Santorini

We got up early so we could see the ship arriving at Santorini, which is a complex of 5 islands. The main one we visited today has 25000 residents,
3 are uninhabited with dark lava at the base and white pumice at the top.(One of these is an active volcano..last activity in 1950)
The other island is called Little Santorini and has 300 inhabitants.
Santorini is a caldera.. (which our guide defined as the area of land and sea created around a volcanic crater after an eruption) . Originally Santorini was circular but after the volcano exploded around 1650BC the centre sank leaving a ring of islands.
The ash layer crater created an excellent building material that when mixed with lime becomes very strong. This was mined and used in building the Suez canal, the Port of Alexandria among other things.
Our first stop was the tiny town of Megalochori, a village of 500 people, famous for its clocktowers and pistachio trees.. all the homes have heavy wooden doors originally for safety against pirates.
As we drove through the countryside our guide told us Santorini has over 600 churches.. most of them family owned. Most locals own their own family church
70% of the island's agriculture comes from grape vines.. they don't get watered, just absorb water at night, and are pruned low to the ground in a basket shape to protect the grapes from the high winds. They also have fava beans, pistachio, fig, olives.
Santorini has no rivers or lakes, so they only use rain water, but have very little rainfall, water is imported from Crete.
Next stop was Oia- the most picturesque village in Santorini. It was the first major port till after the 1956 earthquake. We wandered the cute streets for a couple of hours. Then headed to Fira, the capital (as opposed to Thira, the official name of the island)
Trev and I decided to brave the local buses and find our way to the other side of the island to Perissa, a beach with black volcanic sands. It was novel.. but it's not like our Aussie beaches 😊 Worth the trip though to meet some locals and see the non touristy bits of the island.Read more