the greatest adventure

September 28

         Today was such a satisfying adventure day. After working for 2 days just about everyone was ready to leave the hotel. The day started off with insanity workout in the morning followed by breakfast and metaphysical. We all met up at 9 to drive about an hour to meet up with our guide, Menolis, who is a local who has lived in Samos his whole life. He loves finding new adventures and took us on our best adventure yet. After off-roading three manual cars (two of which looked like a soccer mom van and a milk truck) up and down hills, we hiked about forty-five minutes to a remote beach called “little devils beach”. It received its name because of the horrible storms that run through these beaches. There we went swimming, used the snorkel that I bought the day before, cliff jumping, and even found an awesome cave. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing this day was, and it didn’t end there. From “Little Devils Beach” we hiked to “Devils Beach” where we found another cliff to jump off as well as the view of the gorge. Then we hiked all the way back up the mountain to our cars. It was a strenuous hike all up hill, but everyone made it. I am so impressed by the willingness and support of our group. We drove the cars a little further, and then hiked to the top of the gorge, where got an aerial view of our previous location on “Devils Beach”. The gorge was incredible to view and reminded us of movies such as Avatar or Lord of the Rings. This was another breathtaking moment. By this time everyone was extremely hungry. Many of us had not had food since breakfast and it was now four, but Minolis had one more adventure up his sleeve. We drove to another location and hiked next to a river which we crossed over many times until we reached a waterfall. Unfortunately you have to hike through the water to see the two waterfalls, but maybe we will do that another day. So instead of going straight for the falls, we turned off to climb wooden steps all the way up into a treehouse type of restaurant. There we feasted while looking out on the glorious view. It reminded me of being in Big Sur. We were in the woods, but our restaurant overlooked the ocean. After dinner we walked back in the dark with few flashlights, but everyone made it to the cars, which was followed by an hour ride back to the hotel. Today was one grand adventure, and we get to experience Minolis adventures one more time next weekend !