Wanna know the best part about staying in a small village located at the highest point of Santorini? The incredible, fully panoramic views. And how about the worst part? God, definitely the bus schedule. Pyrgos, the village my friends and I stayed in during our Santorini vacation in 2017, had buses come by every hour. Or so it promised. Because, on the day when we had planned to go to the volcano, the bus literally never came.
We had been waiting for over an hour in the sun when we finally decided to give up and put off our volcano excursion, heading to Oia instead to see that majestic sunset a second time (I'll be writing more about that in a future post). The following day - it was a Sunday - we put on our comfortable clothes and our expendable swimwear and caught the bus to Fira. Yes, thankfully this time it decided to show up.
We wandered around Fira, the picturesque capital town of the island, which is almost entirely built on a cliff, and made our way to the cable car - we had to go up a looooot of stairs. The queue for the cable car was long so we decided to grab some frozen yogurt from a nearby shop. We told the employees that we were going to the volcano, and the guy told us he had ruined his swim shorts when he first went there. You might have noticed I said "expendable swimwear" earlier; we were going to swim in sulfur water!
The ride with the cable car gave us an impressive view of Fira and some clogged ears. It dropped us off at the old harbour (the new one is where the big ferries and cruise ships arrive, and it's called Athinios). After a bit of research, we embarked on a ship named "Albatros" and headed to the volcanic islands of Palea Kameni and Nea Kameni.
Our first stop was in Palea Kameni, at the sulfurous hot springs. We were sailing by the black lava rocks as the atmosphere began to smell of rotten eggs. From afar, we could make out a little gulf where the blue of the Aegean sea gradually faded into a deep, rich yellow. When we had finally approached it enough, we were allowed to dive into the yellow water and get ourselves smeared with some sulfurous mud - it is said to have healing properties. It was definitely an experience unlike any other!
The boat continued its route and took us to the island of Nea Kameni. Our tour guide explained to us that the current shape of the island of Santorini dates back to a biblical volcanic eruption in the prehistoric times, which practically wiped out the Minoan civilization in Crete. The source of the eruption was the volcano in Palea Kameni, which is now inactive. On the contrary, the one in Nea Kameni has erupted a few times in modern history, and we would get to hike on this active volcano.
We made our way climbing the solid black lava and, after a walk of about 20 minutes in that lunar scenery, we discovered the main crater of the volcano, as well as other openings bursting with sulfur steam. I felt like I was in a different dimension - this place looked otherworldly. We took some amazing photos on lava rocks and in front of the crater, and strolled around on this wildly beautiful little island.
Whenever I hear that someone is planning to visit Santorini, the first thing I say is usually "don't miss the volcano!" It was a breathtaking experience, and I was very fortunate to have lived it with some of my favorite people (pictured).
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(photo by some random stranger who was in the tour with us)