[COPY] Aegean Gem, Atlantis & the Boss Donkey
Expect the Unexpected
The Poseidon sailed into the harbor and anchored right on schedule. Our itinerary for the day was simple - be back on the ship by 7:00 PM. We had two options for returning from town to the boarding dock; catch a bus that left every twenty minutes or, ride a donkey down the 400-foot drop that zig-zagged from the rim of the caldera.
Donkey? Ride a donkey from way-y-y up there? You betcha. Sign me up for that ride.
The Greek Island of Santorini is inhabited by 15,000 permanent residents and over 30,000 donkeys and mules. The most photographed island in the Aegean, Santorini receives over two million visitors every year.
With a total land area of only 29.34 square miles, the Greek island might be small, but it has a gigantic impact on those fortunate enough to visit it. Looking at the Aegean paradise of Santorini today, it is hard to believe that prior to the late 1970s it was just a small island occupied by poor peasants struggling to maintain a meager lifestyle and its tourist industry was non-existent.
In the early morning hours of July 9, 1956, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake tore through Santorini, leaving a wake of injuries, death, and devastation behind. Later the same day a 60-foot tsunami slammed the island, adding to the horrific demolition and bringing the final death toll to 53. By sundown, over 85% of the buildings and homes on Santorini were either damaged or leveled to heaps of rubble.
Shortly after the epic event, there was a mass EXODUS from Santorini. I wonder why? Was it fear of another catastrophe? Or, was it the fact that their already impoverished existence had changed into a mission impossible? Either way, they jumped into their boats and rowed out of town. The younger, more ambitious of the refugees kept on row-row-rowing their boats to find work in destinations all over the world.
The young people from Santorini had their eyes opened and their socks blown off by the abundance of opportunity they encountered in the world away from their small island homeland. The youngsters compared notes and began developing entrepreneurial visions to put Santorini on the map as a worldwide tourist destination.
They returned to Santorini, rounded up their donkeys, and went to work turning their visions into reality. The brawn and determination of Santorini's hardworking people and donkeys helped create the island into the beautiful Aegean gem it has become.
By 1979 tourists from around the globe started flocking to Santorini.
Many of Santorini’s buildings are perched along the inside rim of the Thera volcano’s caldera. After the acclaimed Minoan eruption of Thera, circa 1600 BC, half of the volcano’s caldera remained thrust out of the water, while the other half was submerged below the water. Water gushed into the volcano after the eruption, so what you see in the above photo is NOT the Aegean Sea. It is actually the water-filled half of the volcano’s caldera. Clear as mud, huh?
Built along the inside rim of a volcano? Is it an ACTIVE volcano? Yes, it is. The most recent eruption was in 1950. Since then it has been known to gurgle, sputter, spew, and groan a bit. Occasionally a new “island” pops up to keep things from getting too mundane out there in Craterville. Santorini was rebuilt on the rim of the same caldera, on the same unstable foundation comprised of aspa, a mixture of volcanic ash, pumice, pieces of lava, and sand.
Life goes on, business as usual, for another day in Santorini. God willing.
The view from Oia, situated along the northwestern edge of the caldera, is breathtaking. It is impossible to walk along the quaint winding pathways and not be captivated by the beauty and simplicity of the white stone buildings with the sapphire blue doors and trim work.
What is the deal with all those white and blue buildings?
Did the paint surplus store in Athens make the Good Folk of Santorini a deal they absolutely could not refuse on white and blue paint?
Was Santorini struck with a severe epidemic of untreated CCD? (Chronic Copycat Disorder).
Perhaps Mrs. Santorini was a clean freak and insisted that her house glisten snow-white in the brilliant sunshine.
As zingy as these ideas sound, they might not have been too far-fetched.
Santorini’s buildings were made of the natural dark stone that was abundantly available on the island. Unless this stone was whitewashed, it absorbed the intense heat of the summer sun and the buildings warmed up like HOT ROCK OVENS. Whitewash helped scatter and reflect the heat away from the stone, thereby keeping the buildings cool and comfortable. Whitewash was a form of natural air-conditioning per se.
Whitewash was inexpensive, the peasants could make it simply by mixing limestone, salt, and water. Bonus! The limestone base gave it a disinfectant quality that helped combat cholera. A good stir with a wood stick and the whitewash was ready to slap onto the house. Couldn’t get any easier than that!
Mrs. Santorini wanted a sapphire blue door? No problem. She could mix her favorite household cleaning product called “loulaki” into the whitewash solution and - Presto Chango - it turned sapphire blue! And, on special occasions, Mr. Santorini brought left-over blue paint home from the boat docks. All the boats were painted signature sapphire blue. Paint from Athens, of course.
Mrs. Santorini was a happy woman when her dark hot stone, disease-prone house was transformed into a new temperature-controlled, healthy, sparkling snow-white treasure with a sapphire blue door and window trims. You go, Mrs. S!
From 1579 to 1832 AD. the Ottomans ruled Santorini and they were very snarky about anyone flying the Greek flag. So the Good Folk of Santorini banded together and made a collective universal statement to the Ottomans. ALL the buildings on the island were painted white and blue, the colors of the flag of Greece. Every single building was a flag unto itself. Strong message to you, Ottomans.
One thing for certain, the white and blue buildings have made Santorini an icon of the Greek Isles.
Sitting on the edge of the caldera, enjoying the ambiance of Santorini, it is easy to see how it has been designated as one of the five possible locations of the lost city of Atlantis that Plato wrote about in 360 BC.
Atlantis was referred to as a naval empire that ruled the known world. Plato described it as an example of the “ideal state.” Its inhabitants were very wealthy, prosperous, and apparently thoroughly stuck on themselves. Narcissists and egotists the whole lot of them! They thought they had the world by the tail and their poop smelled like roses!
The snooty boys from Atlantis boarded their ships and sailed off to the mainland to duke it out with dudes from Athens. But things didn’t go too well for the rose-scented hifalutin Atlantis boys. Rumor has it the Greek gods in charge of Atlantis got ticked off with the haughty-ta boys for their snotty arrogance and pulled the plug on them and Atlantis. KABOOM!!! Atlantis was blown sky high and all its inhabitants vanished with it. Atlantis has NEVER been found.
Was Atlantis Santorini?
When the Thera volcano exploded 3600 years ago the volcanic ash plumed 22 miles into the air and Santorini was smothered under 200 feet of ash and debris. Recognized as the largest volcanic event in the past 10,000 years, the explosion was heard 3000 miles away and its fallout spread as far away as North America and China. The cataclysmic blast activated enormous tsunamis up to 80-feet high that hammered coastlines throughout the Mediterranean and reconfigured much of the surrounding geography. When the eruption stopped expending its violent wrath and the volcanic ash settled, not a single trace remained of the Minoan people and only half of the land on the island of Santorini remained. The missing half was now occupied by the world’s largest volcanic caldera, measuring 25 miles across.
Was Atlantis Santorini? Did it ever really exist?
Many scholars believe Plato’s Atlantis was an allegory that he wrote using Santorini’s ancient catastrophe as a prototype.
It’s an interesting topic to consider while gazing at the caldera.
Time to hop on Jack and Jenny and head over the edge into the wild blue yonder. Jack, a hefty mammoth, was suitably sized to carry his larger cargo; while Jenny, a solid standard, was a good match for her more petite load. They knew the routine well. Down 588 steps to the boat dock, up 588 steps to the donkey station.
Donkeys are the perfect animal for the trek up the steep switchbacks of the caldera rim. They have a keen sense of self-preservation and an uncanny ability to sense when something is wrong or unsafe. In the face of danger, donkeys STOP and assess the situation and REFUSE to move until it is safe. This attribute has gained them the mistaken label of being stubborn. In fact, donkeys are level-headed and safety-conscious. EXACTLY the type of animal I want to ride when I’m on a steep, narrow trail.
Jenny and I led the way with Jack and Hubs in the rear. An ancient stone wall, about three feet high, lined the outside of the trail, serving as a token safety barrier. Jenny and I zigged around the first zig of the trail and before we even zagged back around the first zag, I caught on to her donkey tricks. Sneaky thing! Although she had the whole path to walk along, Jenny pressed so CLOSE to the EDGE of the trail that I was sandwiched between her and the rustic stone wall - the quasi “safety barrier” that protected me from going sky diving without a parachute.
I did not get that far in life to be outsmarted by a smart @$$.
If Jenny the Donkey wanted to scrape along the stone wall, so be it. Given her antics, Jenny probably had many a rider abandon the saddle and opt to walk safely down the trail on their own accord, rather than proceed with her death-defying donkey nonsense. I simply removed my leg from the stirrup and crossed it in front of me. “Go for it, Jenny! Your donkey shenanigans won’t work with me.” I enjoyed the stunning scenery and let the donkey do whatever she wanted. Go figure - Jenny the Donkey did not have a death wish.
Meanwhile, I assumed Jack was pulling the SAME STUNT on Hubs because he was NOT a happy donkey jockey. Jack had barely zigged around the first zig of the trail before Hubs started hollering up a storm. No doubt his brouhaha echoed and reverberated across the entire caldera.
It’s a wonder Jack didn’t start braying in unison with Hubs and the Santorini Emergency Alert System wasn’t activated!!
“This is the STUPIDEST thing we’ve ever done. We’re going to DIE! We’re going OVER the EDGE! This is RIDICULOUS! This is DANGEROUS! We should NEVER have done this! Whine, cry, moan, groan, snivel, complain…. gonna DIE! …over the Edge!…. Dangerous! …. ” ALL THE WAY DOWN THE TRAIL.
We arrived at the bottom - alive. I was ecstatic. “Wow! That was FUN!”
Hubs could NOT believe his ears, “Are you kidding???! That was AWFUL!!”
“Awful? I thought that was fantastic! What was awful about it?
Perfectly straight-faced, he stated, “I was on the BOSS DONKEY. You weren’t.”
THE BOSS DONKEY??? Uh-huh.
Ah, the donkeys of Santorini. We elected to walk up that zig-zag path while the donkeys passed on either side of us. We visited two years ago and were also struck by the caldera and the perilous position Oia occupies on the edge.
What a strange and wondrous place Santorini is. And what views! A great success for those enterprising Greeks who sensed that tourists would come. Now there are almost too many visitors during certain parts of the year.
Thanks for the enjoyable post, Lois.
Great one, Lois!! I love Santorini—we stayed in Thera but walked to Oia for sunset nightly. Your research was great. I loved reading about it.And man, that caldera! 25 miles wide! So amazing!!!