ACROSS PAROS
Rain had been predicted but it was a beautiful sunny day and off we went again in our Fiat Panda. This time we drove along the shoreline of Paros, past the Golden Beach, to the tip of the island, a half hour drive, to the harbor at Aliki. Two years ago we had lunch here. Our restaurant on the beach harbor was only going to be open five more days. We had a salmon salad, baked cheese with tomato jam topping and fried cod, all delicious. We brought have the huge salad home with us.
Then we walked through the town of vacation bungalows, all shuttered, and along the harbor.
And then we cut back across the island to Lefkes and Naousa. The Cyclades islands are the mountain tops of a volcanic region that was submerged below the Aegean Sea about 5 million years ago. Santorini was an obvious volcano and the center of Poros is an obvious mountain top. Our map of Poros indicated roads in the center but with the faintest of yellow lines. Almost all the way back we were on steep gravel roads too narrow for cars to pass in most places with huge drop offs on the side.
Almost all the inhabitants in white houses live with marvelous views on the flatter coast of the island with almost no one living in the center. Except for a monastery we saw few buildings. The soil is extremely rocky with a few terraced fields or rocky soil. But most of the mountainside is covered with low shrubs of a variety of pastel greens, quite beautiful in its sparse way but with marvelous views of the coastline and the Aegean far below.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 