Beautiful Santorini...

I FINALLY got to go onto land in Santorini, Greece. This is the lovely port where the white and blue houses and other buildings cascade along the side of the volcanic island. This is quintessential Greece. Most of the artwork depicted in paintings comes from a little town call Oia here in Santorini and Fira. I got off the ship as soon as I could. This was a tender port so we had to be docked at bay while the local ferries shuttled guests in from the ship. From the main land we got on a pirate ship looking boat and headed out to the volcanic island of Nea Kameni. This geological preserve is situated on top of an ACTIVE volcano. Although there wasn't magma or large amounts of steam visible, its still considered active because the lava canals with hot magma are just 4 kilometers under the surface. There are some small vents where steam does come out. The last eruption of this volcano was in 1950 and the island is mostly black rock. There was a slight hint of a burning smell while we were up there, but not a huge sulfuric smell you get when the lava is closer to the surface in other active volcanoes. The Hellenic Ministry of Culture has declared this sight and all of Santorini a "historical sight of exceptional natural beauty." We arrived from the pirate ship into the cove of the archaeological sight. We hiked up the lava rock created by various eruptions from 1920 – 1950 to the main crater of George I. This is where you can see most of the gas vents. The soil around these vents is really hot and the sights of the harbor are amazing. We walked back down to the harbor to get back on our pirate ship. The climb up and down the volcano side was truly exhausting and I was looking forward to traveling over to the hot springs area of the island. We sailed over to the area of the hot springs, but the ship couldn't dock. The Mediterranean Sea is generally warm, but as I learned yesterday it can still be cold depending on where you are and at what time of the year it is. I knew that a straight dive into the water would be a shock and pretty cold and it was. Brrr. I swam the 6 meters or so over to the hot springs area. You could tell since the water was an orange color in that area. As soon as I crossed into that orange colored water it got significantly warmer. Soon it was like bath water. At points along the more shallow points you could see where the gas was coming up from the vents below and it was so soothingly warm. The mud around that area is supposed to have healing properties and its supposed to be good for your skin. It has large amounts of ferrous minerals due to the gasses coming up from the vents. We rubbed some on our skin and bathed in the dust that was coming up into the water from below. It stained my shorts a little. It was kind of like the orange clay you find in the tropical ports. We left here refreshed, slightly dirty, and wet and headed back to the main land. From here we took the cable car up the cliff side up into town. We split for a bit while some of us tried to find a way to get to the picturesque town of Oia. On the way we found this creperie where I had an amazing blend of chicken, pineapple, and tomato in a folded crepe. Yum!! I accompanied it with a drink of cold chocolate flavored with caramel. This was sooo delicious. We finally found a cab, but it was too much and took too long to get there. We headed back into town and strolled amongst the shops before finding our other friends sitting at a lovely hill top café. I hated leaving this port today. I only wish we could stay longer.