The Mountain Goat

You’ve heard of my new friend Claudio. He helped me with my brown shoes (read about it here). He’s also the guy who does port briefings each evening, promptly at 6, to introduce us to the next morning’s port of call. This evening he introduced us to the town of Monemvasia which resides on the small island of Monemvasia off the east coast of the Monemvasia. No, just kidding, it’s off the east coast of the Peloponnese.

As part of the briefing, Claudio talked about hiking up the mountainside to the old town and fortress, which dates back to 573 AD. After the briefing, Claudio and I talked about doing the hike together. It seemed to be a good match, all three of us are into hiking and photography. Kas was particularly happy because she loves to climb. Me? Not so much.

You can see the old town easy enough, but high on the rock is the old fortress. Of course, we went there.

The photography of the old town was wonderful. All three of us spent quite awhile roaming the town, taking pictures. That is, until we came across a set of steep, switch backing, set of stairs.

Beautiful colors set off by the stone wall

Not these steps, just wait until you see the switchbacking ones.

This is how we scaled part of the big rock.

Once we ascended, I realized we still had much more to go, all up hill.  Kas walked ahead seeing something she wanted to photograph. Then she scrambled up the face of a rock, disappearing from view. Claudio whispers to me with a gleam in his eye, “she’s quite a mountain goat.” You have no idea.

As you can see, we still have quite a bit to traverse. The higher we go, the further back in time we travel – all the way to 573.

We kept going up, and up, and up. Kas is happier by the moment. Me? Not so much. When we neared the top of the rock, Claudio scrambled up as high as he could go, a place I wouldn’t dare. Kas whispers to me, “he’s quite a mountain goat.” Hmmm, what is going on here? Now they have pet nicknames for each other? Claudio does seem to have a way with the ladies.

Claudio and the beautiful women he works with.

We finished up the morning with a great hike under our belts and the formation of new friendships.

Can you figure out who is lowest?

Really cool trees.

That evening we met up promptly at 6 for our final port briefing – the island of Syros. Just before Claudio started, he came over to us all excited to share that there are nice hills to climb with beautiful churches at the top. “You just have to hike them”, he said. We’ll see, I thought. We’ll see. Knowing my wife…

It’s all about the light.