Sorry for not posting -in the process of moving and my normal routine is all over the place

That evening he used the hotel wi-fi to get on the net and study the plants of the area and particularly those peculiar to Santorini. He finally cut it off at about two in the morning when he couldn’t keep his eyes open any further. He hadn’t been able to reach any firm conclusions about the fauna on the island, possibly because he was so tired. As a result, he was late getting down to the conference room for the next morning’s presentations and struggled to stay awake in the early afternoon as the speakers droned on. Like most academic functions, some speakers were interesting and entertaining while others were as dry and boring as reading Titus Livius! He wondered which category his presentation had fallen into for those listening. Hopefully, more the former than the latter!

The next day was a lay day followed by one final day of presentations which included some really nice finds from the eastern end of the island. And then the conference was over. His first big international conference as a guest speaker! The next day a group of the attendees had signed on for the tourist trip to the islands and flew to Santorini, which expedition Jason joined, and he got a good look at the famous frescos. These were even more fascinating in the flesh, so to speak, and he enjoyed the tour of them as well as the small museum that housed various Minoan remains and artifacts that had been recovered from the site over the years. In many ways, the island was a lot like Pompei, with buried remains captured in situ only without the loss of life as it appeared the citizens had evacuated calmly well before the big eruption. Still, the remains were interesting and subject to a lot of studies.

He had specially requested that his trip be just to Santorini rather than spending several days touring the other islands as most of the others were going to do. So after arriving at the hotel and settling into his room, he went downstairs and asked at the desk about touring the island with a local rather than one of the tourist people the others were using on their short visit. He explained he was interested in getting an idea of what the ‘real’ Santorini was like. His newly acquired and, up until now, secret ability to communicate fluently in Greek seemed to go over well with the man behind the reception desk. The concierge put him in touch with some sort of relative who would be happy to show him around the island. The fellow even had a boat which meant they could visit the volcanic island growing in the middle of the caldera and some of the interesting rock formations around other parts of the island. It was all arranged in a few minutes and with a quick phone call.

The next morning he wandered through the business area and bought a cheap floppy hat and extra sunscreen at a convenience store as he made his way through the busy town. The skies were blue, and the water was an amazing shade of blue as well, probably from reflecting the sky, Jason thought as he headed for the business address of the man the concierge had hooked him up as a local guide. He managed to find the fellow without too much difficulty, his newfound facility with Greek making it a lot easier than it would have been otherwise! They discussed the various activities the fellow could offer and settled first on a motorized tour of some parts of the island nearby before taking to the water. The tour around the island was to be in the local’s rather beat-up Range Rover and was actually quite interesting. The fellow’s boat was docked at Vlichada on the south coast, and the boat appeared to be a relic from the War, probably the First World War by the looks of it! After a bit of fussing with the outboard motor that, fortunately, looked considerably younger than the boat, they had an interesting trip to the volcanic island and around the southern coast. The state of the boat was a worry, but it floated, and the outboard was at least modern, well, no more than twenty years old at least!