Finding the balance between developed islands and those that have been less touched by the present is important to us. We want it all!

Ancient ruins, lovely cafes, fruit stands, boutiques, fishermen, windmills, scooters, hiking trails, water only accessible beaches, umbrellas for hire, gyros stands, concerts, museums, ice creams stands, bakeries, and nude beaches.

The Naked truth on Nisos Donousa

This island has a small harbor called Stavros that was empty of all but one small sailboat. We set our hook, pulled out the binos for scanning our new surroundings, and saw lots of tents on the beach with nudists a go-go.  That night the restaurant blasted Reggae until 4 AM. Wherever we looked, flashlights were traveling over the hills and on the beach. We wondered how anyone slept as there were young families camping too.  The next morning we wanted to go hiking over the hill for a look and supplies. OK, we were curious.

The question before hopping in the dinghy was “do we shed our clothes so we blend in, or not?”

After much pondering, my partner in crime and I decided that we could go to the beach, walk to the town, and on our way back shed our suits. Good plan!

As we approached the beach in our dinghy, we saw lots of bodies of all different sizes and shapes. This was not like the nudist camp in St Martin where I once counted 100 male who ha’s before deciding enough was enough. Those were mainly old, wrinkled, small, and surrounded by hair, balls, and fat bellies. The first two were tall, tan, lanky men walking by, and the next was same but lying down, uncircumcised. Looked a bit like the sausages I’ve been buying.

Then we noticed an extremely large woman lumbering towards the water and we both said “beached whale” quietly at the same time. She was obviously seeking bouyancy and we can only imagine how good that felt. Good for her! We love how everyone here swims. Everywhere.

There were naked families too and one mom was naked and her son had a shirt but no shorts on. Guess they were protecting him from the sun. Good parenting!

We saw 2 lovely ladies in the water entwined, and bodies everywhere without a hint of tan lines. Reminds us of our friends from France last January who eagerly showed us their calendar that had photos of her in the nude for every month. Taken locally. Everywhere. No tan lines. Anywhere.

So over the hill we go, bought too many delicious pastries and headed back.

At the top, we took photos of El Gato with that amazing blue water beneath her,

and talked again about shedding the clothes. It’s one thing to do this on your own boat, it’s another to take it all off and walk around in front of others. I’ve never done it before (Eric has a few times!) and it’s scary to think about taking the bottoms off. Top? Not such a big deal. Still in the getting to know my husband phase, turns out Eric doesn’t want to share me so we opted out. Except for our tops. We wanted to blend a little. We walked down the hill and over to the restaurant where the music was coming from. 

Eric was looking for the menu because he was certain they would have sausages and bearded clams as the special. But no such thing, and… surprise! I was the only topless woman in there! Agh! We did a quick turn around into their garden and headed straight back to the beach. Well that was embarrassing. For me anyway.

Back on board El Gato, our comfort zone, we shed it all as we pulled up anchor. Our routine is I drive and he makes sure our anchor comes up. Right then a small local ferry almost sinking with so many people on board came from behind us and within 5 meters of our starboard side. The side I drive on. So much for modesty! In the middle of our operation we could not hide, so those tourists got a good view of these two nudists in action handling their cat!

Death of an Octopus
We found an empty harbor off Nisos Schoinousa where soon a yacht with Italians showed up and set close by.

While checking our anchor for secure holding, Eric found an octopus hanging out by the chain. Excited he yelled to me and I mistakingly shared this with the other boat. Thinking they would jump in and come see it, instead one came over by dinghy, another swam, and they caught it within a minute with some kind of dangly hook contraption. WTF?

It’s sick to watch them peel the outer skin off while it’s still alive. I’ve witnessed this twice and it tears my gut. Of course I eat these creatures but seeing what happens gives a better appreciation for what is going in my mouth.

Kinda like when I asked the butcher in Amorgos if they had lamb and he went in the freezer, brought out a whole skinned lamb, eyeballs and all, hung it on a hook, and pointed while asking which part did I want. Then he took the cleaver and hacked the leg off. Eating that leg was the closest I’ve come to truly owning what it means to eat meat. I can relate to vegetarians much better now. But I’ll still eat meat and octopus thank you very much! The lamb was delicious.

Siros has the capitol of the Cyclades

Sometimes you just get lucky. While strolling around Ermoupolis, the capitol, the we saw a building colorfully lit up and changing hues. As we walked towards it we noticed a crowd forming. Out timing was perfect. We walked up to the stage with no clue who would play except it was someone from Crete, and the band began to play 2 minutes later. The guitars and sounds and the lead singers voice? As good as it gets. Very sexy man cooing his ballads with younger hip musicians and all ages were there to listen. It was in the plaza where diners could listen and enjoy their meals.

Our last Cycladic island was Kea, close to Athens.

More ancient ruins including one dedicated to Athena.

And yesterday we arrived to rendezvous with our Aussie mates who bought boats in France same time as us. Really nice to have friends who understand our lifestyle, saw each other from the beginning of the journey, so there was dancing and laughter and sharing of stories both good bad and ugly. Kindred spirits!

And that is the naked truth!