Santorini, Greece - Day 2

     Our second day in Santorini started off great. We walked around the corner and rented a 4 wheeler for the day. It only cost 20 Euros for the day. The guy showed us how it worked and mentioned that we should return it with the same level of gas it had in it. No problem, so off we went to the southern part of the island. Our first stop was the Red Beach. It's famous for its reddish tint from the lava rocks. We decided we'd spend the day hopping around the beaches to see if we could find one we liked. It took a little bit of a ride to get down there and we stopped along the way to snap some shots of the amazing views of the island.

     We spent an hour there swimming and soaking up the sun. There were tons of people enjoying themselves and the view. It was a little difficult to swim there because the bottom was made of large rocks, which give you nothing to balance on when the water moves you. After an hour, the beach started to get crowded and the tide was coming in and taking away what little beach there was so we decided to move on. Our next stop was further south at the southernmost point to see the lighthouse. The signs there indicated that  it was built by the Greek navy. It looked similar to the short, stumpy lighthouse we saw at Finisterre a week ago.

     After that last shot was taken of the lighthouse from afar sitting on the cliffs, we headed for a restaurant.. The motor on the 4 wheeler slowly died. We pulled over and tried to start it again but nothing. We were out of gas. This is when the guy mentioning returning the 4 wheeler with the same gas level popped back into our heads. Sometimes, the pidgin English just doesn't work. If he'd used a different word like buy or get some gas, we'd have known how low it was. The gas meter didn't really work at indicating we didn't have any gas. We parked the ATV and walked down the road to find a gas station. After only going 100 yards, we found a side of the road fruit girl who just happened to have gas. I guess she's seen this movie plenty of times. She had me empty our water bottle, then hold it together with the top half of another bottle she'd cut into a makeshift funnel. It didn't work and she spilled gas all over my hands. She let me wash them with dirty water and then charged me 3 euros for a tiny amount of gas. I would have cared more if the nearest gas station wasn't 3 miles away. Her small amount was enough to get us there. Afterwards, we had lunch and went to another beach called Vlychada. This one is famous for its black sand, which was too hot to walk on. The swimming was lovely as the bottom was sandy and shallow. It was easy to relax with the refreshing water and the captivating cliffs right along the beach.

    After an hour at the beach, we headed back to our hotel, sunburned and tired. A refreshing shower, a cold beer, and a nice meal of lamb and meatballs in Thira was a great finish to the day. Tomorrow, we are going north and to find some of the famous Santorini vineyards.

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