NAXOS, DELOS, MYKONOS, AND SYRES

Naxos is one of the larger Greek islands in the Cyclades, and we spent the day here yesterday.  We started our day with a hike in more the middle of the island, where we walked up hills down dale through a landscape that was pretty similar to California foothills, except it must not get as cold, because they grow citrus, olives, loquats, and other things we grow in the Central Valley.  

The highlight of the morning hike was a kouros statue that had "fallen off the truck" a few thousand years ago and is resting on a farmer's land.  Apparently, this is one of the worst things that can happen to you in Greece, is to find some ancient relic on your land, because it allows the government to take the land.  According to the guide, they're supposed to pay the landowner for it, but in practice, it doesn't happen.  More recently if you discover something, the government doesn't take your land outright, but requires you to not damage what you find -- in other words,morgen whatever you had planned to build that caused you to dig up something, and you must make it accessible to the public.  

While there, Zoe was trying to navigate some steep steps and fell down, cutting her shin and hitting her head on a giant granite stone.  Last night the doctor came to see her (200 Euros), put some stitches in her leg, and gave her some antibiotics.  Today she is really sick, with food refusing to remain inside her body.  Our wonderful guide Katia called the doctor again, but he doesn't think this is sign of a concussion, and Drs. Ives and Vondracek have decided it's the antibiotic that is making her sick.  She's going to stop taking it today.  

But back to yesterday.  Many of us went to a wonderful beach on the city bus, and had a lovely time swimming and lying on the beach.

 It was a nice sandy beach with clear blue and turquoise water.  Our evening was spent in a home visit, one of the trademarks of Grand Circle.  We met with a lady named DeNye (I'm spelling that phonetically) who cooked us a wonderful dinner in her very artistic house overlooking the valley.  Her English was quite good, but not quite enough for us to grasp exactly the elements of her job, but she is a freelance journalist who blogs a lot about ecology.  

I thought it was more interesting than many home visits we've gone to.  

This morning we sailed to Delos,

which is an island with eight residents--4 archeologists and 4 guards -- and some amazing ruins.  

The little yellow building at the end is where the guards and archeologists live.  

There was once a colossus statue of Apollo here, but all that is left is the torso, an arm and the fist.  

We returned to the boat and sailed to the island of Mykonos, one of the rich folks' islands.  This was basically a shopping tour but everything was twice as much as in the town of Naxos. That was mostly an opportunity to get stuff at the pharmacy and ATM. Amazingly, I didn't take any pictures in Mykonos.  

We ended the day with our arrival at Syres which we will explore tomorrow.