Doors

Searching for yellow, orange and purple doors!!

Thanksgiving Sunday

We headed north again today, taking Junior and Emma along. They hiked for three hours while we had a coffee, took a lengthy walk, ate a big lunch and John enjoyed a nap in the car.

Emma sketching

Junior (John) and Emma are both artists living in Leicester England. We met Junior last year and were really pleased to see him revisiting the island.

This kitten lives at the church we visited enroute today.

Another group dinner. 

Somehow we managed to squeeze 15 people into Sofia's kitchen!!

We will be leaving the island on Saturday, October 18th to embark on a 10 day/10 ferry journey with our friend Theo. The first stop will be on Syros for a friend's dance performance. From there we are going to Mykonos in order to visit the archeological sites on Delos. Then it is back to Syros for the ferry to Kos and on to Tilos for four days. At some point we will decide whether to return to Amorgos on October 28th or continue island hopping. Another Maxwell adventure!!

One of the island cemeteries

Since the north wind was still blowing we decided to walk in Xylokeratidi again this morning. 

It feels like a ten degree difference between Chora (with the wind) and this area.

The cemetery had fresh displays of flowers and plants.

This musician's life was celebrated on his coffin.

A fisherman's coffin had shells and stones from the local beach. 

During our tour of the cemetery we spotted something we had never seen before. 
A coffin had been exhumed and the bones, after being washed and cleaned, 
were laid out do dry in the sun.

Later they will be stored in a box in the small cemetery church.

Glimpses of our day

Sunset last night from Karamel in Xylokeratidi.

We discovered today that Kitsa does not like watermelon. 

This destroyed the myth that donkeys will eat anything and everything...

...but she does love banana peels!!

Maria, our landlady, with a load of laundry for the clothesline.

Chora (pronounced HORA)

The wind picked up again for most of the day. As there was no possibility of a swim, we walked around Chora, exploring every nook and cranny.

One of the little churches was being restored.

This fellow provided valuable help by carrying bags of cement up to the site

and loads of rubble back down to the road.

This is one of Chora's typical small pathways.

Thankfully they apply white paint to the edge of every step in the village.

We managed to avoid a group dinner tonight. Instead we enjoyed dinner at Karamel, our friend's restaurant in Xylokeratidi. It was the first time we had tried cabbage cooked in coconut milk! Delish!

Shadows, pink and Kitsa

Another warm day!

Heading to the beach after breakfast.

Morning shadows

A touch of pink...

...and Kitsa returned!!

(photo taken from our bedroom window - she is on higher ground

and will wake us each morning with a loud braying request

for an edible donation)

Desalination

Yesterday was a perfect day...almost no wind...and another swim at Agia Anna with fewer people. I could actually spread my towel on the beach...only 5 other people!!

We have been talking with others about the water situation on the island and the possibility of desalination. I found this article in the Ekathimerini, an English version of the Greek newspaper online.

"In the past nine years the General Secretariat for the Aegean and Island Policy has spent the staggering sum of 68.4 million euros on the transportation of water to Greece’s arid islands – millions of euros that have basically evaporated, used to bring temporary relief rather than a permanent solution. An even greater shame is the fact that much of the water is lost owing to leaky and ill-maintained island water grids. Island water policy is a big issue made more pressing by the crisis and demands a new and comprehensive approach.

Things have changed a lot since 1969, when Syros became the first Greek island to get its own desalination plant. The number of islands with insufficient natural resources has risen along with tourism, pushing demand up every year. At the same time, islanders who were once cautious about their use of water and ensured a degree of self-sufficiency by building reservoirs and using other means of storing the resource have become more reliant on imported water and more complacent about its sufficiency."

The article went on to explain that Amorgos is approved for a desalination plant. The question is WHEN and who will monitor the maintenance!

Of course we finished the day with another group meal. This time we were saying goodbye to friends from Amsterdam with a wonderful meal of pesto pasta and salad....only ten of us gathered around the tables!