Greece 2022 - Day 12: Better delayed than never!

For our last morning on Naxos, we decided to take an early morning hike to the monastery and church perched high above Chora.  Every morning we have looked up at the monastery with the switch back road leading to it thinking we really should walk up one day, or in my case, run up.  The views from up there were spectacular, looking down at the port and out over the hills of Naxos.  We didn’t visit the monastery since it didn’t open until 9am, and also because we weren’t appropriately dressed – sleeves and pants please!

After our morning walk/run, we showered, had breakfast and packed up.  We were scheduled to be on the 11:45am SeaJets ferry to Folegandros.  Loaded with Naxian cheese, olive oil and honey, we set out for the 10-minute walk to the port.  We arrived well in advance of our scheduled ferry, so we claimed a place to sit in the shaded passenger waiting area.  At around 11:30am we discovered that our ferry was running an hour and a half late.  We occupied ourselves with people watching and exploring the pier.  We even got to witness a guy running down the pier with suitcase in tow as his ferry was pulling away from the port.  He was hilariously trying to flag the ferry down as if he thought it might back up and drop the ramp for him.  As previously stated, these ferries wait for no one!

The view of Chora from the ferry pier

Octopus hanging out to dry at the ferry pier

The guy that missed his boat

It was sometime after 1pm when our ferry finally arrived.  This boat was very small in comparison to the previous ferries we’ve taken; passengers only, no cars.  The boarding process was much less rushed as well…No D-day style urgency. We boarded onto the side of the boat by way of one of two gang planks lowered to the deck.  We found our seats on the upper deck, purchased some wine from the onboard café and tucked into the snacks we brought along for the journey.

We arrived on Folegandros just before 6pm, nearly 2 hours later than originally planned.  Our hotel had a van waiting for us at the port.  We met our driver, Andreas, and boarded the van with 2 other couples and headed to the Blue Sand Boutique Hotel and Suites.  Given the small size of Folegandros, the drive to the hotel was relatively speedy.  When we arrived, we were offered a refreshing mug of lemonade. At check-in we were given tons of tips and recommendations about exploring the island, then we were shown to our room.  The location of this hotel is as close to heaven as you can get.  We had an oceanfront room with the most amazing views of the cove and beach below, making it even more heavenly.

After unpacking a few things, we set out for a short hike from the hotel to get the lay of the land.  I don’t think we’ll ever get tired of marveling over the scenery from this part of the world!

We then checked out the dining options.  Aside from the restaurant at the hotel, there was a small cliff-side taverna and two small tavernas down at the beach.  We decided to try the little taverna up on the cliff so that we could enjoy the amazing views of what would be our home for the next 4 days.  The menu was almost exclusively seafood, most of which was fresh caught.  Today’s fish specials were Red Snapper and Scorpion Fish.  We were seated by the owner of the restaurant who told us we were welcome to come into the kitchen to select our own fish.  We couldn’t pass this up, so in we went!  We picked a small red snapper to share, along with a Greek salad, pita bead and Taramosolata, a traditional Greek dip made from fish roe, olive oil, lemon juice and grated onions.  Like every meal we’ve had in Greece, it was all delicious!

Back in our room we slipped into our robes and slippers and relaxed on the balcony with some wine while listening to the waves crashing on the shore below.  The weather is extremely humid here on Folegandros, completely different to the light off shore breeze that seemed to be a constant on Naxos.  We quickly learned that the humidity also brings out tiny ants in droves…when we finally turned in for the night, ants were streaming in from under the door of our hotel room.  We could be in for an interesting stay!