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October 21, 2009
A glass bottom and a lorra lorra laughs
We go on the same boat trip we went on last year. It's a glass bottom boat and takes us through the clean sea to Lindos, via Navarone Bay and St Paul's Bay. (Yes, he stopped there briefly. St Paul, I mean; and the locals are still recovering.)
Not only is it the same boat as last time, but the same pilot - with the same jokes, in the same order. He's good though.
'My name's Ionnou. But then why would you be interested?'
'Oh, we are interested!' we all say.
'Then you must be very sad.'
'Out there is a rock miles from anywhere. See it? Strange to see a rock so isolated. Well, not so strange. My mother-in-law lives there.'
He takes us close to some rocks:
'This is where I lost my first boat. It was OK. It was only foriegners on board.'
Like many who are at their brightest in the first excitement of meeting, he began to lose interest in us after half an hour, and from there on it was just a matter of appreciating his maritime skills (exceptional) and the views (exceptional again.)
Navarone Bay is called that because its where they filmed the steep dark climb in 'The Guns of Navarone'. But because its dark in the film, you don't see the wonderful turquoise blue water, which we get to swim in. When we're all in the water, he plays 'Jaws' music loudly.
And getting back to Ionnou and his patter, it was an amazing thing really. He did three trips a day, seven days a week, six months of the year. That's something over 500 performances a year, and he'd been doing it for who knows how long? Yet it was fresh. Me? I struggle to say the same thing twice.
Oh, and he remembered us. He remembered we'd been before. How about that?
Posted by Mr Bojangles at October 21, 2009 12:47 PM