We signed up for a snorkeling tour yesterday. We put 10 euros each deposit. “They’ll pick you up at your hotel at 9:45 AM.” For some reason neither Carla nor I really believe someone will pick us up but we head to the gate and stand by the entrance waiting for our ride.
It doesn’t come and I head back to the office and speak to Fred. I get in trouble for not booking it with him. “This would not have happened if I had booked it.” I stand there and take it. He’s helping us now by phoning everyone. He finally gets through to someone who knows about us. It ends up the morning tour was full. The dive center had been waiting for confirmation from us. The tour agent did not complete the arrangements. They can take us for the afternoon trip and will pick us up at 1:15 PM.
At 1:00 we head to the gate to wait. There is a truck there and I see Mediterranean on the side. Our guy is early! It is a dirty truck and we get assigned two little side seats in the back. We have to dig for seat belts. They’ve never been used and they are filthy. Regardless we buckle up.
We arrive at the office and wait for the rest of the group. We will be 12 people heading out. Bobby is a nice girl from Austria. She will take the snorkelers. George is the dive master and seems to run the operation. He will take the divers. We drive to the dive center just opposite the black beach.
The black beach is small black pebbles so hot that you cannot walk on it even with flip flops. It’s like walking on hot tar. They have wooden walkways so that you can get to the sea. Beaches here aren’t that great.
We get setup with all our gear, fins, mask, snorkel and short wet suit. We don’t think we’ll need the wet suit but we are told to bring it and we can ditch it when we get to the snorkeling. We now drive to the port where the dingy is docked.
When we get to the dock, 9 of the group decide they are not going on the trip. They are traveling together and need to catch their cruise boat at 5:30. It is already near 3:00 and although George insists he will bring them back early they don’t feel they can enjoy the trip knowing they might miss their boat.
George makes arrangements to send them back. So now there is Carla & I with Bobby for snorkeling and a young German man with George for the diving. Worked out for us!
We head out on the dingy. We see the black beach, the red beach, the white beach. The names say it all. We won’t need to visit those. The dingy ride is fun. We get sprayed with salt water. I’m feeling very weathered by this point.
Our first stop snorkeling is at the caves. There are several different spots for snorkeling the caves. Due to the waves we can’t go to the best caves but these are fine. Bobby has a full length wetsuit on so we decide to leave our shorties on for the first swim.
Into the water we go. Between the wetsuit and the salt water we float very well. The water is cool. Good thing we kept our wetsuits. We swim into narrow channels and view the rocks below. The fish are sparse. We go deep enough into one cave that everything is black. You cannot see a thing. Back out we notice how blue the water is. We didn’t notice it going into the cave but after the dark you can really see it.
We get back on the boat and drive a bit to our next stop. Here we are given a croissant (with chocolate filling, yummy!) and some juice. This is our rest before the next swim. George and Bobby take the opportunity to chain smoke. (There’s way too much smoking in Greece for our comfort.)
After our break we head back into the water and swim around. We see crabs, sea sponge and a few other things. It isn’t the type of snorkeling I’ve done where you see a variety of colorful fish. It is interesting though.
One thing we’ve found in Greece is that the water is full of garbage. We’ve noticed it in several places. There is garbage floating on top, weeds, plants as well. I just try to keep my mouth closed as to not get anything inside of me.
Time to head back. We pass fishing boats and seagulls. The spray again is wetting us and making us a little chilly. Back at the dock everything is loaded onto the truck and we drive to the dive center. We hand in all our gear and wait for the drive back to our hotel. George drives us back. It’s been a long day and we are exhausted.
We both jump into the showers and clean off the salt. That was the best shower I’ve had. By now we are just in time to watch our last sunset just after 8:00 PM.
We sit outside with a bottle of wine and play Scrabble while Carla takes pictures of the sunset. We’ve had 2 close games so far. Carla won the first one. We tied the second time. Tonight I get beat - not even close. I’ll have to practice for next time!
We ask Fred to make us dinner. Carla takes the meat prepared Greek style with a sauce. I take the Greek lasagna. Dorottya, the waitress, brings us a huge Greek salad each, a basket of bread and a fried cheese (can’t remember the name now). We didn’t order any of that!
Next she brings us our dinner. My lasagna is very nice and light. It isn’t the type we have at home. It is a layer of noodles, a layer of ground beef, a layer of noodles, a bechamel sauce and cheese on top. It was so good and not heavy. That’s one thing we’ve notice here is that the food doesn’t make you feel stuffed (unless you eat too much).
Carla’s dish comes and it has meat and peas. Hmmm, seems they forgot the potatoes. Next thing we see is a huge bowl with 2 baked potatoes and carrots in it. There’s way too much food. We don’t even touch some of it.
By the time we finish eating it is past 10:00 PM. Again we are eating like the Greeks do. I couldn’t do this everyday. I don’t know how they manage to eat so late and then go to bed.
Carla hears an Irish accent and heads over to talk to the couple. They have lots to talk about. I listen for a while and then head back to our room to read. Carla follows a short while later. We are both pooped. Tomorrow is our last day in Santorini. I think we are going to take it easy and relax.