Greek Island Holiday: Filerimos, Kamiros, Petaloudes (9/6/1983)

Tuesday, September 6, 1983

Awoke at 6:45! Went to breakfast at 7:20, then to the lobby at 7:50 where we were to be picked up for the Valley of the Butterflies tour.

Valley of the Butterflies Tour receipt

A bus pulled in to the front of the hotel, and we walked out to it while the driver got off the bus to come towards us. He checked our tickets, then ushered us onto the bus. Marsha C and I were the first passengers. We drove along the coast and then as we entered the city of Rhodos, we began stopping at hotels along the way to pick up more people. We came around the harbor of Rhodos, seeing the medieval walls, the windmills along the dock, and glimpses into the old town. We made a long stop in town, at apparently the Lindos Tour office. We picked up several more people and our blonde tour guide who wore knickers and a T-shirt. We continued to stop at other hotels, playing leap frog with other tour buses also picking up passengers. We drove along the west coast and all the major hotels were pointed out, stopping at a couple of them. We noticed that the beach chairs on this side of the island all faced inland.

Our tour first took us to Filerimos, which means friends of loneliness = monks. The bus zigzagged up the hill of pines, cypresses, and a few fig trees. We had a view down on the area where they are beginning to excavate the ancient city of Ialyssos. We were going to its acropolis that was also used as a fortress by the Knights of St John, and the monks liked it so much they built a monastery up there. We paid 50 GRD/35 cents to enter, and climbed the steps between the rows of cypresses.

Filerimos ticket

We were first shown the foundation of the Temple of Athena Polias, with the stumps of four columns in front, three rooms, and four columns to the rear.

Temple ruins

Pieces of marble from the temple were built into the wall of the church on the section that was built over the Byzantine church ruins. There were wall paintings in that section, but it was closed. We walked out front to see the ruins of the Byzantine baptismal font, in the shape of a cross, in the ground.

Baptismal font

We entered the church with its three tiny rooms for chapels, a main chapel with an altar, and a room in the back with paintings and a white icon in black casing on the wall. We exited out the back and followed a path arbored with old evergreen trees leading to a lookout point for a hazy view down on the island and out to sea.

Evergreen allée

View from Filerimos

We then found ourselves in a courtyard with beautiful bougainvillea flowers, named after the knight who imported them from Madagascar. (N.B. Bougainvillea is native to South America and named for the explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville during his voyage of circumnavigation in 1789. It has since been introduced to countries throughout the world.)

Monastery cloister with bougainvillea

Here also were the steps leading up to the back wall of the church. We walked along the cloister and climbed the stairs up the front of the monks’ dining hall for another view down the mountainside and on the church.

Monastery church

Monastery quarters

We left the acropolis to see the Doric fountain, but the gate was locked. We followed a tree-lined path with Stations of the Cross to another lookout point. It was hazy, but you could better see that there were mountains on Rhodos. We headed back to the bus, having a few minutes to buy postcards and sample the seven-herb liqueur, which was bright green and had a minty taste, but strong. Back on the bus, we drove downhill and had the different flowers pointed out: bougainvillea, oleander, and the hibiscus imported from Majorca. We stopped at an olive wood workshop to see a guy cutting a candle-holder on a lathe, then viewed items made from olive wood in the shop.

We continued along the coast, past the airport, and headed up another hill to the nearly forgotten city-state of Kamiros. It was once a large city but became a ghost town, time buried it and it was forgotten. No one knows why it became a ghost town. They have now excavated the main parts of town. We paid 50 GRD/35 cents to enter.

Kamiros ticket

Our guide took us in and in her speedy, not perfect but good English, she gave a history and pointed out the main sights. We stood first in the agora/market with the ruins of the Temple of Apollo where two columns stood. There was a surrounding wall, and you could tell which was original and what was reconstructed. There were lots of ruins and columns, and a semi-circular raised area, the tribune, with a couple column stumps with carvings of lion heads. Behind that was the Hierothyteion/sacred area with a sacrificial altar.

Hierothyteion

We followed the main street and to the left were ruins of villas fronted by shops and with garden courtyards.

Looking back down the main street

One villa had eight rooms and the next one with prominent courtyard columns had 40 rooms. To the right of the main street was the “public” housing, mostly one-roomers. We climbed up the hill to the supposed arcades (now low walls) and found a cistern, a huge stone lined hole in the ground. Behind that were a series of mounds and a line of “sewer” covers. We weren’t sure which of these were the “graves,” as noted in our German guide book.

Marsha had to use a restroom, and went behind a bush far to the right. Her restroom had a marvelous view down into a valley! Highest on the hill were a few stone walls, the remains of the Temple of Athena.

View from the acropolis

We came down a path on the hill with great views of the ruins, green trees, and blue sea. We went to the bottom end of the main street to see the public baths, with three levels of the various water systems: hot, cold, and sewer. We exited and got drinks at a refreshment stand, accompanied by Nußtortli/nut tarts Marsha had brought. At about 12:20 we loaded onto the bus and drove down the hill, passing Suzuki Things, a rental place for dune buggies and motorbikes. We started back along the coast and then turned inland to Petaloudes, which is a gorge full of butterflies from June to September. The guide told us there is a type of plane tree (Liquidambar orientalis/Oriental or Turkish Sweetgum, found in Rhodos due to its proximity to Turkey) here with a resin that has an aroma like vanilla that attracts this particular breed of butterfly (actually the Euplagia quadripunctaria rhodosensis/subspecies of the Jersey Tiger Moth). We paid 20 GRD/15 cents to enter and began hiking up the gorge full of trees.

Petaloudes ticket

We crossed a pool where there were two wooden bridges made of thin logs and branches. There was a narrow waterfall.

Waterfall and pool

We searched for these butterflies/moths, and farther up we could see a couple fluttering around. We found several more bridges and another waterfall. Then we began noticing the butterflies/moths, with black and white striped wings in sort of a triangular shape, resting in trees, on leaves and bark, and especially in hollows of old rotten trees.

Euplagia quadripunctaria rhodosensis/
subspecies of the Jersey Tiger Moths

Rhodes Jersey Tiger Moth

A man walked passed shrilly whistling, and we saw some butterflies take flight. People began clapping and shouting, and even shaking the trees to get clouds of butterflies to swarm off. When they took off they revealed the bright orange under their wings. They were very small, only a 2” wing span. But plentiful. I went to a rock and noticed a bunch of them, and said “aha!” and they took off! Oops, very sensitive. (N.B. These moths are endangered because they have no stomach and if made to fly too often, they lose their energy to live and reproduce.)

Swarming moths

We walked about 15 minutes into the gorge, then turned around to come back. We had misunderstood and thought the leaves smelled like vanilla and tried crushing them to find they smelled like mace!

Marsha (I think she is trying to reach a leaf!)

Valley of the Butterflies

We bought postcards and returned to the bus by 13:30, which was the time the tour was supposed to end! It was much alter by the time they rounded up everyone, and drove back along the coast. We dropped off the guide in her home town of Kremasti with a large white church, and a library and school built by the residents who had immigrated to America! The passengers were dropped off at their hotels. We passed the inland walls of he old city with its deep moat. Marsha and I were the last ones off the bus, at 14:30. We hurried to our room to change into bathing suits and went out to the now filled swimming pool to find comfortable lounge chairs. The attendant found us to get the 65 GRD/45 cent fee. Marsha went swimming and found the pool had salt water. We had 7-Ups, nuts and candy for our “lunch.” We went in at 18:00 and in our mailbox was an invitation to a German-language “vacations information show” offering free prizes, for the next day.

After showers we went to dinner at 19:00, starting with watery cream of mushroom soup, then jad a mixed grill: a piece of lamb, a flattened Greek meatball, a tiny piece of beef, and a hot dog that was like a heavy Vienna sausage. There were cooked carrots and a tomato and cucumber sandwich. For dessert we had crème caramel. We decided to play cards and write postcards down at the card tables in the main lounge. There was a party going on for the Swedish guests in the garden outside the tavern below. We went over once in a while to watch them eat at a buffet (smörgåsbord?!) and listen to The Dorians, the disco band. There were a couple “show times.” 1) Three men had a beer-chugging contest. None of them could chug a whole glass. 2) “Zeus” came out with five women in togas with leaves in their hair. They had to dance a can-can and were awarded prizes. 3) Several guys came out dressed like the Village People, claiming to be a rock ‘n’ roll band from Washington, DC. The black tour guide representative led this group in singing a couple rock songs, and in getting every one to dance the “boogie woogie.”