantis lies in or near the waters that fill the present day caldera that is the bay of Santorini, or is that actually an Ancient Minoen civilization out in the bay! Personally, I’m going with the myth.
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