Paleohora

Saturday, June  8, 2013—Paleohora, Crete, Greece

(7:50 AM) 

Still jet laggy—fell asleep again early (around 9:30 PM) and was up at around  4:40 this  morning. Sitting in a taverna having coffee, ate in the room. Here mainly to use their “free” internet—I need to alert people back home that I made it to Crete OK …

            Had a shock here when I arrived here in Paleohora—the place is empty. I’d say tourism has dropped between 70%-90% since I was here roughly at roughly the same time of the year two summers ago. I’m getting a nice education as to what the world’s economic systems are doing to Greece—ripping its financial heart out. These islands depend on tourism to provide their people with a decent living. The situation is very grim …

Paleohora morning. Tavernas with a handful of people sitting outdoors drinking coffee, mostly locals, it seems. Cars, motorcycles, and scooters intermittently going by. Little dogs running around (some of which I recognize from my last trip here). Cool weather by summer standards, high 70s to mid-80s. Cooling breeze. A bit too much breeze—the boats out of Paleohora are not running because of the high seas. This leaves me with a decision: hang around here for a few more days mostly lying around the beach till I can get to Gavdos or start my planned hike east along the south coast, towards Frangokastello. Very much leaning towards the latter …

Monday, June 10, 2013—Paleohora, Crete, Greece

(8:00 AM)

Sunburn. Every trip it has to happen once—a consecration of stupidity. Staying out of the sun today. Wondering if I can still hike to Sougia tomorrow—perhaps as much as eight hours under the hot sun. The plan is now to hike to Sougia, then to Agia Roumeli, then to Loutro, and finally Hora Safakilon, from which I plan on catching the boat to Gavdos. Once I’m thru with Gavdos I’ll catch the boat back to Hora Safakilon and hike to Frangokastello. Then … off to Sitia to catch a boat or maybe a plane (eventually) to the northern Dodecanese, all the way to Patmos. Then I plan on island hopping my way back to Crete and exploring the eastern part of the island before I head back over to Hania and then home.

Southwestern Cretan coast—mountains meeting the sea. Little coastal shelving—tides don’t mean much here. Marginal beaches, eroded out of hillsides and cliff walls. A quick descent into cool green-blue water leading quickly to darker, much deeper water. Drought tolerant vegetation holding onto hillsides—deep root systems—browns, filmy greens, ripe plumb purples. The bleating of goats and sheep. How do all these living creatures survive? All seems waterless, save the sea …