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Wednesday 30 May 2007

This is your Captain, speaking from the Bridge

Santorini, Greece – May 15, 2007

I begin to wonder where else he would be speaking from…”This is your Captain, speaking from the main bar on the Lido deck. As soon as I finish my tenth margarita, we set sail for Turkey.” The photo below is a gold ibex. It is the only gold artifact recovered from the destroyed civilization.


A cruise ship carrying 1,200 went down here a month or so ago. It rests on the bottom around here somewhere in 300 feet of water. Apparently the Greek crew was watching a soccer game as they pulled into port. Here’s a great video of the big ship going down.

Santorini is an island and a white city perched on the rim of the world’s largest caldera. It erupted about 1750 BC and killed off a fairly advanced civilization. There is a theory that the resulting tidal wave exterminated the Minoan civilization on Crete 75 miles south. Another theory says this island is really Atlantis.

We’re anchored inside the 9 mile by 14 mile caldera. To get to the city you take a donkey up a twisted path, an elevation gain of a thousand feet or so. You can also walk, but mind the donkey dung. The donkey ride up is 4 euros. 90% of the tourists use the gondola ride. A few walk.

The streets of Santorini are lined with gold. The shops are open 8 AM to 12…then 4 PM to 8…longer if the cruise ships are in port.

Here are some donkey pictures.

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