Amorgos - Such Rugged Beauty

High on a cliff overlooking the deep blue sea is the Panagia Hozoviotissa monsastery. [7219]

Amorgos is the easternmost island of the Cyclades island group and the nearest island to the neighboring Dodecanese island group in Greece. The Sea Cloud sailed there overnight from Milos, so we could disembark immediately after breakfast. Amorgos, pop 2000, is spectacularly rugged and way off the tourist trail. Its remoteness made it very special. We used Zodiacs to get to shore, with the usual requirement to wear life jackets. The port town was Katapola.

Buses await us as we Zodiac into Katapola. [7191]

The highlight of Amorgos was a visit to the remote Panagia Hozoviotissa monastery. It is the second oldest in Greece built in 1017 and renovated 1088. It literally hangs on the cliff side 300 m above the sea. The monastery was created as an ode (poem) to the Grace of Panagia, known as the Virgin Mary, which is the patron saint of the island. The icon is carried around to all the villages on the island every year. Apparently the specific location was selected because a Virgin Mary icon washed up on the shore here.

Katapola and the Sea Cloud as seen from the heights above the Amorgos port town. [7206]

Roula, an unbelievably knowledgeble guide, was with us every day and never consulted a note. [7204]

To get to the monastery, our bus went over the top of this mountainous island, then down the other side to a tiny parking lot. It was on this precipitous road that our guide Roula told the story of two men arriving at the gates of heaven but there was only room for one that day. One was a priest who was confident he would be admitted. The other was a bus driver, and Saint Peter chose the bus driver. The priest asked why he missed out. Saint Peter explained that the priest only works one day a week and everyone he preaches to is asleep anyway. But the bus driver works every day, and all his passengers are praying for their lives!

We saw terraces like this all over most Cyclades islands. They are a strategy to maximise usable land on these hilly islands. [7214]

From the car park, there was a distant view of the monastery, halfway back up a cliff which plunges into the deep blue sea. There were 300+ steps up a steep and windy path to get to it. Dress codes were enforced at the door: skirts over the knee for women, long pants (no wraps) for men, shoulders and upper arms covered. The hike up was worth it. We were welcomed by a monk (or a novice) in casual clothes, who led us up several flights of stairs to a chapel (no photos), then, in a reception room we were rewarded with raki and honey, a delightful drink known as rakomelo. Raki is rather like Italian grappa.

Somehwre on the 300 steps leading up to the monastery. [7223]

On the climb to the monastery, taking a rest, Mike was spiked by this nasty thistle. [7235]

A monk awaits us at the front door. We had to bob down low to get through the doorway. [7245]

With the car park just visible at the bottom, the sheer cliffs drop into the famous deep blue sea. [7249]

The splendid main meeting hall inside the Panagia Hozoviotissa monastery. [7253]

Two co-guests from the Sea Cloud are treated to a slug of raki and honey. [7255]

Quite near the monastery was Agia Anna, a beach that made Amorgos world famous in 1988 when the celebrated Luc Besson film The Big Blue was shot here. We didn't go right down to that beach, but the deep blue of the ocean here was certainly evident from the cliffs above it.

After leaving the monastery, we were able to wander freely about the mountain town of Chora (pronounced "hora", means "main town", and it seems that every island has a Chora), said to be one of these most beautiful in the Cyclades. Chora was very quiet, absolutely devoid of tourists. The town is white and bright in the unrelenting sunshine, as are most villages in the Cyclades. We are told that this characteristic colour scheme stems from when lime was the best disinfectant available. We read that "in the late 1930s, Greece was suffering from a cholera epidemic, and the nation's leader at the time, Ioannis Metaxas, ordered all Greek citizens to whitewash their houses. The whitewash used to paint the outside of citizens' homes contained limestone, which happens to be a potent disinfectant". Other means of sanitation are now available, but the fashion has endured. In Chora, we sat in the square under a gum tree where the expedition leader Paula Tagle shouted us cakes and coffee, and rakomelo.

Whitewashed stone wall on the path into Chora. [7276]

Characteristic building in Amorgos' Chora village. [7281]

Window detailing on a house in Chora. [7284]

The centre of Chora is a labyrinth of narrow alleys and covered arches. [7286]

Bright and white, this church in Chora. [7296]

Shop in the narrow alleyways of Chora. [7299]

Three retired windmills, once used to grind grain, but now stripped of their sails. [7305]

Then we bussed back down to Katapola where we had time for a swim at a very narrow and uninspiring beach with beautiful clean and clear water near our Zodiac pick-up point, and a walk around town.

Narrow beach and grubby sand at the beach. [2352]

Bathers at the beach at Katapola. [3213]

Fishing boat in port at Katapola. [7201]

Passenger and vehicle ferry, essential means of travel between Greek islands, in Katapola harbour. [5608]

Nice building-side mural in Katapola. [2619]

Moored in Katapola harbour. [3649]

Over the harbour from near Katapola port area. [4216]

Agios Ioannis Greek Orthodox Church on its own but near Katapola on Amorgos. [7190]

The Photo Map of these blog shots from Amorgos showed that we really only crossed from one side of the island to the other, almost at its narrowest place. Plenty more territory in Amorgos! But we enjoyed this rugged place and its relative freedom from visitors. The monastery was a special treat!