Day 53: Santorini...By Boat!

This was my last full day in Santorini and I wanted to spend it doing one of the many boat tours that are offered here. But first I had to worry about checking out of my hotel in Parissa, getting the bus to Thira, dropping off my stuff at my new hotel, finding a travel agency to buy tickets and of course make my way down to the port to catch the tour. Needless to say, I figured I better wake up extra early today. (especially when the buses are not exactly reliable!) Luckily the bus came on time and I managed to get everything done plus walk down to the port with half an hour to spare. And guess what? You know how I thought the donkey rides up and down from the port were finished for the season? Turns out, they're not! It was a Monday when Arlyn and I did our walk...I guess that's they're day off! There were literally a hundred donkeys on the path! Even though I was tempted to hop on one of them, I decided to just walk down and then take a donkey on the way back up after my boat tour (more on that later).

The first stop on the boat tour was the volcano. We didn't have much time- only enough to walk up to the top and back down again, but it was cool to see Santorini from a different angle, plus our guide told us a lot of interesting facts! Like did you know that all of the islands of Santorini are actually just volcanos?? And all the villages on the main island (Oia, Thira, etc) were all formed by separate volcanos too!



Our next stop was the hot springs. I did bring my bathing suit but I didn't end up going in the water- for a bunch of reasons! 1) We were running late so we only had 15 minutes there. 2) the boat couldn't dock anywhere so you had to jump in the water that was around 17 degrees and then swim to the hot springs. 3) I didn't have a towel so I didn't want to deal with wet clothes, wet hair, etc. I know, kind of lame excuses but I gotta leave something for when I come back! (Update: Talked to a few people that went in- turns out the hot springs were more like "lukewarm springs"! Glad I stayed on the boat!)


We then headed to Thirassia- part of Santorini but its on its own little island. It had a steep walkway going up from the port to the village just Thira does, but our guide said that there probably weren't any restaurants open up there, so we just stayed by the water to grab some lunch.

It was then back to Thira where our tour began...and where I could finally get my donkey ride! It cost 5 euro and was definitely way cooler than taking the cable car (and way easier than walking up!) It was the funniest thing ever- being herded up this path on a donkey (which was going in every which direction, just doing its own thing!) I'm not sure if the donkeys enjoyed themselves but I had fun- and it sure beat walking the 587 steps all the way up!


Love, Dianna