Day 6 – The Blue Grotto
Thursday, 20th April
Hello,
yesterday we were in the blue grotto. This has to be seen!
The grotto itself is boring. The hustle and bustle around it is the real highlight.
A really long staircase leads to the sea. I know from a reliable source that people stand tightly packed all the way down in season. Below about 10 brave men are rowing across the water. What seems like a huge chaos has a system: Marco and Césare are at the centre of the wild splashing. They sit in the cash boat and charge €15 per person for the hurly-burly.
The brave rowers collect the people. A part rows to the stairs and always asks 4 waiting people to lie perfectly flat in the boat because the cave entrance is very low. (At low tide 50 cm.) The trip continues to the cash boat, where you pay and then the only things that separate you from the grotto are the other boats that are waiting.
Those who find the entry from the jetty too dangerous should leave it alone. The alternative is neck-breaking. In addition to the rowing boats, there are still plenty of excursion boats floating around. From there, too, four people are collected and then brought back to the starting point via ticket boat and grotto.
Our captain's name was Lorenzo.
The cave entrance is teensy-weensy. So Lorenzo quickly lay down on the top passenger. In the grotto he explained that one should look at the water and claimed that the color of the water comes from the sun. Oh well. As a physicist, I find this explanation somewhat shortened.
To save his honour it should be said: There is not enough time for more explanation, because once in the grotto there will be singing. Each sailor warbles a different song.
Since very few passengers can speak Italian, I would say that the lyrics are sometimes freely improvised. I wouldn't be surprised if there were so many lines of text describing the weather forecast or a cake recipe.
The actual difficulty consists in Lorenzo and his colleagues rowing twice in a circle, singing to the tune. Well, and then it's back outside.
I learned from Manuela from Dessau that you can get completely soaked during the procedure. We stayed dry. People in the neighbouring boat didn't.
Since there wasn't much going on, I thought it was quite funny. If I had waited a long time I would have felt fooled.
After the grotto we went to the western tip of the island. There you can visit a lighthouse.
The way is long and leads over a lovingly designed nature trail. What you should definitely have with you is a machete. In some places, nature has reclaimed its kingdom. Actually, there would be enough space for a peaceful coexistence, but why not just spread stress?
You meet few hikers. There are no cafes. It's probably related.
There are countless stairs for this. There's a lot of beauty in there. It doesn't hurt if you are sure-footed and not afraid of heights. Sore muscles the following day are guaranteed. There is only one criterion for the steps: the main thing is that they are steep.
There is a bar at the lighthouse that is properly managed. It's the only bar far and wide. Those arriving are hungry and exhausted. Nevertheless, you can get everything you want in good quality at local prices.
We took the bus back. It was quick and unspectacular apart from the view. Maybe I was just too tired to notice anything. In the hotel I counted the steps up to our room for the first time. It's 21.
I know this is the information that interests you the most.
Kind regards
Pinky
