Jason’s Travelogue

We went snorkeling in this pristine cove!

Roland doing his thing into Aphrodite's Bath. Probably the first one to have a go there since the Goddess of Beauty herself.

On a trail near Aphrodite's Bath

We bought snorkels and took off in our sweet Daewoo hatchback to the Northwestern coast of Cyprus,

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The following day, we made our way to the beach. We went off-roading with our rental Opel along a series of turns and bends on an elevated coast line, much like in California. In fact, the entire area seemed like a mixture of California and Australian outback nature… with us driving on the left side.

The cove we entered had little areas that were shielded with wire- turtle nesting areas that we were to avoid. Unfortunately, we did not see any little turtles poke out of their shells and shuffle over to the water. the water was blue, but happened to be extremely salty and full of seaweed/kelp. Swimming was a bit difficult for this reason, even with goggles. We spent most of our time tanning, reading, and eating our snacks. I tooka solo venture over to one end of the cove, where the sand was overrun with large and small rocks of unsually purple shades. Sitting on one of the bigger boulders, surrounded with water on all sides and the breeze running into my face, I watched the sunset make its way across the skyline.

The dinner we made at home included some sort of calamari, garlic, salt, butter, and pasta. It was delicious, especially topped with a tomatoe salad and some decent wine. However, the salad “dressing” we bought was thick, white, and I thought was okay until someone said it smelled like restrooms.

Eventually, we dropped off the girls at the airport, and then went to meet up with Ben and his girlfriend from New York.

Cyprus, the island of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, and Patron Goddess of Ladies-of-the-Night everywhere. The island itself is rife with relatively recent turmoil, with land ownership and sovereignty issues unresolved between nearby Greece and Turkey. The Greece-Cypriots dominate the Southern part, and outnumber the Turkish-Cypriots 4 to 1 million people. With the recent admittance of Cyprus into the European Union, only Turkey recognizes the Northern Turkish State of Cyprus as an independent nation. On a lighter note, I got to use Euros, and the Euro is much cheaper than it was when I was in Europe this past summer. Hot damn the greenbacks are making a comeback! Dan has been reading about the modern history of this nation, and trust me, it is twisted stuff. There is a Green Line that divides the country, and only recently have there been compromises and agreements been made between the two “governments”. However, things are still very tense, with armed guards evident, and crossing borders was a pretty big hassle. For example, the northern government doesn’t mark the ONE entrance to the North because they want to deter people from the South from entering. There was even an “insurance” we had to pay for our automobile to cross the border. We drove a pretty sweet Opel Zafira minivan… I got the back back seat, the trunk seat because it would only comfortably fit five. Since it was a manual, only Dan could drive, Roland was our chief Navigator in the front, and I couldn’t ask a girl to sit in the trunk so… it (usually) fell upon me and my sense of gentility.

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