A bus tour in parts - Akrotiri : Caldera rim view, red sand beach and historic site

The previous post on this series is here..

On our second day in Santorini, we had booked an all day tour of the island. If you have only one day in Santorini, just do this tour. Apparently this is not news. There are cruise ships that dock in Santorini. The tourists get off the ship and go straight to this bus tour.. almost a 1000+ people. Puts a huge surge in the population at breakfast time as some of them try to grab food before getting on the bus.. (same thing happens when you get dropped off!). 

So to beat that, we went for an early breakfast and waited for the bus to pick us up. They were on time and off we went. Viator really rocked this tour! Recommend you book this well in advance like we(San) did! She got 110/100 for booking this!!

My own Blue Angels.. they all looked so pretty and happy that I was glad to be at their bidding for anything they asked for..

We started with a ride along the rim to see the caldera to the ancient city of Akrotiri.

This is one of my best clicks of San on this entire trip.. so including it in the blog as it will get printed as part of the blog book.

There were two options given the time we stopped there:

a. walk half a mile to the red sand beach and walk back (part of the path to the beach had caved in and was dangerous) 

b. walk right out of the bus stop and see the excacation site of what was probably Atlantis before the volcano covered it. 

We decided to go to the beach with half the group. The other half of the bus went to the site. There is also a nice cafeteria outside the site and good restrooms. 

It was already hot and bright. So me and Jr. bought blue sunglasses to match everything else..

we learned that all buildings had to be blue and white in Santorini or they are fined!

Spent 15 minutes in the beach which was really nice.

I went from "not getting the memo" to the Bluest guy from head to toe over the two days!

this is the caved in section of the walk.. you have to cross this to go to the beach. if you are not able bodied, don't risk it and block the rest of the folks trying to make it into the beach below and back! 

Even the locals were proud of my blue at this point!

A pretty girl I saw on the beach..

Then we walked back. We still had 30 minutes. So I decided to make a run for it and also see the excavation site while the rest of them walked back. 

The run wearing wet Bata chappals paid off. Rushed to get tickets and walked through the entire site while clicking pictures of the boards and the site and made it back to the bus with 1 minute to spare. The rest of the folks were giving me the look, but once I explained that I saw both.. they were impressed!

The excavation site deserves a post in itself, but given that my blog backlog is growing.. have added a slide show of this massive complex. This is mind blowing. 2 storied buildings which date back 8000 years ago. Someone is doing something wrong in our history books.

Look at the pictures and you will start wondering why our timelines are messed up!

A video clip of this segment of the trip..

After this we were off to our next stop.. this was a 10 hour thing which ended up being much longer including the pickup and drop off. .  

As the day went by it just got better and better..

Sweeney Ridge trail and Mori point in Pacifica

After a three week hiatus on hiking, we had a chance to join a large group of folks on a hike to Sweeney ridge. 

A group of 14, some of them I met for the first time. Enjoyed it thoroughly. The trailhead is a 35-45 minute drive from home depending on traffic and given the insane temperatures in Cupertino, this was a morning well spent in the fog and mountains. 

We also get to cross Highway 1 and go see the beach at Mori point  in the end. The ridge is part of the last piece of the hike. Started from home at 6:15 and came back home at 1:45. Hiked for 5 hours with a bunch of photo stops and a small break for tea and snacks at the vista point on top. There was nothing to see as there was a heavy fog and mist in the air. It did feel like walking through Jurassic park.

The parking lot for the trailhead is shared with an Orchid greenhouse. It makes for an interesting last mile climb back from the freeway to get to the car. 

By the time we made it to the top with the 1600 foot climb, was completely drenched! Good thing I had a change of clothes in the backpack for the rest of the descent and beach!

The morning dew made for some great pics with flowers, bees and spider webs.. 

When coming back to the car, noticed that my pants had a yellow layer of pollen on them! Luckily this time there was no severe post hike allergies to report!

sometimes you walk past a small flower that looks near perfect to the naked eye at 3 feet.. then you go take a macro shot of it and realize it is not that perfect.. still this small flower was irresistable!

The rest of the landscapes are in this slideshow..

A short video clip of the hike. Took a lot more slow motion videos of the waves crashing in.. you have a small sample within this clip.

It was time really well spent with a fun bunch! The last part of the trail where you come down to the freeway is very loose with gravel and if you don't have hiking shoes with grip and poles (for folks with bad knees) it is dangerous. We have been doing this for sometime now and managed it.. but first time hikers with improper shoes.....not recommended!  

The trail starts with a steep climb as well and keeps going almost a 1000 plus feet in one go. Warm up beore you start climbing!

Strongly recommend this as an early morning hike for a hot summer day!

Soberanes Canyon and Doud peak - the best of trails so far

After the quick visit to Garrapata to see the Lillies, we drove back just a few miles back north and stopped right in front of the bridge view on this park. Then we started hiking up the hills facing the ocean.

This is the Soberanes canyon trail and most of it was closed for a long time because the fire had started in this very canyon a few years ago. Most of this area is still closed and you hike at your own risk. Given we had a group of folks, we decided to take this on. You cross creeks and go through many distinctly different landscapes.. first there is a bunch of creeks, then there is an area full of catcus and before you know it, you are walking through redwoods.. and just like that, an open area with wild flowers!

There is a section of this hike, which is the steepest we have climbed in two years. It is almost going up 1500+ feet in just over a mile. You also have to bend your knees and take tall steps. We took our time to go over this stretch but surprisingly, didn't feel the strain, as we were in the clouds for this part and the wild flowers were just amazing!

There was every type of California wild flower up there, in full bloom. It was a feast for the eyes the entire way up and down.

We had an amazing view of all the hills from above the clouds..

On the way down we took the longer route with a ocean view and the lupines make for amazing scenes!

once we got down, we ate a nice lunch, had our chai(for once we didn't carry chai to the top as we knew this was the hardest hike) and crossed the freeway to the bridge view points!

That kalandha saadham feast made sure that any calories burnt during the strenuous hike were instantly replenished and doubled in one tenth the time.. hiking is hard.. eating is easy.. there is a fundamental imbalance in the way we were designed, no?!

Took this one with the iPhone using my buddies sunglasses as a filter..

Again, beautiful views of the ocean. Not many lillies on this creek though.  The walkway was nice and after spending a good 15 minutes here, we raced back to beat the traffic! 

A gallery of the scenic photos.. 

This hike is not for novices. If you are not in decent shape, don't attempt this. There are parts where there is no trail.. the trail has been turned into a mini canyon by running water.. so you literally jump side to side and that does a number on your inner thighs! You can see it towards the end of the video..

After that hike and the drive back, it took a nice day to recover the legs!