Famous Santorini

Thursday afternoon, it was time for us to say goodbye to our cruise ship and start the third part of our vacation in Santorini. As the ship pulled into the Caldera (the bay like area in the middle of Santorini that was created by the volcano eruptions) we had an amazing view of the small volcanic islands, Nea Kameni and Palaia Kameni in the center of the bay, and Fira the main town of Santorini hanging on the cliffs. Thursday night we found our way around and had the best Mexican dinner we've found in Greece...yes, Jeremy, Margo and Sarah came all the way from the US to eat Mexican...after so many days of traditional Greek food, we were ready for something different!

We sat out on chairs on the ship deck to watch the views. Since we were on the top deck, it was very windy and a little cool.

Here you can see Fira in the background (white edge of the cliff).

Our cruise ship in front of the Santorini cliffs and Fira. We had to take a tender boat from the ship to the port.

Fira is built on the edge of the caldera with a lot of the hotels built into the side of cliffs.

Friday morning, we got up and took the cable car down from Fira to the old port to catch a boat to the volcano and hot springs. You can either take the cable car down, ride donkeys or walk the 638 steps. We used the cable cars both times!




Sarah caught a picture of the donkeys that carry people and supplies up from the old port. (Notice Jeremy and Bryce in the background)




Jeremy got this picture of the donkey.




We took these traditional looking boats out to the small volcanic islands in the middle of the bay like area of water.

Part of the hike up the volcano we actually walked along a huge crater and felt like we were on top of the world. You can see Oia (another village in Santorini) in the distance.

Rich and Meredith at the top of the volcano. There are actually 5 different volcanoes, 1 of which is still active and last erupted in 1950. The island is all volcanic rock with no signs of life. At the top you can see the gas coming out of the one live volcano and feel the difference in the temperature of the rocks.

All of us at the top of the volcano.

After our hike on the volcano, we got back onto the boat and headed for the hot springs. The tricky part was that the boats couldn't actually pull up to the springs. You had to jump out of the boat and swim 25 meters before you could touch the bottom and another 10 meters before you actually reached the warm water of the springs. Since it was April, the water was COLD. When we first jumped in, it actually took your breath away and the tour guide threw Jeremy a floating ring to take with us because they were afraid of Margo swimming...they obviously didn't know Margo! Once we reached the hot springs, it was completely worth it. Rich and Sarah sacrificed their swim to stay on board and take care of Bryce...we're pretty sure they were more than happy to have Bryce as an excuse to stay out of the icy water.

Since it was Greek Easter, Friday night was Good Friday. Pyrgos, one of the local villages, has a tradition where everybody from the island, plus all of tourists and pilgrims, hike up through the narrow streets of the village to the church at the very top of the mountain (or large hill). After a short service (maybe 10 minutes) the priests march a crucifix down through village and men with blow torches run over all of the roofs lighting tin cans of fuel. Within 45 minutes, the entire village looks like it is on fire from the thousands of potted flames. After the town is "on fire", the thousands of people who are all over the village, walk back down through the narrow streets (barely wide enough for 2 people). It was a complete mad house but absolutely incredible to see. In this picture, you can see the pots lining the houses and churches. Each wall or roof was literally lined with these pots. It was an amazing Greek tradition to witness.

Pyrgos from a distance.