Island Boat Tour

On day six of the great Greek adventure we hopped on a boat that resembled a pirate ship carrying translators speaking French, Romanian, German and English.  

At something like £26 for the day, we were whisked around to various points of leisure--Nea Kameni and its active volcano, the hot spring, the island of Thirasia and then over to Oia to view one of its spectacular sunsets.  

Stop One: Nea Kameni 

Just off the main island of Santorini, we encountered the active volcano that is Nea Kameni.  More excitingly, we discovered a group of eastern european travelers who used the stunning caldera backdrop as their own amateur glamour shot studio.  We may have taken this to our advantage and took a series of mick-taking pictures ourselves: 

Volcanic rocks 

the yogi 

the thinker 

the penguin 

windswept

the model

Stop Two: Hot Springs 

For our second stop the boat steered us in the direction of the hot springs, located to the northwest of nea kameni.  The boat chugged to a stop and we walked the plank--six feet into the murky sulfur-filled water.  After a laborious swim, the water began to warm and we made it to the mouth of the springs--an even murkier bottomed lagoon filled with at-times scalding hot water and yellowy-orange mud.  It was pure delight.  

Stop Three: Thirasia 

We then motored over to the island of Thirasia that once belonged to mainland-island Sanotrini and now stands as a remote fishing village.  We had the option to climb the 400 stairs to the top but after the previous day's debacle, we opted to hang out on the main strip and catch some sun.  

Church built into the rocks 

delight 

restaurant on stilts 

Man v. Crawfish

Stop Four: Oia 

Nothing overwhelming happened until the end when we tried to dock in Oia but were met with tempestuous seas that violently rocked the boat from port to starboard.  This didn't disturb the Romanian woman merrily eating her ice cream cone--until she finished it, of course.  Paul turned the colour of his shirt however, and after several attempts, our boat made the decision to turn back to Fira and dock there.

                                     

We eventually made it to Oia to catch another stunning sunset.  And the boat trip was definitely worth the money.