The next day was another hot day, and it was my turn to take a swim and cool off a little. I was by myself and walked a little ways around the side of the island until I found a small area where the shore curved inland, breaking the waves a little. It resembled a cove and looked like an interesting place to explore. Other than myself, the only other life form in sight was a wayward goat that was clanging his or her way around the bushes and the rocks a few yards away.
I dove down seven or eight feet to the bottom and collected a few interesting looking seashells. After looking around under water for a few minutes, I could see that it was amazingly clear. It was a lot farther than I expected to be able to see under water. Knowing that something could easily see me from the deeper water, I began to get the notion that I might be invading a peaceful back yard of some notorious fish that might want to claim its territory. I then decided it would probably be a good idea not to hang around very long. I'd had a good enough look at the pulsating sea weed from the underwater currents and had gathered a few sea shells to compare to a couple other ones from the Pacific and called it good. It was fear of the unknown, especially in the category of salt water life that only schooled veterans of the Navy could understand. The extent of my schooling applied only to non-floating things, things other than clean sheets and gray paint. I'm a good swimmer, but didn't know the territory. Other than the stingrays and the squids that I had learned about from Pepinno, I had no idea of what else could be lurking under water in this remote area of the island...
After getting out of the water, close to where I'd been swimming was a rather unusual white, dome shaped building that caught my attention. There weren't any signs of people around anywhere and there was no fence, so I thought I'd look into it and see what it was. The door wasn't locked, so I carefully invited myself in. It appeared to be a private shrine, a one room building that had a place for one person to lay on with a thin mat for a cushion. Made out of plaster, the bed like structure was built up and connected to the rest of the building. There were a couple cans of incense to burn next to a small makeshift alter that was undoubtedly a Greek orthodox place of worship. Simply put, it was a peaceful, undisturbed place where one could to be alone to meditate and pray...
Not long after walking back to the house, Edward came tromping in, looking like he'd seen a ghost or something. I said , "Whats wrong?" While he was still dripping wet from walking out of the water, and hanging on to a bunch of snorkeling gear that he'd apparently brought with him on our trip, including some very large frog feet, he explained between breaths, how he had almost drowned. He was still having trouble breathing and appeared to be coughing up salt water. I said again, "Edward, are you alright?" He said he almost drowned while he was trying to snorkel to the island across from Anti-Paros which was a mile away or so. He said the waves got bigger as he got closer to the other island and kept hammering his goggles and going down his snorkeling tube. He said he had taken in a lot of water before deciding to turn around to come back. I remember hearing him cough up salt water most of the night while I was trying to sleep. I don't think the over intelligence of either one of us commanded a whole lot of respect from our contemporaries in Greece while we were there. It was a nice adventure, just the same...
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