On the way down the Cliff of Santorini

We had given ourselves a fair amount of time to get back to the ship, which was a very lucky thing because when we came back from Oia to Santorini the line to the funicular was blocks long, and we weren't interested in stading and waiting while we could be moving and making progress.

We knew there was a walking path to get down the trail, 600 steps, or we could take a donkey.

Johannes kept trying to put me on a donkey any time he saw one so he could get a picture of his pregnant wife as Mary. But have you ever seen a donkey walk anywhere other than in a cirle for a pony ride? They have really swaggering hips and then on top of that you add downhill on stairs? No way. I thik the mule is the primary culprit of Mary going into labor the night they arrived in Bethlehem. There was no way I was going to get on that donkey. That said, there was only one path and as soon as you get around the first bend in the road it dawns on you that the pedestrians and the donkeys share the path down hill, and the whole 600 step path is like walking behind the police horses in a parade, and the donkeys aren't all that smart either. They could actually have been blind. They all seemed to have their own favorite way down and woe be unto the person who got in their way, because they would smash you up against a wall or nearly knock you over the edge of the footpath. I think this old man was grumpy because I took his picture without renting his donkey.

Despite everyone's looking at me like I was a crazy pregnant lady walking down those stairs, it was really easy, and we made it to the ferry boat in time to see the sunset.