Donkey Jam in Santorini

It started off as a lovely day. We awoke to our ship bobbing around in Santorini’s caldera. A few hours later, we were getting on a tour bus for a scenic drive around the beautiful Greek island. We mostly headed south, away from the crush of toursits. We went up to the highest point on the island – a monastery at about 2000 ft. – for panoramic views of this once round volcanic island that exploded with gusto in pre-historic times and is now basically half of an island, with flat plains sloping upwards to sheer cliffs that dive straight into the Aegean Sea.

We also stopped to sample some local wine. The basic white and the basic red were fine but not anything to really remember. However, the dessert wine Vin Santo, which Santorini is famous for, was mind-blowingly good. It looked and tasted a bit like a tawny port – a beautiful amber color with a slightly sweet, caramel taste that lingered long after the sip was gone. I shall be having more of it soon.

Another stop was at a black sand beach where I confirmed that black sand is indeed hot and that the Aegean Sea is indeed refreshing. We opted to have the tour drop us off in Fira Town, the island’s capital and main touristy spot. We found an overpriced restaurant with a stunning view and enjoyed a tasty lunch. We wandered around, enjoyed the views, bought some jewelry from a delightful mother and son, and then decided we would head back to the ship.

We had three options for getting ourselves down to the water from the top of the caldera. We could stand in a huge line and take the cable car, we could ride a stinky donkey, or we could walk down a cobblestone path with 17 switchbacks and over 500 steps. Feeling adventuresome (it was probably the wine), we decided a nice walk would do us good.

The path in and of itself presented some challenges since the cobblestones and occasional marble edge pieces were rather slippery from so many years of use. The path was also in the direct sun with very little breeze. And there were a number of other tourists joining us, as we were one of five cruise ships in port today…and our ship with 600 passengers was the smallest. Two others looked to have at least 3000 passengers each.

What turned out to be the most challenging and memorable part of the adventure, though, were the donkeys. We wisely elected not to ride them, but we still got to experience them because we were all walking the same path. So in addition to careful foot placement with the cobblestones, we also needed to dodge many traces of donkey, past and present. But the real fun happened when it was time for donkeys to pass us, either going up or going down, either with passengers or without, sometimes with a human guide, sometimes running rogue with sweaty Greek men yelling after them.

As one teenage rider succinctly explained about half-way through his ride, “These donkeys just don’t give a *@$#” No truer words.

We had to wait a number of times while a donkey jam cleared itself. If we were in the path of a donkey, our bad. If we were between two donkeys, our bad again. And I will mention again, they are a bit stinky.

I was doing fine, thinking I was keeping a good eye on donkey trains heading both ways as well as dodging their droppings. However, one particularly disobedient donkey broke loose from its train and started running down the hill, presumably to food. By the time I understood that the Greek words being yelled behind me were of the warning variety, all I could see were the eyes of a very determined donkey. Because of other people on the path, I had nowhere to go, so I braced myself and now expect a souvenir bruise on my right bicep and am already sporting a small cut and a blossoming bruise and bump on the back of my right leg. Thank God I didn’t lose my footing and that I let my body go forward with the impact such that I believe my back is just fine.

Once I collected my thoughts, I turned around to a panicked Rob and gave him a thumbs up and we continued down the path just a little bit faster.

In all, the journey took about a half hour. We are now mostly cooled down, we’ve cleaned my scrape, and now we have packing ahead of us. Sadly, our cruise ends tomorrow morning but we will continue traveling for a bit more. So the adventure continues! But with any luck, completely donkey-free.