I didn’t know a lot about Santorini earlier than my then-toddler started to see Dr. Finkleman. Whereas he was a superb pediatrician and appeared to like his work, all he ever wished to speak about was Santorini. The blue of the ocean, the blue of the skies. Principally the blue. By way of Dr. Finkleman, I discovered just a little about its historical past. Or maybe I ought to say its thriller.
I discovered it was maybe the place the place the misplaced metropolis of Atlantis had fallen into the ocean and that Plato talked about it in his writing, noting it had disappeared 9,000 years in the past. I additionally knew that specialists believed that Plato had added an additional zero — maybe the primary recorded typo. 9 hundred years in the past, as an alternative of 9,000, would have put the disappearance of Atlantis at precisely the time when an eruption created its huge crater and awe-inspiring cliffs.
Volcanoes usually are not one thing I’m usually drawn to as I’m to, say, a Caribbean seashore or a Parisian café. And swimming within the crater of 1 wasn’t precisely on my bucket checklist. However I’m drawn to journey and to tales. As we had been trying over the assorted excursions supplied aboard Windstar’s “Treasures of the Greek Isles” cruise, “Crusing the Caldera” appealed to me. The outline — plunging into the inexperienced sulfur waters and a Greek lunch served on board — was alluring. The Atlantis thriller made me suppose that different tales like it could bubble up from the underside of the caldera’s sea flooring.
So on that June morning with a small clutch of like-minded passengers, we boarded our catamaran named the Odyssey (what else!). As we unmoored and commenced our mild sail, our pretty information, a younger Greek lady named Vaso, defined to us what a caldera is. Principally it’s the crater of an extinct (or maybe simply dormant) volcano that’s full of water — in different phrases, an inactive volcano (one hopes). In Italy, a part of the Bay of Naples is a caldera. We’d traveled there lately and discovered about it, a miles-long fissure known as Campi Flegrei that, had been it to erupt, would ooze sufficient magma to fill 80 million Olympic-size swimming swimming pools, in line with one scientific report. The Campi Flegrei caldera has been within the information recently due to seismic exercise — sufficient to maintain residents in close by cities on edge and with suitcases packed, and to have vacationers cancel their Airbnbs.
Again to Santorini! The caldera beneath the cliffs of Santorini had been shaped 3,600 years in the past in 1600 B.C. when the volcano on the middle of what was as soon as an enormous island erupted, basically wiping out Minoan civilization. The Minoans had sailed to Santorini from Crete round 3000 B.C. and so they vanished after the eruption. However, as Vaso informed her rapt viewers of 12, together with two youngsters, it stays an archaeological thriller that no human stays had been ever discovered at what is called the traditional website of Akrotiri. Vaso’s story had me remembering Dr. Finkleman’s tales about Atlantis. Did the Akrotiri individuals depart lengthy earlier than or did they’ve some warning and had been capable of flee? It’s attainable that nobody will ever know and in some sense the thriller solely provides to its magnificent attract.
We sailed the perimeter, with the large cliffs of the caldera rising and encircling us, previous Nea Kaimeni (New Burnt Island), one of many nonetheless smoldering volcanic cones of the caldera —in different phrases, inactive however not extinct, which is a crucial distinction. Right here we stopped for a swim within the thermal springs across the close by Palea Kaimeni (Previous Burnt Island). We dropped anchor and those that wished to take action jumped into the nice and cozy waters and floated round. That was what I’d signed up for and in I went.
The water unusually went from being very heat to chilly, and different vacationers and I joked about this. The underwater thermal springs bubble up, creating these heat patches, the equal of a Swedish bathe that goes from sizzling to chilly and again once more. The thermal springs are only a reminder that there’s nonetheless exercise down there.
I don’t know the way lengthy we swam. Whilst I drifted, time drifted away. I lay, paddling on my again, trying up on the pure blue sky Dr. Finkleman informed me about so way back.
Again on board we had been supplied glasses of chilled Greek wine. There was white and rosé, a pleasant choice. Quickly we had been shifting slowly alongside once more. I used to be struck by the smoothness of our little sail, the sweetness of the day, and a gentleness I’ve hardly ever felt as if I had been being cradled by the caldera.
About 20 minutes later we pulled right into a cove the place there was a home and some makeshift constructions together with two little boats. They had been each vibrant yellow. One seemed to be a coated dinghy, maybe used for ferrying forwards and backwards from the mainland. The opposite was an elegantly appointed gondola with purple trim and a white cover, lovingly designed. “That is the house of Sostis,” Vaso informed us. After which she informed us Sostis’ unhappy story.
Years in the past, Sostis met an Italian lady who was visiting Santorini. They fell in love and determined to marry, however after a time the lady returned to Italy. Bereft, Sostis moved to this cove the place he remained all these years, awaiting her return. The yellow gondola with the purple trim was the ship he constructed for her return. Sostis lived roughly as a hermit for a few years till lately. When he turned 75 and have become ailing, he relocated to the mainland, which apparently his household had been begging him to do for years. Nobody is aware of if he’ll ever return or what is going to turn out to be of his yellow boats.
Right here we took one other swim — although this time the waters had been cooler with no heat water effervescent up. After we received again on board, lunch was served. We’d already been having fun with that Greek wine and it saved flowing as we dined on a ramification of yogurt, tomatoes, a scrumptious Greek salad and rooster kebabs that had been ready on board. We every took our plates and perched ourselves both on deck or across the eating desk within the shade. We went to the bow and joined a household of 4 who made room for us. The kebabs had been juicy, the salad contemporary, the wine chilly and scrumptious.
Vaso had yet another shock for us earlier than we docked at noon. We handed one other inlet the place there was a tiny church. “This,” she defined, “is the Church of the Seven Holy Younger Males.” This church pays tribute to seven younger Christian males who lived in Ephesus when the Romans conquered the realm and required everybody to desert Christianity and undertake the Roman gods as their faith. The seven younger males refused and sought refuge in a cave the place the Romans discovered them and sealed the cave, leaving the boys to starve. Legend says that the boys didn’t starve. As a substitute they slept for 200 years and solely woke when Christianity was restored within the nineteenth century.
Then we made our means slowly again to the dock. In reality I didn’t need this journey to finish. If we needed to sail all day — or as within the Odyssey, for 10 years — I’m unsure I’d have objected. I may see how this place of thriller and wonder may evoke tales of unrequited love, heroes and martyrs. And I may envision Dr. Finkleman, who ultimately retired to this place, reveling every morning in all this blue.