Europe 2022 – Santorini Day 11

We spent a good part of the day sailing on the south and west part of the island.

We booked the tour from the host of the AirBnb (which they booked from this website: https://www.santorinivipsailing.com). The port was from the Vlychada marina (south part of the island).

Along the way, the captain pointed out the Red Beach, which looks like there are two entrances. He said one of them is really dangerous because one of the rocks on the path could break off at any time.

After, we continued along the way westward before we started going up north towards the caldera (aka the mouth of the volcano). What I learned from this is that the caldera is under the water (boat was on top of it), and it spirts little bit of lava every year, and a part of a new land is formed on the caldera island (not sure of its actual name). The volcano is what made Santorini. Another fun fact is that like magnet, the rocks from the lava are made of iron, so that is why they are red (because they rust… apparently from the inside).

By the way, all the sand beaches in Santorini are in the southern part of the island, and also near the airport.

Note: always make sure you have enough cash with you to pay for the excursions (ended up paying with a mix of euro and American dollars).

After the boat ride, we checked into our new AirBnb (also in Thira) which is right by the water cliff. (Could also book it probably off AirBnb. The place we stayed at is called the Porto Fira Suites).

An EDIT from my previous post. Although the AirBnb closer to the water is pretty sick because of the water pool and view, it is a good flight of steps lower, so it’s a bit more of a walk up if you want to get anything.

After getting settled, stopped by McDonalds to get a bunch of chicken nuggets, then shopped around for a bit.

Found some sun glasses from a company called Blackfin that I plan on looking up later (see pic below).

For dinner, we wanted to try some Gyros, so we went to a recommended place called Luckys. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/08/04/luckys/

We ate dinner at the Airbnb. Afterwards, spent the rest of the night at the Airbnbto take golden hour pics, playing some games and hot tubbing.

Hawaii – Kona Day 2

Spent most of the day going to the Volcano part of the island (central east), which is a 2 hour drive away. We went with Dersu and Elsa (Dersu had been there before).

From that drive, had some really cool views of the island (as the highway is basically along the coast), from different trees to rocks and soil that was former lava.

When we got to the Volcano (Kaluapele Kilaeua Caldera), we first stopped by the steam vents, and then went to the Kilaeua Overlook (a 1.6 mile hike). We then went to the Thurston lava tube (the Kilauea Ili trail), which had an awesome crater made from lava (and following the trail was marked by these stacked stones). This took us all the way until sunset.

After getting back we had taco Tuesday at Janie’s place.

http://travel.johnmatienzo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/img_6701.mov