This was the second day of our travel to Greece. A guided tour was our itinerary for the day. Before that, we were viewing the sunrise at the beach.

We had been waking up at the break of dawn especially when traveling. This particular morning was not different. We were awake before the break of dawn. The plan was to watch the Santorini sunrise. Everyone keeps raving about the Santorini sunrise. We were going to see the sunrise for ourselves before going on our guided tour.

Kamari beach was just at the back of the hotel. It only required crossing a narrow pedestrian lane, the restaurant’s beachfront seating area, down a short flight of stairs, and past the tiki umbrellas at the beach. From that vantage point, there was nothing obstructing a magnificent view of the Santorini sunrise.

Sunrise at the beach.

The sand covering the beach was coarse and black. There was a scattering of smoothly rounded, black pebbles. It made the beach look more rocky rather than sandy. The water from the Aegean sea was clear, a bit foamy when it hit the shore, and gently lapping the sand as if pushed by the gentle morning breeze.

The island of Anafi was breaking the drabness of the flat horizon. Its outline becoming more prominent as the sun was rising slowly. The sky’s color was changing from dark to grey to different shades of the red spectrum before fully brightening the day. The scores of people watching the sunrise with us were, like us, trying to linger and see what more would happen. After a while, with the brightness of the sun spread across the sky, we had to depart as it was going to be a full tour schedule ahead of us.

The guided island tour.

We almost missed our tour bus. There was ample time to prepare after watching the sunrise. In just a few minutes, we were already standing patiently waiting for the tour bus to pick us up in front of the hotel. The bus, however, was nowhere in sight. It turned out that we were not at the designated pick up area. Designating pick up points was a necessity considering that the roads in Santorini were narrow. In this case, the pick up point was on the other end of the street. Luckily, they saw us as they were driving by and stopped to pick us up. A useful tip: read the instructions on the location of the pick up points.

The Akrotiri Archeological site.

Our first tour stop was an archeological site of a pre-historic Minoan settlement in the southern portion of the island. Much like Pompeii, the devastating effect of a volcanic eruption caused its demise. The characterization of this site as “the pre-historic Pompeii of the Aegean” was because of the similarities of its devastation. Archeological excavation has been revealing significant findings on the site’s way of life. We have toured the ruins of Pompeii and saw better preservation and restoration of the site. There were a lot of similarities. The big difference between Pompeii and Akrotiri that our tour guide has been emphasizing repeatedly was the absence of signs of human or animal remains at the site.

The Red Beach was within walking distance from the Akrotiri Archeological site. The name Red Beach was because of the red hue of the sand caused by the erosion of volcanic material towards the sea. We opted out of exploring this area. We couldn’t walk fast enough to hike to the beach and back to the tour bus.

The village of Emporio and Profitis Ilias.

We moved on to the oldest village on the island, Emporio. It was built on the lowlands of the foot of the highest peak on the island, Profitis Ilias. Beside an Orthodox Church was our starting point for exploring the village. We were maneuvering our way through the maze of narrow, crooked alleyways that connected the cluster of whitewashed buildings. There were beautiful restored houses, centuries-old churches, and fortified structures that once provided protection for the village.

Profitis Ilias, the island’s highest peak, was one stop that we didn’t appreciate so much. It required a short steep walk uphill. We were tired and sleepy. The peak was supposed to show a panoramic view of the surrounding area. We opted to skip this part of the tour. Useful tip: a pair of good and comfortable walking shoes will help a lot. I have seen some people using telescopic hiking poles for walking assistance and balance.

The wine tasting.

The best part for most participants of the tour was the wine tasting. We stopped at a local vineyard and tasted their produce. A white wine, a red wine, and a sweet red wine. Sweet red wine has always been our favorite so we were already biased. To be fair, the red and the white were not bad at all.

At this point of time, our tour guide bid us goodbye. Our tour driver was driving us to the last stop of the tour, Oia. At Oia, we were given enough time for walking and exploring the surrounding area. It was also time for sunset hence the driver was waiting for us until a few minutes past sunset. We viewed the sunset but didn’t wait very long. It was back to the tour bus for our trip back to the hotel.