Naxos II

On our first evening in Naxos we met a man who runs a local hotel. We were taking photos of his garden and he invited us in, almost insisting on helping us. He proceeded to tell us that he had been in the travel industry until last year when it had closed. Now people wander around Naxos and don't know where to go or what to see... he could take us on a wonderful tour to really appreciate the nature of the island.
We set up a date to travel with him on Monday and it turned out to be a most interesting day. He brought his 2 daughters with him, they are 8 and 12 years, lovely girls and they hoped to learn more English.
Demitris drove us to the north central area of the island where it is quite lush with vegetation. We saw mixed orchards, olives, peaches, pomogranites, many other fruits, walnuts and almonds. Vegetable gardens were still thriving in the heat, producing all those heat loving vegetables like tomatoes, melons, beans, and peppers.
Naxos is known as the potato capital of the country and exports to the neighbouring islands. They are large and yummy.

He gave us a treat of just picked ripe figs. They were delicious and he showed us how to eat and peel at the same time.

We drove by farms with good looking dairy cows, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens – and always, goats.
Greek Orthodox chapels dotted the hillsides, as usual, and every little settlement had a bigger church in the centre.

He showed us pipes that had been placed in the hillside during Roman times (1st century) to bring the water from the hills down to the settlements.

We drove down a sideroad to a little garden. At the entrance was a statue on the ground. It was a 5.5 metre marble statue, one leg broken, and the work was probably abandoned. It is from the 7th century.

We stopped at several interesting businesses. One bakery had a wood fire pit beneath the oven and the fire went up through a hole in the main oven where the bread was placed and on up the chimney. We bought some of the bread and it is lovely.

We also stopped at a citron liquor factory to see the process of making a liquour which is popular here.They can keep it!

We also saw a marble quarry in the hillside and then stopped at a mill that cuts the huge blocks into various slabs to be shipped around the world. Beautiful white marble.

Dimitris asked us if he could take us out to supper at a village so that we would see the difference between city style and country style. Jim and I went with him and enjoyed also seeing an example of an old olive press. It was amazing because of the strength people would need to first roll a massive rock around on the olives, then put the paste in bags and lay it on a different press and squeeze it until all the oil had run out.

We returned to town, said our fond farewells to Dimitris, and walked back to the boat with our most beautiful sunset yet across our bay.