Santorini & Naxos

I still don't have the blogging procedure down, so please go to the bottom and scroll up to get the time line correctly. Marble is still a big industry here and has been since 700 B.C. I toured several of the old sculpting sites and unfinished works. It's impressive what someone with a little creativity and 10,000 slaves can do. This is one of the current quarries. It would be interesting to be able to take a tour of how they do this.

I am now in Naxos, two islands to the north of Santorini. I rode the boat up with a young couple from Sacramento that had spent a week here. I was going to rent a motorcycle, but it was overcast and cool so I picked up this Smart car. It's a hoot to drive with a really different transmission. I never did find the engine to see what it was, but it was spunky enough. Naxos is the largest island in the Agean group and it too seems to be quite tourist dependent. I met up with a frustrated Greek marble sculpter who had married an American, moved to her home in Oregon and then she left him. He said it had been four years since he had seen his 8 year old daughter. I thought his work was so so, but he is also a farmer with fruit trees.

This is Costos who ran the only coffee shop that was open at 7 in the morning. Everyone else waited til 10 or so to open up. Two boys, 4 and 8, and he works in the winters at a restaurant in the capital of Fira. My hotel was just down to the right.

The wildflowers on Santorinio and Naxos have been spectacular. Then toss in all of the flowers that the residents grow and its a colorful place. These red poppies were my favorite. This shot is from the excavated roman city above Perissa and it's black beach.I stayed 5 days here in Perissa on the southeast coast of Santorini. The price was still 25 Euro a night and it was just off of the beach. I walked a lot. There was an ancient roman town that had been excavated on top of the hill overlooking the sea. An hour hike to the top and 2 Euro to get in and it had lots of explanatory signs in English. I rented a bicycle one day and rode south on the beach road to the fishing marina. I had had dinner one evening with a man from Athens that also had a rental property on Santorini and then ran into him again for lunch overlooking the marina. He was riding an 1150 GS. The beach was great as well as the swimming pool and I continued to water paint. Three Rumanians ran the corner hamburger stand and they were quite informative about different parts of the EU.

This is mama of Mama's restaurant in Fira, a joyful and entertaining hostess. I had pancakes there and when she brought them to me, the top one was cracked open and showed raw dough. I brought to her attention and she exclaimed loudly, 'That bitch!" and returned it to the kitchen. I chuckled for days.

The Santorini sunsets are supposed to be the best, but without any clouds, you only get the marine layer and a hazy sunset. I spent a week here, but I'm not sure where the time went. This was the view from skallos, a rock point looking out over the caldera of an old volcano. I only spent one day and night in Fira, the capitol and largest city on the island.

Leaving Crete

Leaving Matala, I hiked Ibros Gorge as Samaria, the big hike, had not opened yet. It was a dry canyon, 8 Km long and quite green with some narrows 10 feet across and 60 feet high., almost a slot canyon at places. The taxi wanted 20 Euro to take me back up the 16 Km to the bike, but I caught a ride with a young couple from Amsterdam.

Crete was not clear to me at all. It's either on its way up or on its way down. Iraklio, where I spent last night is certainly no Portland, but it's not Trenton, NJ either. There was way too much traffic in the Center and around the port, grafiti on abandoned buildings and public buildings, but some really nice hotels and restaurants intermingled in it all.

The country is definitly a mom and pop place. No mega stores that I saw, no malls either. The restaurants always seemed like a family affair with one doing the cooking, the other out front, and usually a son or daughter working also. I saw a couple working together as tree pruners and another doing a small construction project. The hothouses seemed to have only one vehicle parked in the employee lot and I thought they must work as a couple also.

I turned in the motorcycle on Friday after falling off of it in Agios Nicoloas. Just hit the brakes a little too hard at an intersection and the front wheel slipped out. No damage except for smashing the LCD on the camera that I wear on my belt. The owner of the shop where I bought another camera recognized my MicroAge jacket as he used to work for Tandy/Radio Shack in Canada. We then discussed business a bit and he is concerned about the Greek outlook. They keep comparing today to the time before joining the EU saying how cheap things were then and how expensive they are now. I don't understand how just switching currency can do that. Men and women here smoke incessantly, second had smoke everywhere. I bought a croissant at a bakery the other morning and the store stunk of a customer's smoking cigarette rather than the desired bakery aroma.
I met and chatted with three young Somalians at the hotel in Iraklio. They were surprised I knew where Somalia was and we joked about the high jackers.
Sunday morning I took the fast ferry to Santorini. The regular ferry was much cheaper, 16 Euro vs 45, but it didn't arrive til 10:30 at night and I like to come into a new place in the daylight. Two hours later I was gazing up at this story book island. All of the travel brochures are true! The views are fabulous. Hotel rates are still at 25 Euro and I spent one night in the capital of Fira.

Matala

I am now in Iraklio, returning the rented bike to Ierapetra this evening. Then off to Santorini on Sunday. See if you can translate the greek sign using the greek alphabit. I knew my math education with all of the alphas and sigmas would come in handy someday.

Always a surprise around each corner. The sheep are frightened much more by the motorcycle than they are by a car.

The week before Easter, the whole town spruced up with cleaning windows, painting buildings, moving plants outside. You would think that Jesus was coming, but it was only the opening of tourist season. After midnight mass, the pagans came out and lit this humongous fire underneath the wicked Judas hanging from a scaffold. The men would toss in pints of gasoline that would throw up a big flare and the boys would toss in firecrackers. Then the band started up around 1 am and played til 5.

The village of Matala, where I stayed for a couple of days. If you zoom in the the rock walls on the far side of the beach, you can see the caves there. Originally Roman tombs, then used over the years by others after the Romans were evicted. German Army in WW II and the hippies in the 1960's.

Here is my trusty Sherpa. The sea is in the background. Below is the Honda 110 Scooter that I had the first day while new brakes were being put on the Sherpa. The Sherpa is much nicer.

I had a lot more to say, so now I am back in Mirtos at the restaurant of Yiannis, good red wine, good Greek music, speaks English, cooks well, and lets me use his PC. There are more restaurants and tavernas than seem necessary, but I hear it gets mobbed here in July and August. The roads here are windy and twisty for the most part, perfect for a super motard, but I haven't seen any yet. There is a surprising number of larger bikes, TransAlps, V Stroms, and R1200's. Especially considering the island is 60 Km by 300 Km, it seems an overkill. Cars are typical small European and a lot of Chinese motorcycles in the cities. Speed limits are never greater than 90 kph, or 55 mph. The highways are not well marked with numbers, but the cities are. So I just navigate from one city to the next and only got lost twice today. Never did get to where I was headed, but I think I wound up where I was supposed to be. There was a tremendous wind coming down a canyon as I was coming home. It was the stiffest I have ever seen and I had to walk the bike across the bridge. I just had to hold on until it let off a bit, then gain 10 feet or so before it cranked up again. Gas is 1.54 euros per liter which works out to $8 per gallon. So yes, the roads are rather empty. Otto

Mirtos, population 600, is mostly a tourist town with lots of rooms for rent. Most have a small refrigerator and stove and are fully furnished. My place is about 2/3 of the way down the front street.

Party group. That's my glass of raki on the table in the lower left.

My trusty Sherpa high on the mountain slope overlooking the sea. There are a lot of these roads that head up the steep slopes with flat twisties and no center line or guard rails. You just take as much road as you need and believe me, the trucks know how much a motorcycle needs. Crete is just a large ex volcanic island with peaks up to 7000 feet located within 30 miles of the coast.

People walk a lot here, but in the street as the sidewalks have been taken over by extensions to stores and the outside part of a cafe. Or a parking spot for a scooter!

Independence Day parade in Ierapetra.

This is the town band and they marched two or three times back and forth before the crowd, then positioned themselves in front of the emcee as the children marched by in review.Seems I always wind up at the end of the road at a small town before I'm comfortable. I am in a room overlooking the bay over a closed restaurant. It's still a tourist town, but it is not in season yet. 25 euros a night and a nice lady runs it. Town's name is Mirtos, with the t as in 'the', and 16 Km west of Ierapetra on the south coast of Crete , south of Agios Nikolaos. Uneventful trip, on time to New York , then an hour and a half late takeoff for Athens , but I got lucky and was bumped up to first class. I could get used to first class real easily. Arrived in Athens around 10 am Wednesday and took a bus from the airport to the seaport to see about ferries to Crete and bought a ticket for Euro 60, then walked around that part of town and had some dinner. Boarded the ferry, a quite large one, almost cruise ship size at 6 pm and took a nap. I had a cabin with two other guys, one who spoke English. Slept so-so, lots of engine rumbling, and we got into Iraklio, Crete at 5:30 am in pouring rain. I spotted a bus for Sitia, which was in the direction I wanted to go, but it only took us to the bus station where I bought a ticket for Ierapetra for Euro 10. The rain stopped after we crossed the mountains into southern Crete . This was Thursday which is Independence Day in Greece and Ierapetra was having a parade at 10:30. Met some locals and had a coffee with them while we watched the parade, mostly school kids in the parade and one band. Also a few speeches from the local dignitaries and a large contingent of Greek Orthodox priests in their high hats and beards. Left about 2 pm for Mirtos and found the room and had a great dinner on the boardwalk of baked tomatoes stuffed with rice.
I loafed over the weekend, just soaking up the atmosphere. This is a farming community once you get away from the tourist beach area. One of the main crops is veggies grown in hot houses made of plastic. Tomatoes, peppers, some bananas. Each hothouse seems to be individually owned by a family and is less than an acre in size. Very labor intensive! The produce is gathered and brought into a broker who then loads up a truck and sends it off to Germany, Russia or another central Europe country. Water is collected up on the slopes of the mountains and piped down to the coastline where the hothouses are located. At intervals, a riser comes up from the pipe and 10 - 20- meters are connected and the water is then piped above ground to the hot houses in 2-3" black hoses.

The other main crop is the ubiquitous olive tree. They are all over the gentler slopes and are all irrigated with the same miles and miles of black hoses. Part of Greece's corruption is the falsification of how many trees one has. Either the Greek government or the EU subsidizes the farmers for their olive trees. (One woman said she received 2000 euros a year for 600 trees, while they made 6000 euros selling the oil.) But no one comes out to count the trees! How ripe can it get! The woman also stated that the subsidy was due to expire in 2013 and will add to Greece's trouble. She couldn't explain the reason for the subsidy.

Greece has met and exceeded my expectations. Still a bit cool, highs in the low 70's, but riding with just a long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker. It is still what I enjoy most, just riding, stopping for coffee, talking with the locals. I did stop and several of the minoan culture spots, but they are just reconstructed piles of rock. Today, I took the back road over the pass on a rough gravel road into the plateau of Lasithi. Google that one up, if you see windmills, you have found it. The water table when I looked under one of the windmills was only three feet down. Supposedly, the whole valley floods in the winter, hence no homes or towns. Potatoes are the main crop there, so they were just getting ready to plant. I then visited a cave this afternoon and it was quite good. Enough for now. Take care, Otto

Camp La Ventana

This is Sweet Potato Jerry lounging at Lil's place. Lil doesn't sail, play volleyball or ride a bicycle. From Sault Ste Marie where it is cold and dreary, she just likes to make her home here for 5 or 6 months and be with her Baja friends. Always something to eat at Lil's gathering place and she has become a good friend of mine as well as many others.

Just a few shots to give you an idea of my life here in La Ventana. First is the MWF 8:30 Team Slime riding group which I always try to join. Anywhere from 6 to 20 riders and 10 miles or so on Monday, more on Wednesday and Friday being the killer of 15 miles. Last week we had 29 riders on a 27 mile ride. We had a sag wagon which also carried our lunches as we didn't get back til 2 in the afternoon. The desert is quite lush here with tall Cardons, the Sahuaro type cactus, Palo Verdes, Organ pipe and cholla cactus and lots of bushes that like to reach out and snag your calf. Most trails are single track that the group has cleared and marked over the years and have been given creative names such as Val's Vista, Rosemary's reef, the DanRon, the Quail trail, etc. Fairly gentle ups and downs, but some of the climbs call for the lowest gear. The desert is really quite beautiful - a different type of forest.

Volleyball is a daily activity with three courts set up. Usually three or four person teams and we play til the wind gets to strong. We usually get in at least two hours. We had a tournament the first of the month and had 12 teams of three people, a big showing. I wasn't my best for that tournament, but still fun. The restaurant across the street hosted us for an awards ceremony afterwards.

Our campground is on the north side of the village of La Ventana (the window). This shot is looking southwest and the wind blows from the north so the sailers will go crosswind out from shore and then back in to make a marvelous turn that wows the on lookers. Broken equipment and newbies get washed up on the far shore and get to walk back to camp. Thats my Explorer in the middle of the shot, next to the fence and my trailer is the two tone beige one across the road from it. I will move to front row center on Tuesday when Lil pulls out. These clouds are not typical but we do get some outrageous sun rises from across the sea. The moon also rises from the sea and the howlers are out for each full moon.

That's all for now. Otto

La Ventana

After visiting with my brother Jerry in Borrego Springs, I had an enjoyable but uneventful drive down to La Ventana. The roads were fair and the weather just right for windows down, XM up driving. Baja California not being in finance, manufacturing or construction seems to be muddling along just fine. Every one was glad to see me, the hotel clerk, the waiter, even the young military men at the check points were just curious as to where I was going. I never even opened a door for them to investigate my stuff. I'm sure it will be different going north.
My trailer was fine except for a flat tire, but the spare was good. The camp seems a little less full this year, but that was expected. It's good to see all of the gang (200 or so) with three volleyball courts and MWF bicycling.