On the Trail of Aphrodite
PCR Test
He is very gentle. I am shocked. It doesn’t hurt at all. I happily inform him that he is the best tester I have had so far. The only painful thing about the test is the price; 50€ per person (about $80 Canadian). Ouch.
The Cyprus part of the trip is passing too quickly. I love having time with my son but after the next few days, I won’t see him in person until sometime in January for a few weeks before he heads to Brazil.
Old Town Paphos
From the medical centre we drive to Paphos Old Town. It seems we had just missed it when we were wandering around the other night. Graham realizes that he forgot his postcards at the house but still wants to buy stamps. John has not had a coffee since he got to Cyprus so he sits at a scenic cafe while Graham and I shop.
After walking around the small old town area we are on our way to Agios Neofytos near the small town of Tala. Graham is skilfully navigating using John’s offline map app called Maps.me. We do have a car GPS but it tends to get lost at times. I’m not looking forward to navigating when we are driving around Jordan.
Agios Neophytos
We travel up the base of the mountain and pass through Tala which by the look of the houses is a well to do suburb. We soon arrive at the monastery and the first thing I notice as I exit the car is the abundance of birdsong.
The monastery is named after Neophytos, a hermit who wandered into the mountains and found a small cave to live in. Over the years he gathered some followers to his ascetic religious lifestyle and the cave was expanded to three rooms. In the centuries after his death monks continued to live at the site and it grew into a much larger complex of buildings including a church and cloisters.
The complex is peaceful with its cloister with small avaries of softly chirping finches and budgies. There are gardens at the side of the church filled with lemons, oranges, pomegranates, cabbages and more.
The church is very Byzantine; dark inside, with sober frescos and ornate religious items.
The sign says to wear masks but one woman comes in maskless, prays and then kisses numerous pictures of saints.
Baths of Aphrodite and Latsi
From the monastery we continue up and across the mountains to Latsi Harbour and the Baths of Aphrodite.
The walk to the baths is through a botanical garden. Much to our surprise, the baths are not by the sea but up through lush forests which you don’t see much of in Cyprus. The baths is a pool in a cavern with fountains and water running down the roots hanging through the ceiling. It is very magical looking. A totally appropriate place for Aphrodite to bathe.
On our walk back to the car we stop at an outlook over the Mediterranean where we enjoy the view and sounds if the waves while sharing two cans of Guiness beer that happened to be in our fridge.
Then it’s a short drive to the beach town of Latsi. We walk up and down the waterfront. Graham finds a gyros booth and is very happy.
Sunset at Pathos Harbour
It’s only 2:45pm but we head back to Paphos so that we can find a place for sunset and supper.
It takes a bit of meandering around closed roads to get to Paphos Harbour. We watch the sun set into the clouds on the horizon and have supper in one of the overpriced tourist restaurants on the waterfront. The food is average but the view and company is great. They also have internet and I get an email official document saying that our PCR tests are negative.
Graham navigates us back to our Airbnb apartment.
I forgot to mention that our Airbnb is next to a small hospital. John says that after all my accidents in South America, he thought this would be a good location.
You three live the good life keep enjoying.
Thanks