S/V Aphrodite

We have been leaving this island for 5 days now, and yet here we sit, still anchored in this tiny harbor on the tiny Greek island of Kastellorizo, just a hop skip and a swim off the Turkish coast.  We stopped here only by accident really, it was late in the day and we did not want to go through the hassles of checking into a non-EU country.  In that context we found a jewel of a place.  There is not that much here to see and yet every day we discover something new and enticing.  Yesterday we found the Blue Cave, reportedly the largest and most beautiful in the Mediterranean, surpassing the Blue Grotto on the Italian island of Capri.

The country of Greece is putting a lot of money into reclaiming this beautiful island.  During the Italian occupation of WW II many residents emigrated to mainland Greece and Australia.  The history is somewhat contradictory as to the cause of the island’s decline, it was either bombed out in an air raid or a fire spread to an ammunition dump causing a huge explosion and burning over half of the island.  At any rate, Greek pride is strongly displayed here, and with the combined interests and finances of the Australian emigrants, many people are returning to their ancestral homes, ones they never even lived in, and reconstructing them in authentic fashion. 

I think what is so alluring for me is the sense of discovery.  The history is ancient and everywhere you look there are glimpses of what has gone before, but since it has not yet been laid out, spiffed up and overstated, as perhaps in that glorious harbor of Pethi on the island of Symi, the sense of discovery persists.