Santorini - Hiking the Caldera

Day 7-  Hiking the Caldera on Santorini

Today we took a long walk/hike along the caldera, which is the ridge on the West side of the island formed when a huge volcano erupted in the 17^th century BCE, creating a bay between part of the island and a small piece that is now in the middle of the bay area.  The caldera is actually the rim of the crater created when the volcano erupted, which now looks like a large reddish cliff rising out of the sea. The walk is really beautiful, up high along the cliffs looking down on the deep aquamarine sea with cruise ships and small fishing boats dotting the water.  There are hundreds of resorts built on the cliffs and there is a stone pathway that goes literally for miles.  At some points between villages it becomes rocky or dirt paths and for a short piece of it we were on the main road, squeezing ourselves against the hill beside us to avoid being smashed by huge tour buses and crazy motorbike riders!  We climbed up to the peak of the hill near the village of Imerovigli where there is, of course, a tiny church! 

On our way up toward the village, our guide remarked on an unusual amount of car traffic, which he said he’d never seen before.  He asked one of the drivers where they were going and it turned out that a church up on the hillside, the Church of St. Ilias (from Greek Helios, meaning Sun) were having their patronal festival today and everyone was going up there for that.  When we arrived at the church there were lots of local Greek folks there having their festival.  They invited us to enjoy the food, so we had a midmorning snack of large chunks of bread, fava soup and capers!  They also had local wine dispensed from a spigot on the wall of the back of the church social building!  Quite a nice little mid-hike treat and it was great to be away from the tourists and with local folks.  I stopped into the church, which was quite beautiful as are all these Orthodox churches and chapels.  They really go all out with iconography, candles and incense.   The people coming to the festival stopped first in the church, reverenced all the icons (they go up to them and kiss them and say a prayer at each one!!) and then they join the party behind the church.  They have picnic tables and benches out behind the church under the shade of some trees so they can enjoy their food and conversation out of the intense sun.  We continued on after our little snack and finished up at the tip of the island in the village of Oia, perched high up on the cliffs.  Part of the pathway there is all volcanic rock, deep red in color and a bit slippery to walk on.  Oia is a beautiful little village, crammed with shops, artist’s galleries, restaurants and guest houses, mansions and hotels.  Cruise ships dump thousands of visitors into the village every day for shopping and dining.  It’a a madhouse trying to negotiate the little stone passageways and every conceivable language is being spoken – I heard Brits, Germans, French, Dutch, and Korean just in the 45 minutes our guide gave us to wander about before we gathered for lunch.  In all we walked seven miles, some of it a mere stroll along stone village lanes and some of it more strenuous hiking up small mountainous terrain.  Fortunately, even though it is very hot today, the breeze along the Caldera is stiff and constant, so it keeps you cool even when you’re working hard!  Lunch was more simple today (which was fine because I was pretty full from the bowl of fava soup and bread I’d had at the church party!).  We had gyros in a little café in Oia with salad and tzadziki. 

We got a couple of hours rest back at our resort and then went into town for dinner.  We ate at a restaurant on a terrace overlooking the bay and saw the sunset from our dinner table.  We had another feast – fava dip with bread soaked in olive oil, another salad (and no two salads are ever alike here!), tomato balls (basically deep fried tomatoes with herbs and spices), and then for entrée we had chicken and shrimp in a garlic cream sauce with rice, and mushroom and cheese and white wine risotto.  For dessert watermelon, mango mousse and a very light cake the name of which is unpronounceable!  After dinner I did the shopping circuit again getting last minute gifts. 

Tomorrow we have a “free” morning.  Two of us are going with the guide on a more strenuous hike up one of the mountains at the southern tip of the island while the rest of the group are doing more relaxing sightseeing.  Then in the afternoon we fly back to Athens.