No, this was not just a #weekend-experience, this was the experience that marked my entire summer vacation, which I spent in Pernera, Cyprus.
I will write more about the beaches where I spent my time in some future posts, and now I want to tell the story of one day I spent on the Pirate ship.
OK, there won't be so much story, it will be more in the form of a #photoessay, because what a photo can show, 1000 words can't describe.
Let's face it, I wasn't a real pirate (robber) like the ones who attack transport ships on the world's seas today on their super-fast speedboats.
I was a pirate, as they were 300 or 400 years ago, on a wooden sailing ship, with skeleton head flags and a small plank walking deck (now used for jumping into the sea) 🙂
That day began at the pier in Protaras.
I will share this location from where the adventure started on my #worldmappin map, because that location is the only one where you can start this kind of adventure.
We visited all the counters and inquired about the tour offer.
We didn't want an afternoon, romantic tour with sunset and wine hour, we didn't need an offer that included a luxury ship with full lunch, and from previous experience, on a hot day, choosing a ship with a glass bottom was not an option either, because then we would have to be below deck where it would be very stuffy.
We wanted a boat with an open deck, where we could be outside and enjoy the wind that would cool us down.
We chose perhaps one of the most unsightly ships (but certainly the most interesting, because of all the Pitra decorations it has), bought tickets and waited on the pier for boarding to begin.
The tour we chose will last 3.5 hours, and from the pier in Protaras, we will sail along the coast to Capo Greco, past several famous beaches, and we will have two stops for swimming.
The first stop will be in the bay of the Konos beach hotel, where the ship's hosts (dressed in pirate garb) promise swimming with turtles and the second stop in the Blue Lagoon.
Swimming with turtles, blue lagoon? We'll see.
As a seating position, we chose the covered upper deck.
When the ship "raised anchor" and separated from the pier, it moved a safe distance from the shore and sailed through the beautiful turquoise sea.
On the coast that I could photograph in the distance, I recognized some of the beaches that I visited from the mainland, walking along the beautiful promenade, and now I had the opportunity to see how far it is and how big the beach of Protaras really is, which ends at Fig Tree Beach.
Inaccessible coast and sharp rough rocks, in places interrupted small coves where there are sandy beaches.
One of these beaches is the Konos Hotel beach, where our boat stopped after a little more than half an hour of sailing.
That was the first stop where the tour organizers promised us swimming with turtles.
And indeed, they did not lie. The turtles were there, and we could swim next to them.
After a little longer break, we continued sailing towards Cape Greco National Park,
A complex of high rocks with a lot of natural caves, a strange bridge hollowed out by millennia of erosion and waves, and we stopped in a bay called "Blue Lagoon".
Jumping from the second platform of the ship into the beautiful blue sea was a great experience, and judging by the colors of the sea water that our eyes saw, this bay can truly proudly bear the name "Blue Lagoon".
When the swim was over, the skilful captain of the boat took us past the underwater rocks and came very close to the shore, so that we could see these rocks the best.
During that time, on the deck of the ship, fruit and a cuba libre cocktail with rum were waiting for us, which was the favorite drink of Pirats.
The continuation of the voyage included the return to Protaras and the continuation along the coast of the island, towards the border of Cyprus, to the point where the ghost town "Farmagusta" can be seen.
Abandoned since 1974 and the great Cyprus crisis, when the island was divided into two parts (Greek and Turkish), this city, which I now see in the distance, has been without inhabitants for 50 years and entry into it is prohibited.
I would think that this town would be an ideal hiding place for pitars, if they still existed.
But since all this today was a show, but very interesting and meaningful, we returned to the dock with the music played from the big and loud speakers.
A few hours of enjoyment on the ship, in the atmosphere from the age of pirates, ended when we disembarked from the ship, and it remained a beautiful memory for me.