Burros...

I feel that I should pause for a moment and mention how wonderful the Cambridge weather has been since we got back from our travels. Today is a balmy 75F, and the sun is shining in all its glory. I hung soaking wet laundry outside on the line, and it was dry within hours. Hallelujah! When it's rainy, it takes days to wash and dry multiple loads. The sun isn't the only thing that has busted out of hiding; people are coming out of the woodwork from all directions. It's like the population of Cambridge has tripled. The streets are much more active and full. Spring has finally sprung - just in time for summer. It's fun to see so many punters on the river and sun-bathers on the greens. I'm not particularly fond of the resurgence of the booty shorts phenomenon that I witnessed last October, but I'll deal with some unflattering garments if it means an improvement in climatic conditions. In a somewhat related note, there are progressively more hours of sunlight these days. The sun pops up over the horizon at quarter til 5:00am and dips down below the horizon again a little over 16 hours later around 9:15pm. Compare that to a sunset around 4:00pm during winter! Crazy.

Anyway, back to Santorini! We scheduled an excursion to the volcano and hot springs for our second full day. It only cost 20 euros per person to book the boat transportation from the port to the volcano, from the volcano to the hot springs, and back to the port. (As we would find out in Switzerland, tourism in Greece is mere pocket change compared to the outrageously skewed expenses in the chocolate and cheese capital.)

After parking and walking to the edge of Fira, it was time to walk down a few hundred steps to the port. This was a view down the cliff. That tiny boat down there is similar to what we rode on.

Once we finally reached the bottom, we tried to find our ship. We should have known that we had planned too far ahead by Greek standards and had arrived too early. But, it gave us time to lather on some sunscreen and take a motion sickness preventative pill. After being undressed by the eyes of the boat captains (they were not shy about staring), I was ready to board our vessel and high-tail it to the volcano.

All aboard! The Trifecta were probably among the youngest passengers. We were joined by an entertaining group of elderly French folk and a few fellow Americans.

The views grew more spectacular as we shoved off.

They were excited to visit a volcano. Brynne missed the yellow memo though. Since this was such a lovely picture, I asked Jordan if she would take one of Matt and me.

Then Miss Oblivious stepped right in front of the camera. Yeah... Never mind about getting that picture I wanted.

Pulling into the harbor at the foot of the volcano, I thought we'd been transported back in time. I kept waiting for a hokey fake pirate ambush. No such luck.

As we dropped anchor, our lovely tour guide let us know that it actually cost a couple more euros to step foot on the volcano. Something about it being a protected national park. Nothing like a last minute announcement. But as I said before, Greeks seem to like last minute.

Whatever, onward and upward. I'm not 100% convinced that this was an active volcano. The "craters" appeared to be ditches that could easily have been dug by a backhoe. Nevertheless, it was neat to see the cities atop the cliffs from a different perspective.

We hiked to pretty much every corner of the volcano, which felt arduous at the time due to the heat, the incline, and our sandals. But, compared to the 5.5 hour Swiss mountain climb from Hades a week later, this gravel path looks like child's play. Stay tuned for that story. It's a doozie.

My long-legged hubby had no problem scaling this trail. That's him all the way up there in the blue shirt and orange swim trunks.

Meanwhile, the ladies were down here. Clearly enjoying ourselves.

When we finally did make it to the top, it was entertaining to see that Miss Oblivious brought Wishbone with her. She even hoisted him to the perfect spot for his own little photo shoot. I wasn't feeling vindictive (or energized) enough to step in front of her camera for some payback. Plus, the doggie did look pretty cute up there. I didn't want to ruin his moment or steal his thunder.

On the far side of the volcano, we caught a glimpse of the next stop on our boat tour - the "hot" springs. More on that in a second.

I mean, come on now. A sailboat? Too perfect.

All too soon (but not really too soon because we were ready to go) we were again on the boat. Destination: hot springs. We rode the ginormous waves Titanic style on the bow of our indomitable schooner, and the elderly French folk got a kick out of the way we were subsequently soaked by the frigid spray.

As we were slowing into the cove, our tour guide had another lovely last minute declaration for us. "Oh by the way, you have to swim like 50 meters in 30 foot waters to the spring because we can't park the boat that close. And one more thing, the hot spring is only a few degrees warmer than the water you will swim through to get there. So if you have asthma or suck at swimming, don't do it."

At this point, I was seriously debating whether it was worth it.

For one older gentleman, it wasn't a question. He came to swim. He unabashedly began disrobing in front of Brynne. Keep in mind, this man was at least 65 years old. I almost keeled over laughing when he stripped down to a speedo and practically sat on Brynne's lap as the rocking motion of the boat caused him to lose his balance. But by golly, I'll be darned if that very old man wasn't the first one to dive in while the rest of us stood on deck like a bunch of wussies. As we all watched in amazement at his aquatic agility, the guy from Baltimore standing next to us proclaimed, "If that old guy's doing it, you have to!" Truer words were never spoken. And off the side we jumped. Kinzie did a nice cannonball. The water in the spring was indeed slightly warmer than its surroundings. It had a bunch of red dirt floating in it, which Baltimore guy's wife informed us would be good for our skin. Sadly, we weren't confident enough in our swimming abilities to keep the camera above our heads as we made our way to the springs. So we don't have pictorial proof that we did it. But, we did take a picture upon returning.

That's the stuff memories are made of.

And that concluded our volcanic adventure. It was time to head back to shore for some lunch. We ate at the base of the cliff in the port area and planned our ascent back to civilization. We sure as heck weren't about to climb back up the hundreds of stairs we had descended that morning. Which left us with two options: cable car or donkey. Given that both choices were practically the same price, donkeys won. Naturally.

Kinzie wasn't all too keen on this particular mode of transportation. She was insistent on riding a donkey that was her size. She didn't want one of the massive horse-donkey creatures to buck her off the cliff. We were all cracking up as she made it clear to man in charge that she needed a tiny, sweet one. "Look me in the eyes," she told him, "I need a baby donkey. BABY!" This translated to her being tethered to the herder's donkey and riding at the back of the pack.

She was a champ. Smooth ride all the way up.

Brynne, on the other hand, probably had the biggest horse-donkey cross breed. And it had a full bladder.

Jordan's donkey was the only one that took off on a gallop up the slippery stairs. It wanted to nudge Brynne out of the way and take the lead. Jordan definitely squealed/screamed.

Matthew had more fun than he'll admit. He nicknamed his equine friend White Lightning.

I had no complaints about my burro. We bonded when I so gracefully mounted him and almost kicked his owner in the face.

And just in case you were wondering what the first person perspective looks like when riding a donkey up a cliff in Greece, here you go. They have very soft ears.

Although we felt slightly guilty that perhaps we had contributed to some version of animal cruelty, it was quite fun. As soon as we reached the top and said goodbye to our furry companions, the whole lot of them turned right back around. Up and down. All day long. What a life. Poor donkeys. I think they seek revenge in their downward stampedes.

You better watch out if you are in their path. They ain't stoppin' for nobody.

In a few minutes we were saying goodbye to Fira, and loading into our incredibly small car. We wanted to show the girls the red rocks and windy cliffs of Akrotiri.

I can never think of clever enough captions for pics like these. So pretty I lose my wit.

Red beach, round two. It was more burnt sienna than red, I must say.

That's right, we did a Theta kite pic. We're "Greek." I guess we looked ridiculous because another tourist came up behind Matt and took our picture while we posed. Fella probably thought this was some sort of ancient symbolism. Either that, or sororities are totally an American thing that foreigners don't understand. The Trifecta said that they saw other Thetas in practically every city they visited. We met some from Virginia while in Interlaken, Switzerland, as well.

The last pit stop before sunset was a nearby light house. We hit a bit of unexpected traffic on the way.

I know this is horrible quality, but it was spur of the moment. Ready for my corny joke of the day? Why did the chicken cross the road?

Answer: To get to the other side and use its ninja beak as climbing equipment. Seriously, the chicken pecked its way up that steep edifice. I don't know where it was going, but it sure seemed desperate to get there.

To be honest, the lighthouse itself wasn't all that special. But its setting was fairly spectacular.

As always, Matthew had a good time walking as close as he could to the edge while I watched in horror.

The Trifecta weren't too concerned. Or impressed, apparently. I think they were plum tuckered out. I was surprised they even made it back to the car before lapsing into a narcoleptic state.

Jordan just barely opened her eyes as she heard the click of my shutter. 

All this talk of sleep is making me, well, sleepy. <Yawn.> Guess I'll have to save the sunset in Oia pictures for the next post. And after that, Mykonos! Ta ta for now.