Leaving Santorini

The next day I moved on to a hotel in Fira, the main town on the island.  I have a beautiful little family run hotel with a pool, two blocks from the main square, for 40 euros a night.  This was an amazing find, as you can spend $000s on hotels here, if you want a cave with a caldera view.  There are many shops here, some very high end ones for the cave and cruise ships crowd, but also more mainstream ones.  Two of my new friends from the group and I had dinner at a restaurant on the edge of the caldera to see the sunset again.  Its the thing to do here!   On my last day in Santorini, I went on a volcano and hot springs boat tour.  I took the cable car down to the port, where I got on a boat packed to the rafters, at least 120 people.  It took us to the active center of the volcano where we hiked up the black rocks for half an hour to the highest point, where some fissures release the heat.  Scientists collect data to predict when there might be another eruption (its been about 40 years since the last one) and we were told that they would know a year in advance so we are completely safe, but as I always say  – famous last words. We got down the volcano without my prediction coming true, then back on the boat went to an inactive volcano with hot spring waters on its edge.  We jumped into the cold ocean water, then swam to the brown waters on the edge of the rocks.  I gave myself a facial with the mud in the rocks, if what they say is true I now look 20 years younger, or about 9 years old. We returned back to the port, where I had to decide how to get back up to the town from the port.  There are three ways – you can walk up 599 steps,  take the cable car, or ride a donkey.  After checking out the donkeys, which are advertising to be very well treated, I treated myself to the ride up.  They are actually big healthy mules, with the odd real donkey thrown in for small people.  I was at the end of a group of about 20 people, followed by a man on a donkey yelling all the way, more at us than at the mules who easily trotted up the steep steps.  People walking down were pushed to the sides as we made our way up.  My mule stopped far below the top people, so I had to make my way up behind the dozens of mules along the side on the path with their backs to me.  I kept thinking  – kicks like a mule – as I made my way past them, but they were all very well behaved.   Last night on this magical island, I went to a nearby restaurant where the waiter bought me a drink.  And he looked like Mick Jagger (well, kind of).   5 am start the next day, taking a short and expensive flight (where do they put an airport on this tiny island?) to Athens, then home to Canada, and finally Regina, where we have the greatest sunsets in the world.  Really.