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Believe it or not, we’re on a “Vacation”! Now, don’t have a cow-I actually do vacation-albeit rarely We”re staying at a hotel on the tiny island of Antiparos, part of the Cyclades about 90 miles from Athens.

Slated as a dive vacation, my chest cold may prevent diving my spending much time underwater, but we’re hoping. I will post photos once we get home-we’re taking them with the SLR and I also have a dive camera to be able to show what we see. More soon.

Normally, when I do a web search for a place to stay, it’s a crap shoot to say the least. In this case, we ran the dice and got the best win possible with a dive center that was more concerned with a safe and enjoyable dive than in sticking it to the customer. Gary and the entire staff of Blue Island Diving and Vassily of Kouros Village are the top of the marks in my book! I really can’t say enough good things about them-they were great, and the week was fun. (Eat your heart out Amanda and Kreshona and Paul).

Day 2:

Well, the cold is still rumbling in my chest, so still no SCUBA diving. Did snorkel in the little cove by the hotel this morning-water was much cooler before the sun warmed it up. Despite that, a comfortable time diving with a water temp about 22. Saw many small fish and many small shells moving about. Also saw the water fans that inspired those neat plants in the movie “Avatar”. Those photos will be posted on the diving pages and the other photos around the island and on our trip will be posted on the family’s Napoli pages.

I spent yesterday afternoon (Monday) sitting in one of the local bars watching Portgual demolish North Korea. One had to feel sorry for the goalkeeper-he must have felt like there was a bullseye onhis back and several others on the corners of his goal. However, not too sorry-it was about time that Portugal woke up, and it’s the fisrt time in several years that I saw the Portugal team I know and love, albeit with a stranger in number 7. Somehow it just seems wrong that Figo’s jersy is being worn by another-even one as talented as Ronaldo.

No matches of interest for me this afternoon, so I will either sit and watch the sights here at the pool or grab my snorkel and fins and head to the water to swim a bit. Choices, choices! As for tomorrow-I’m going to try a shallow dive-to 5 meters-and see if I can handle it safely and comfortably. Morelater.

Day 3:

First dive of the trip this morning-a shallow one to 9 meters-with no discomfort, so tomorrow I’ll be heading out for 2 or 3 dives.

As for my choices yesterday… was able to do both with no problem.

Want to talk about the hotel where we’re staying. It’s called the Kouros Village, and it’s great. We have a 3-room suite, and it costs for the week something like 500 euro. From one room, we have a marvelous view of Paros in the distance (ok, a mile away), and closer, the cove where I’ve been snorkeling this week. Only glitch we experienced was the first night when we didn’t latch all the windows so the AC wouldn’t come on (there are sensors at the windows and doors to prevent air conditioning the outside-smart idea), and we were eaten alive by mosquitoes. Since then, we’ve had nothing but good things to say about the hotel. If we come back, we will definitely try to stay here again. Great place that serves breakfast and lunch, but no dinner.

Our dive shop is called “Blue Island Diving”, and Gary, the lead instructor is great. On my dive this morning, he had 2 youngsters and 2 older folks who were doing the Discover Scuba Diving. I dove with a buddy while Gary had the two adults, and he was very thorough and caring with them. Afterwards, he took the two kids out, and I was impressed at how he treated them as well. Once again, a ‘keeper’.

I’ll post photos on Sunday evening of the dives as well as the other photos from Antiparos and Paros. Great stuff-and yes, if we can, I do believe we’ll be back!

Day 4:

Some interesting football last night for sure. Was amazed that the US actually got through, and at the top of their group, no less. Reminds me of the Bamberg boy’s team I coached… where we won our regional tournament only winning one match-really pissed off my colleagues.

Did two fun dives today-both to 12-16 meters. Diving with me was a deutsch couple, and it was great talking with them. Tomorrow we’re planning a dive to 30 meters to see a wreck on the eastern side of the island.

Day 5:

Well, the deep wreck dive was canx for the wind-but that was no problem. We did two dives south of the island, and they were great. Gary’s new instructor, JC joined us as we dove to 18 meters and a small cave at a site called “Bubble Reef” because of the bubbles rising from the rocks. It was interesting, but I must have sucked down 20 BAR as I entered the cave (something about overhead environments really gets me going-nerves).

The highlight of the day for me was the dive at a cove called “Mick Jagger’s Lips”. After we dropped to the shelf,  went down the second canyon and popped over the rise, spread out before us, at 17-20 meters was a debris field of amphorae. Gary indicated that he’d  been told the amphorae were probably in the 400-1700 year old range. That’s exactly what I got into diving for. It was amazing for me, and by far the best dive of the 5 I did on Antiparos. Just fantastic!

JC gave me some good hints at better maintaining my neutral boyancy and they helped quite a bit, even though it felt odd for me to be adding as much air as I did.

Will we head back to Antiparos? As long as we are in Napoli (or Europe for that matter), I think the answer is a resounding “yes”. I enjoyed the week of relaxation and diving. The hotel (Kouros Village) and Blue Island Diving made it a perfect fit for me. I’m hoping we can head back next summer in August (because of school commitments in June/July) and that we can spend 2 weeks on Antiparos and a week traveling to the likes of Crete, Paros, and Naxos. Great fun.