This morning, I woke up, packed, ate breakfast, and then joined the others to go with Taso to the Caldera. Today's forecast called for 35 degree Celsius weather...that's about 100 degrees!
At least it was only morning and the breeze helped a bit, but not much. Our hike was about 20-30 minutes, and we had to hike down some pretty big steps (87 in all, according to the donkeys-for-rent signs).
Worst set of steps I've been on in a long while...smelled like stinky donkeys and horses and littered with donkey poop and urine just about every other step. By the time I got to the bottom, I was drenched in sweat and my legs were shaking involuntarily. Why couldn't we take the gondolas down?
Our boat finally arrived, though, and we hopped on board a good looking boat. It looked like an old pirate clipper, except with a Greek blue-and-white flag on the back. Not as cool looking as the one that left before, but 'twas a fun ride out to the volcano.
We arrived amidst hordes of tourists flocking up the dock and onto the rocky path that twisted and turned up the mound of volcanic rock. Looked a bit like the trail at Mycenae actually, except ten times bigger! Turns out it's a park, so 2 Euro entrance fee, which our program covered.
The walk, I thought, wouldn't be too bad...until I saw how far the line of tiny people stretched at the top of the next few rocky hills. Under the scorching sun, it was like we were characters in Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth. I was wearing my sleeveless shirt, and boy, it was drenched.
We got to the top and saw...more volcanic rock just like before! Man, if I had a cooling tank up at the top and charged 5 Euros per person for 30 seconds, I would make bank. haha. We rested for a few minutes and then headed straight back down. I was so tired and determined to get back to the boat as quickly as possible I must have passed at least two dozen people on my way down the path.
Our last stop on the boat was the hot springs on the other side of the Caldera. We didn't realize this until we got there, but you could only swim there since they anchored the boats away from the shore. They also announced and reiterated several times that you should only go if you could swim well. Otherwise, stay on the boat. I didn't feel like getting wet and having to change, so I stayed and took pictures. Still pretty neat, I'd say!
We finally made it back to the port, hopped on a gondola to go back up (thank God), and booked it back to the hotel so we could grab our stuff and get taken to the main port to catch our ferry to Naxos. I was sooo sweaty by the time we got back. Oh yeah, I'd walked the entire morning (down the steps, up the volcano, back to the hotel...) with my North Face backpack on, complete with my MacBook, my notepads, and a set of clothes. Don't ask why...
The ferry arrived on time, and after waiting in line like a herd of sheep or cattle, we made it on board, where I promptly fell asleep in my seat on the top deck as I wrote in my journal. Maggie got hers all done on the ferry as well.
An hour and a half later, with Naxos visible in the distance, I woke up, finished my journal entry, and got ready to walk the nearly one mile to our hotel. Oy vey...I walked way too much today, plus had very little food.
But Naxos has been pleasant so far, and I'm liking our hotel. It's quite the resort hotel. I'm sitting in front of the swimming pool right now, and there's a fountain splashing in the middle and a gazebo with tables and people dining nearby.
Tomorrow, I'm planning to rent an ATV (only 15 Euros here!) and go off to explore the island. Some of the others checked out the beach nearby already and said the water is warm. Since they went around 8 pm when it was already completely dark, I can only imagine what it will be like tomorrow during the day. I'm already getting quite tan and have already gotten sunburned a bit. I may get another shade darker tomorrow. We shall see.
Alright, time to go finish my reading for tomorrow's seminar. It's a chapter from Al Gore's Assault on Reason. Should be fun reading.
Toodles,
Sam
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