I went with the same mountain climbers that I did the jeep tour that I posted on yesterday. Except one of the original guys was not available so the girl friend, Myrto of the other guy, Goerge Mathea, came to translate, She speaks excellent English. You can see them in the first and last pictures. They invited me to their Greek Easter cook out this Sunday. People are so welcoming here. If you go to Samos, whch I highly recommend, and you want to get off the beaten path and see the mountains and the interior you should contact George Matteau at: [email protected]. He is working on promoting alternative tourism on Samos and will take very good care of you.
This time we explored the mountains on the western side of Samos Island. In my last post I showed these mountains form the sea side. Now you can see them from the interior. We first went up a stream that people swim in during the summer. Then we drove through Nikaloudhas, a nice village and walked around. We also saw an old caste from the time that Genoa controled Samos in the 1400s. Next we drove to a monastery and hiked along this long narrow path through a very steep canyon where there was a cave that was a first a monastery and then a hiding place for the resistance during WW2. Also criminals were sent there in exile for some time. It is called the Karoperato Cave. Then we went back for a nice dinner in Karlovasi, walked around the old town there. Myrto said they build the old town up on the hillside out of sight of the sea so pirates could not see them. The pirates were mostly from Egypt. When a pirate ship was sighted the watches who light fires on the hilltops and then others would do the same warning the villages. The era of the pirates was about 1600 – 1800. These pictures wil appear in my upcoming post on Karlovasi
Then we had coffee at the port where we met the cousin of the male climber, David Mathea who is a very serious climber and knew about Alpinist Magazine where my daughter Katie is the editor. The four of us talked for hours, mostly about mountain climbing in Greece and the US but also other adventures. George and David are going to set up a Web site to promote adventure tourist on Samos. I said when they have it ready I would promote it on this blog as it deserves attention. The large picture is of the canyon with the cave. The rest are in order of the trip.
Quite a wild looking place...
Posted by: Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. | April 27, 2012 at 10:57 AM