The church festival a gathering of friends and family  

2016
Start of a new
season of touring on Santorini

 The people of the island continue their lives in the traditional way

One of the remaining builders of the traditional style of Santorini in Emporio 

A View from the fortress in Emporio  

The small Taxi boat to the red,white and black beach in Akrotiri 

In Megalochori  

The islanders of Thirassia well known for their mules 

The most special moment for Greek people in receiving the holy bread . 

https://www.facebook.com/On-Lava-Santorini-Travel-Services-243502202334150/

Finding new tours and this is amazing for quality of cuisine and learning how to cook and tasting wines  
Each year I never stop looking for places to see and do on Santorini and had the great pleasure of taking some visitors to the new wine and cooking class they came and picked us up and made a lovely evening so special with their knowledge in such a lovely friendly environment at the Boutari winery but we felt special as vip .  

Oia the lifestyle before tourism and it's buildings

The houses here were mostly built into the earth which  housed their animals towards the back  leaving the front section for sleeping cooking and resting after hard days working from  before sunrise to sunset in the fields for the landlords who lived in the houses set behind the high walls .   

After the last earthquake in the 50's the government encourage the local people to return to the island by building houses and new  roads with the intention of developing Santorini as a number one place for tourism .They built the classic shelter housing style of houses that you can see towards the opposite side of the road on the Caldera which were once just fields and giving plots of land to the less wealthy to develop again the agriculture which was one of the main income sources for the people.        

I show you this building as one of the many mills that you can find on the island. But for me is was the first time i met Ms Anne a lovely old lady who would love to sit outside in the summer evening and we would chat about life as i worked in a hotel as an evening  receptionist 15 years ago and from then till today i always pass-by to see if she is ok and have a little chat .   

The village also had a big connection with the sea life where men and  landlords went to sea to fish or sailed far distances on  the cargo ships as captains or sailors  travelling all over the world For more information go to :   https://www.facebook.com/MaritimeMuseumOiaSantorini/info.
Nowadays a few of the men in oia go fishing and selling their catch on the main road of Oia or the port of  Baxedes  selling their fresh catch of fish of the day .

     

#THE AGRICULTURE SIDE OF SANTORINI

 Kalimera Good morning from Santorini today sunny and a slight breeze .I had been asked the other day has Santorini got other animals apart from mules , which brings me to explaining what i know from the local people that there was a process of farming and rearing animals on santorini before tourism.As they lived in small close net communities and before electricity where they didn't have fridges to keep fresh meat they would arrange between each other if there were enough who wanted meat to killed the cow or goat.But nothing was wasted of the animal the best pieces of meat as you an imagine was used on a family celebration and the remaining would be processed to make smoked or cured  meat that was eaten over a period of time .    
                                                       The vegetation of the island was made

up of the most famous fava which is sown in December and harvest in April ,the tomatoes ,eggplants ,etc are sown in spring and ready to be picked in June or earlier depending on the weather conditions. The most amazing point to growing crops here are the farmers do not water the crops ,they leave nature to takes it's
natural morning or over night dew to cast over the crops allowing time to be adsorbed into the ground
 before the heat of the sun and because of the minerals of the volcano soil the crops are small in size to what we know and in some cases in colour but when eaten leave a rich taste of a mild sweetness that is famous
in Santorini salads,tomato keftedas,eggplant salad and many more local dishes.
When you come to the island you will not find any big farming machinery as all sowing and harvesting of crops are painstakingly done by hand in the traditional way of their ancestors of the land which amazes me when you can still see men in their late 60s-80s bending over their crops in times of heat or winds with pride and a means of an income supplying to restaurants ,hotels and their family .