Carved from a Caldera—Santorini—July 3–9, 2021

 The SeaJet ferry was about an hour late in arriving at about 5pm so I was glad to have made reservations for 3 days at the Fira Backpackers Place. 

The view of Santorini from the boat as we approached the wharf was unreal.  The cliffs were about 1,000 ft topped with a thick layer of white rocks.  Etched into this cliff was an impossible switchback road descending to our wharf.  

Fortunately, the directions provided in my reservation to the hostel were spot on as we all debarked from the ferry.  I spotted the buses lined up with the green accents and boarded for a cost of 2 Euros to Fira.  Many others dithered around and ended up taking taxis or shuttle buses.    I buckled up and as we started up these switchbacks, I realized that if the bus went over, no one would survive the fall, buckled up or not.  

Once up on the plateau, there were a small number of whitewashed settlements along the half-hour journey to Fira where I would stay.  The edge of the island where most of the settlements cling to the sides of the cliff is actually a caldera, the remnants of a volcano that long ago blew up.

This was the most beautiful island I have been to so far with hotels, restaurants, and stores clustered together that draped down impossibly on the cliff walls.  The hotels had their restaurants and pools interspersed among the other white roundy buildings.

In the heart of Fira were pedestrian-only walkways lined with gift shops, restaurants, jewelry stores, and spas.  After the sun set, the walkways became crowded with shoppers, diners and party seekers.

While here, I took the 10-mile or so trail along the ridge tops and passed a number of villages and resorts with their many individual infinity pools that were mostly empty on my way to Oia at the northern tip of the island.

Along the way, there were also two small churches that provided solace to other travelers now and in the far past.  There was also a small bodega where our trail met the highway that sold refreshments as well before the final climb up to the second travelers' church.  From the church, it was all downhill to Oia.

Oia village is built on the volcano caldera and was mostly destroyed by an earthquake in 1956.  It has been rebuilt and it has become a real draw to tourists with its high-end shops, hotels, and restaurants.  The Lonely Planet guide says that it is often overcrowded with the cruise line crowds, but because of COVID restrictions, the crowds were thin which made it a pleasant experience for me.

Here are some views of Oia village with the sunset and the blue-domed buildings.  When the sun set, people clapped and the boats blew their horns.  A great tradition.

I returned to Fira by local bus for just 1.6 Euros.

Every day there I enjoyed a sunset dinner overlooking Fira and the sea and islands below on the other days I was here.

On another day, I took an all-day tour of the island for 35 Euros along with Myra from New York near White Plains.  She was a banker on holiday and came to the US when she was just 13 from Ecuador.  I discussed some of my travels including to Ecuador in 2005 during a revolution and a 9-day trip to the Galapagos.  She had not been but wanted to go there with her mother as well as to other places in Ecuador.

Our guide took the 12 of us to several spots which included a monastery, Santos Winery with a view down to the ferry wharf, a From lighthouse, the Red Beach, the Black Beach in Perissa where we stay for lunch and swimming for about 2 1/2 hours.

Perissa was another whitewashed village that ran down to the wide Black Beach that was filled with people sunning under beach umbrellas and sun beds.  The beach consisted of volcanic black small gravel and the slope was gentle as were the waves when we were there.  

From there, we traveled back north past Fira to the next village, Firostefani, where we saw a blue-domed church featured in many postcards of Santorini.

It was then on to Oia, to catch the sunset against the white village with its hotels, restaurants, gift shops, and other buildings that draped down the caldera edge.  It was a beautiful way to end this tour as we returned to Fira.

One evening I went to a dinner show called “My Big Greek Wedding” where they put on a play that included lots of dancing and even got the audience to get up and dance with them.  It was a lot of fun including the smashing of the plates while the performers danced around the shards of broken plates.

During the rest of my time on Santorini Island, I enjoyed revisiting some of my favorite spots including Oia and Perissa with its Black Beach.

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