Life as a Local in Syros, Greece

Adventure 4: the waterfall 

Leaving bright and early we headed out to see the local waterfall- I had seen many street signs for this waterfall so I was excited for this one. We stopped and picked up some chicken and sticky rice from a street vendor for our outing snack.
There was a really nice 20-30 minute hike through almost untouched jungle leading to the waterfall. The different species of plants and trees make hikes really enjoyable. Oh, and this area was pineapple country so there were tons of pineapple fields lining our drive there.

The waterfall was really nice and had a pool size swimming hole at the bottom. The water was the perfect temperature to cool off and the nibbling fish kept you moving. We were the only ones in the area for 3 hours- which continues to amaze me. I believe there is normally an entrance fee but for some reason this day it was free.

Adventure #5 Caveneering or Spelunking or maybe just exploring caves

Our next grand adventure with Pong I’m sure will end up being a favorite. Again it was presented in a very nonchalant manner- ‘tomorrow we will go to the cave’. With no more explanation than that I wore flip flops, a white tank top and shorts. 

We drove for about 45 minutes west and pulled up at a temple with a few monks walking around and some grand statues and decor. 

Once again this looked like it would be a private excursion with Pong as our guide. 

We’ll let the photos do most the talking but it was an amazing expanse of caves- kind of like an underground mansion with tons of different rooms and passageways. We probably spent about 1.5 hours to 2 hours down there and had probably explored only half of the area. 
There were lots of bats flying around, sometimes right by you and the ground was often covered in what we could only guess was bat poop.

Many passageways were so small you had to crawl or scoot through. Luckily we had a headlamp between the 5 of us and luckily we didn’t encounter any scary animals. 

Overall it was a bit creepy and extremely cool and I learned that next time we go exploring caves to wear long-sleeved dark clothing, real shoes, and bring a headlamp or flashlight. This adventure cost us 50 baht ($1.40)