Refreshed and relaxed after our evening boat cruise yesterday, we got up a bit earlier to do some hiking before the expected afternoon rainstorms. We enjoyed another delicious breakfast before hopping in a taxi to the coastal town of Fira to begin the Caldera hike back to Oia where we're staying. We opted to start in Fira because it's downhill to Oia. What was not clear to me is how much we would go uphill before finally heading down to Oia!

The trail starts on the streets of Fira which is a bit larger town than where we're staying. The first thing we noticed when we reached the overlook was just how far away Oia looked! Surely it was just an optical illusion and we'd be there in a couple of hours. We made our way through the streets of Fira passing many shops and hotels. Much like Oia, Fira is situated on the bluffs and the main road is the highest point as the hotels extend down the bluff. The trail isn't marked well in Fira but the instructions say to keep heading uphill. Did I mention this was the downhill version of the trail?

We passed several donkeys bringing people and cargo up the long trail to the docks below Fira. At one point the trail was washed out so we had to detour though the town of Firostefani. We had great views of the coast and could see the hot springs and some of the stops we made on the boat tour yesterday. We continued on to the town of Imerovigli. One notable feature as you look along the coast is the ruins of a fortress on Skaros Rock. The rock has a very distinctive mushroom shape. We opted to detour down lots and lots and lots of stairs to head out to the Skaros Rock peninsula. As we got closer, we could see that several people had summited the rock.

We continued along the trail until we hit a sheer rock wall. The only way to the top was to climb the ten foot wall. Keely was quite brave in facing her fear of heights and rock scrambles and climbed it like a champ! The views were amazing at the top. We had great views of all of the towns along the bluffs. It really is amazing how these towns are built down the side of the cliffs! We couldn't stay long because we wanted to beat the afternoon rain. We climbed back up the steps to Imerovigli and continued up the trail. Did I mention this was the downhill version of the trail?

As we got further out of town, we summited two large mountains with churches at the top. As we looked back, we could see the sea had changed and the rain was coming in quick. We ducked under cover in a small café along the trail to put our rain jackets on but by the time we got them out of the backpack, the rain had passed. It wasn't overly hot outside but we were quite warm so the cool rain and breeze felt good as we continued up the last climb. Finally, we started going downhill into OIa! Of course, our hotel is at the highest point in Oia so back up we went. All in all, our watches calculated 9.5 miles of hiking!

It was mid-afternoon and we hadn't eaten since breakfast so we grabbed some delicious chicken and pork gyros to go from the takeout restaurant around the corner. They were unbelievably good. If we didn't have to walk up stairs out of our hotel, we definitely would have gone back for another round but we were exhausted. We hopped in the hot tub even though it was raining to ease our aching muscles. Then it was off to dinner at Metaxi Mas.

The roads in Santorini aren't named and aren't very wide. It seems like there is barely room for one car at a time even though it's a two lane road! With the unique terrain, some roads seem to go uphill so there is a lot of shifting in this little manual transmission car we have. As we got closer to the restaurant, Google Maps told us to take a left up a very steep and narrow road. Up and up we climbed praying a car wasn't coming back down as we narrowly passed parked cars on one side and rock walls on the other. When Google told us to take the next turn up a set of stairs, we promptly parked the car and decided to walk the rest of the way. So many more stairs up to the restaurant! We should have just driven up the staircase!

Dinner was fantastic and we both agreed that if we made it back down the narrow road without crashing, this was the best meal we've had in Greece. Keely had pork over rice with a melted feta sauce and I had the spicy pork with fresh peppers and cheese. The flavors were unbelievable! Then it was back down more stairs to the car. It was a wild ride in the dark back down the narrow road to the highway but we made it safely - even passing a truck headed up the road with just inches to spare!

We leave Santorini tomorrow morning and are off to the island of Crete where we'll spend the rest of the week. We didn't get to see the famous Santorini sunsets but given the weather, we had a pretty great few days in our cave hotel.

Kevin