CRUISING TURKEY & GREECE - 1996
Santorini
Santorini is impressive to see from the water. There is a village perched high on the hill - you can get some idea of scale by the motorboat at the bottom part of this picture. The 2 ways up to the village besides walking are to ride a cable car or you can take your chances in the donkey rally (more about that below).
The main village on Santorini is made up of many buildings and churches of different shapes and colors. The picture to the left is JA in front of a small arcade, and the picture below is a view from one of the high streets looking over the island.
Below is a picture of the donkey path. The general idea is that you ride docile donkeys all the way from the harbor to the village at the top of the hill. The donkeys however, are carnivorous and unwilling participants. What actually happens is that you sit on your very stationary donkey looking at all the other people on their stationary donkeys wondering what it takes to make them move. If you squeeze it with your legs it bites you. If you gently encourage the donkey to go, it bites you. Eventually your donkey remembers what it did the last time it brought somebody up the hill - take off unexpectedly while running as close to the wall as possible. This maneuver shears about 3 layers of skin from your leg but at least you are moving. Just when you feel like you are getting the hang of it, all the donkeys that just finished bringing people up the hill come back down at full speed. There are no dividers on the donkey rally course, so the donkeys coming down the hill crash into the donkeys on their way up (the ones you are riding). The net effect is too much man and animal packed into a small space going nowhere fast. The donkeys bang into each other, bite each other and any human legs dangling in the melee, and make a lot of noise until they sort themselves out - this was surprisingly like our cab ride to the cruise ship. It is crazy, comical, and we would do it again in a second. Here is a picture of the donkey course:
In case you thought we made up
that story, here is a picture from the donkey rally:
