A taste of Cyprus

Our latest trip took me to the city of Pafos on the southwest coast of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea. We were only on the ground there for one & a half days so we had to make it count. First day there, we headed across the street from our beach front hotel (Venus Beach Resort) to a place that rented various autos. We chose the open cockpit Dingo.

Cyprus has been independant from Great Britian since 1960 & although the primary language is Greek, we found that everyone spoke very good English. The people were all very friendly & helpful, as tourism is one of the primary industries of the island (along with wine production).

Cyprus is a great place for outdoors lovers to visit. There are many hiking & biking trails, as well as places to fish or just sit on the beach. In the winter months the Troodo Mountains offer cross-country & downhill skiing as well as my favorite, snowboarding. The peak of Mount Olympos is near the center of the island, rising to 6,400' above sea level.

This Dingo was made for off-road travel, but was a fun ride on the road with no windows & street tires! :)

That's right, since Cyprus was a British colony at one time, so they do drive on the left side of the road. Thankfully, I only found myself on the wrong side of the road once after traversing our way part-way around a traffic circle in a clockwise direction (rather that the more familiar counter-clockwise direction). This did of course cause a mass of horn honking & my quick response on the reverse gear! :)

Anas takes a turn at driving in the mountains & I find out that without an instrument panel on the left side of the vehicle, there is NOTHING to deflect the bugs away from one's face!

Now for a little snorkeling in the Med. The water was VERY clear & a little cool (by Egyptian standards, Anas said). Not a whole lot of life to be found here, but a good place to practice for me, before our planned snorkeling (& maybe scubba) trip to the Red Sea later this summer.

In this area, there were many small valleys in the rocks, that ran right up onto the shore.

Most of the fish that I did find here weren't more than about 6" long.