Into the 5th

Our hotel in Fira, Santorini

On August 7, Mike and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. We were supposed to go parasailing at the Perivolos Beach but it was too windy. I called Costas from Wavesports twice checking on the weather. It was negative. Therefore we decided to walk to the nearby village, Imerovigili. In the afternoon, we took the bus to Oia in the north of the island. Oia is supposed to have the world's best sunset. Oia itself was very pretty and had multiple Greek Orthodox churches in the typical white body and blue dome. We waited at the top of the caldera patiently for sunset. The cliff side view of Oia town was even prettier than that of Fira. There were windmills among all the little white traditional houses. Oia's blue domes. It was breathtaking, the white walls and blue domes against the blue sky and blue sea. Everyone said Santorini was the most beautiful Greek isle of all. I saw it immediately. Oia itself was less busy and more quaint than Fira, the latter being the capital of Santorini. All the bus transfers are in Fira so traffic to Oia or the red and black sand beach in the south of the island all starts in Fira. If you prefer quieter nights and nicer village view, then Oia is the place to stay. We were glad that we stayed in Fira because of the convenience and more stuff happening but nothing beats the cliff side view of Oia.
Sunset was beautiful and romantic on Oia's sunset point but we really could have seen the same just from our terrace in Fira. It was a mad scene on the sunset point. People started waiting around 6 PM and the normal sunset time is a quarter past eight.
On August 8, not giving up with our parasailing plan, I called Costas again. What a joy when he said "Yes Lei. Today is OK." We took the next bus from Fira to Perrisa and landed on the black sand beach of Perivolos. In front of the Chili Bar, Costas was fixing his boat. A warm greeting later, we doned our life jacket and were out to sea.

When we were far away from the beach, we walked up to the bottom of the boat and were individually hooked up to a steel bar that would hold both our weight. The bright red parachute was already open behind the boat, swinging in the air with the word "Chili" on it. Costa was driving the boat and his helper released the rope initially tied to the boat. The parachute went up in the wind taking us with it side by side under the steel bar. The wind was strong and in no time, we were above the sea about 300 meters. We could see the beach afar, some houses on the island but mainly the dizzying blue whirlpool of sea below us. We kissed in mid air.




The boat twisted and turned and broke through waves. A few minutes later, we started to descend, so close to the water, I started to wonder what was going on. Then suddenly we were dropped and my bottom dipped into the cold sea. I screamed with excitement. The next second, we were lifted all the way and up we went again straight into the air. Costas did this trick three times while swirling the boat so that we would drop, dip, turn and shoot up again. On the real landing, we were pulled back to the boat. It was very soft, we were able to both squat for a half second then stood up with the parachute still lifting our bodies.


We then went jetskiing. The water was extremely chopping because of the strong wind. I held on to Mike for dear life. The wave runner hit all the big waves and sometimes we were so high in the air, we bounced far from the seat, we'd drop so hard back down that I thought we'd bounce off into the waves. The sea water was all over my face. I had to close my eyes half the time to avoid the sting.

Back to the beach, I could hardly stepped into the blisteringly hot black sand. It was the lava sand that absorbed so much heat under the sun. Everyone on the beach was on a lounge chair. It would be impossible to lie down on the sand here.

Every morning over breakfast, we looked at the cruise ship docked in front of the Big Volcano. Boats came back and forth sending loads of passengers to Fira. During the day, the town is incredibly busy.

We spent a good part of the first two days of our fifth year of marriage at Enigma over Fira's caldera, chill'n and enjoying each other's company. I even, for the first time of any of my travels, finished reading a book. One third at least in the jaccuzi tub on the terrace overlooking the volcanos, cruise boats floating and the georgous Fira town. It dawned on me that the success of marriage (in my shallow experience), maybe is simply sharing and wanting to share.