Here's
a quick shot of the island Ios. Only a brief stop, as the island we were
interested in was...
Santorini!
This place absolutely rocks. The entire island is actually a volcano that
erupted
hundreds of years ago. The explosion was so powerful is pretty much
wiped out the entire Cretean empire. And it's a leading candidate for
totalling Atlantis.
All that's left of the island is a cresent moon-shaped outline with a
"donut hole" at the
very center of the volcano called the "caldera". That's it to
the left there... that darker,
low-lying hill. In the above shot we're entering the hollowed out crater.
These
Greeks are industrious, though. They continued to build towns that
balance percariously on the edges of the cliff walls. Oh, yeah... and
did I mention
that the volcano is still active?
Here's
a shot looking back where we came from, at one of the tips of the cresent.
That's the town of Oia atop the cliffs.
The
cruise liner gives a good sense of perspective here... this is one hell
of a crater.
After
our amazing entrance into the island, we caught a ride up some
absurdly
windy and steep cliff roads and found a place to stay. We also quickly
procured
another moped to serve as our primary mode of transport.
And the next day we rode it down to the south of the island, to the famous
Red Beach.
Like
another world. And it was nearly deserted.
The volcanic activity here gives Santorini three types of beaches: red,
white and black.
Chillin
out as the sun goes down.
Bad
azz .
Afterwards
we kept exploring the island. This is a great shot across the bay.
Remember, that lump in the middle is the center of the volcano... the
cliff walls
teeming with towns surround the now ocean-filled crater. So in this shot,
we're standing
on the east cliff wall looking west.
And
here's a shot from the same spot, but looking north.
