Day 8

Well, couldn't believe that, we would finish packing in just an hour after the kids went to bed last night. We had to leave our holiday villa by 10 am and our flight back home was around 20:35 in the evening. So, a lot of time to kill.

Parasailing @ Chrysochou Bay, Polis

According to the plan, we drove to Latchi with all our bags packed in the car boot to retrieve BigBro's water beaker from the Latchi Watersports Centre, which we had left behind on Monday. After saying our thanks, we went to the Polis beach. The kids had a good swim in the sea after building sand castles.

Polis Beach

Then we had a mouthwatering and earthy lunch at the local family run Karouzis tavern, which was almost about to close down for the afternoon siesta. The kids were kept company by several family cats, who were disappointed (I think) by our disinterest in feeding them. After enjoying a shot of Cypriot coffee we made our way towards the pottery shopping area along the Paphos - Limassol road, a few blocks after the Debenhams roundabout. We wanted to buy some earthen bowls. Next stop before driving to the airport, while the kids were sleeping in the cool air conditioning of the car, was the Papa Antoniou bakery to buy the ever popular Tahini pie, the delicious local pitta bread, some baklava & a whole load of cookies. Why can't they bake the pitta so soft and tasteful back home is still a mystery. Maybe, it's my project to reckon with in the near future.

Shadows of clouds across the sea

With our handbags full of the baked goods, we checked in at the Paphos International airport for the return flight, unknown to us that, the sweet syrup from the baklava has already made its way to the rest of the bakery products contained in the same bag. Well, at least, everything and everyone made its way home safely, after a brief hour-long fiasco of one of our checked-in bags being picked up by a Mr Greene at the Stansted airport, it being completely identical to his own bag, excepting the weight. I should remember to tie in a special ribbon in each of our bags for our next trip.

Cyprus still will remain very close to our hearts for a long to come. We have already looked at the plane ticket prices for this time next year (again)! BigBro still misses his 2 stones from the Kissonerga beach that, he had to throw away at the Paphos airport changing room since his jeans' pockets were getting too heavy to carry them back home and LilBro is heard quite often singing "We are going on a Cyprus holiday .."

Day 7

Tuesday was spent again in the swimming pool and a visit to the Kissonerga beach.

Sun behind the clouds @ Kissonerga

Peyia

Mountain overlooking Peyia village

Time to pack our bags for our return journey back home next day. Again, we had some wonderful memories we would be carrying and a host of towns and villages that remained to be seen - the whole Eastern and Central parts were left untouched by us- - itinerary for our next visit!

Day 6

After our morning swimming pool time, we drove down to the Latchi harbour and hired a 70hp powerboat from the Latchi Watersports Centre named "Life of Riley".

Life of Riley

The very helpful twins Lucy and Emma, from North London themselves and in Latchi for a working holiday for 3 years in a row during their summer holidays, guided us through the whole process of detailing on a map all the viewpoints of the North side of the Akamas peninsula, where we could drive or stop for a break. 

Navigation map along the Akamas

George from Northern Ireland (it's a small world, again), showed the Captain of our boat aka DH all the intricacies of driving the boat and off we went with our life jackets on and our coolbox packed with water and juice, our swimming costumes ready in our backpacks. We were safely guided out of the packed harbour. 

Fishing boat @ Fontana Amrosa

The thrill of driving a speedboat over the choppy waters of the Mediterranean was exhilarating. We had been advised to keep a safe distance of about 200m from the shoreline, but to avoid any risks we misjudged the distance to be 1km. And, hence we missed all the viewpoints we were supposed to look out for - Aphrodite Rocks, St George's Island, Amphitheatre Bay and lastly The Blue Lagoon. We ended up anchored at the edge of the penisula. 
How did we get to know? Well, my DH checked the GPS on his iPhone (apparently 3G mobile network in the Mediterranean around the island was very good, even better than VHF radio signal on the boat!) Life without GPS seems impossible to us! Well, we still tried to swim in the blue waves, so clear that you could see the sandy bottom. The current in the waves was so strong that, BigBro was floating away from the boat & needed to be dragged back, then we found that the anchor was moving away from the shore. Next, we turned the boat around and started to head back. We stopped at Manolis Bay for a quick break. We reached the Latchi harbour with the sun setting behind the clouds, an afternoon well spent in the sea breeze, you could taste the salt on your fingertips or on our kids' cheeks.

Latchi Bay