I am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece, but of the world

Thank you Socrates for that one.  Although I agree with the sentiment, for at least one week I was able to experience Greece, and let me tell you, if you have to be a citizen from some country, you could do worse.

So, I spent a little over a week in Greece with the Moms.  Two full days in Athens and then four more in beautiful Santorini (see above), an island five hours by fast ferry from Athens.  I wasn't a very good tourist to be honest.  Or I was, depending on your perspective.  While we did a couple of the requisite museums and ruins, we also spent quite a lot of time by the pool and the ocean, just relaxing with one or five bottles of Mythos.  I don't really have a lot to say about the trip, other than it was a wonderful break with my Moms (love you Moms!) and I'd go back in a heartbeat, but I'll leave you with some more images.  Enjoy!

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time

Just over one month since my last post.  Not too bad.

My latest Oman adventure took me to Snake Canyon (for us furriners) or Wadi Bani Awf for locals.  No snakes to be seen, it gets its name from its narrow and winding trajectory.  Yet again, I had a blast.  There was quite a group of us, maybe twenty in total.  I was really worried about the heat; all that week it had hit 115 everyday (dry heat, but still).  But within about twenty minutes of starting the hike, I cooled down, never to feel hot again for the rest of the day.  Here's why:

No that's not me jumping.  The only person who had a water-proof camera took about 200 pictures...of his girlfriend primarily (Shout out ST.  Much love!), so just photo-shop (or go really old school and IMAGINE) me into this picture.  But you see why the heat wasn't a problem.  We spent the entire four hours of the hike soaking wet.

There were four or five jumps like this one into deep pools of water, and a couple of slides as well.  All naturally-occurring, and there were some very hairy rock formations to navigate.  Nothing requiring any special equipment, but not for the faint of heart either.  Should any amateurs attempt this hike, you really need to take someone who's done it before, because some of the hand/footholds in the rock are tricky or hard to find.  We had several guys along who had hiked the canyon before, and they were super helpful  (Shout out MC, CM, and AaS!).

Several parts required swimming, including about 250 meters through this awesome cave:

So no snakes, but Cynthia (I finally named my car!) pulled a flat on the gravel road into the canyon.  Thank God for the U.S. Marine Corps, who had the spare on in ten minutes flat (Shout out NC and SS!).  But there were some tense minutes driving at a snail's pace back to the paved road, terrified the donut wouldn't hold.  But she did, and everyone made it back to Muscat in one piece.

A couple more pictures, including a group shot of us at the tail end of the hike.  If you squint really hard you can see me in the red bathing suit on the left.

I really love this country!!!  Next, off to Greece with the Moms.  Will post upon my return.