After we left the boys in Ios, Eva and I went back to Santorini to soak up some more paradise. We went back to Anny Studios as we thoroughly enjoyed being less than 50m from Perissa's black sand beach and Steve's (the owner's) homecooked breakfast and the 'good morning, girls' that greeted us every morning. Not to mention that they hooked us up with cheaper quad rentals (from a very cute and surprisingly nice Greek guy) with free gas and snorkel equipment and also were always ready to give us directions to the best sights to see.
We rented a quad for two days and saw Perissa's black sand beach which was right in front of our hotel. Valhala beach, another black sand beach that was smaller and quieter than Perissa and had amazing rock formations that seemed like lava all around it. We also saw the lighthouse on one end of the island which had the most amazing views of the volcano and the endless dark blue water. Next, we made our way to Fira (or Thira as it was sometimes spelt) which was the capital of the island. It was another village consisting of many white houses all crowded together at the top of the cliff. It was a bit different that Oia as it seemed more commercial and busy and not quite as beautiful and serene. But the views were still spectacular and the sunset amazing. In Fira, we also hiked out to see Skaros and the 'castle'. Skaros was an neat rock formation and according to my guide book there was supposedly a castle on it. Eva and I climbed all the way out to the rock which consisted of at least 300 stairs and quite some distance not to find a castle anywhere. When we asked a couple from Germany where the f@$king castle was and we were informed that it was destroyed by an earthquake hundreds of years ago and the rocks on the ground were the castle... we were not impressed. We didn't understand the Greeks love of old rocks (aren't the rocks in Spain and Canada just as old?). We could have seen Skaros and the old rocks without hiking up and down stairs in the hot afternoon sun! After that, we badly wanted to borrow one of the many private pools with the amazing views that we had to walk past to get back into Fira village. We ended up settling for cold fruity drinks in a restaurant with a beautiful view.
The next day, we hopped back on the quad to make our way to Amoudi Bay which was simply amazing! The water was perfectly clear and blue and most of the rocks that surrounded the bay were red. We hopped into the perfect temperature water and did some snorkling where we saw all sorts of fish including a main street of silver colored fish that didn't stray from the line in which they were swimming in both directions. Also in the bay, was a little island you would swim out to that had a tiny little white and blue church on it and a ledge (about 8m?) to jump off back into the bay. I climbed up to see the church thinking jumping would be no big deal, but, once I was up there I didn't want to jump... However, climbing back down seemed even worse (I had already cut my knee climbing up the slippery rocks). So, I decided to jump. Then, some kid said 'make sure you jump far enough out that you don't hit the rocks at the bottom' to which I replied, 'rocks!?!?! WHAT ROCKS!?!?! How far is far enough!??!'. I guess my running and jumping technique was good form, because I made it into the water fairly unscathed. That experience definitely falls into the category of 'I tried it once and now I'm never going to do it again'. I had salt water coming out of my sinuses for the rest of the day.
In the miniscule village of Amoudi Bay, Eva and I went to a very Greek seafood restaurant where we ordered octopus and calamari. We were, however, very suprised when our plates came with a whole bbq octupus and whole bbq squid on them - head, tentacles, and everything. Apparently you can eat the whole thing. And we did. It was actually very delicious. I think I preferred the grilled octopus to the boiled octopus of Spain. However, not seeing the WHOLE octopus in Spain is a bit more preferred. After lunch we toured the vinyards along the quiet back of the island where we got to sample some delicious wine (our favorite being an amazing sweet desert wine) and try the infamous white eggplant that is only found in Santorini.
The last thing we saw was the trendy and crowded party beach of Kamari, which had a boulevard behind it that made me think of pictures of Miami. It was amazing how areas of the island could be so different even though it was such a small place. The differences from Oia to Kamari to Perissa made you think you were in a completely different place than you were 20 minutes earlier. Oia was what we expected the whole island to be like but then we also got to experience places reminiscent of Miami and Mexico too. Santorini was an amazing experience and I would go back there in a heartbeat.
Hasta la proximá vez,
Kathlene
