Impatient visitors, potential explorers of the island, approached to read the posted itineraries to plan their excursions. The small boats pulled, almost motionless next to each other, waiting for the next day’s movements on the nearby beaches of the island: Ftenagia, Kania, Areta in the eastern and northern part: Pontamos, Trachea, Yiali in the south. The first night walk in the port exuded a sense of calm which had nothing to do with the busy and noisy Greek islands.
Gradually, the lights began to come on through the rectangular windows of the colored parallelepiped houses from one end of the harbor to the other. it was probably still days away from filling. The bright mist immediately jumped to the back islet as the sun tilted to the west while, at the same time, the moon appeared. Gradually, it began to lose this mysterious glow, and the light seemed to go out as if it was sucking it in itself leaving behind only a dark silhouette. In front of us, a little further out near the mouth of the bay, the small islet ‘Nisos’ was gushing another warm yellow light that seemed to come out of its bodies. The passengers of a sailing boat kept the pace of the day unabated, and the dives continued until dusk.Īt the same time, on the other side of the port, the liner ‘Sebeco II’ was entering, performing perhaps the last route of the day from Kamiros of Rhodes to Nimborios.
From the outside, the sounds of laughter and music enjoyed my ears. Other local immigrants in Weirton, West Virginia, USA donated the big clock to the island.Įnjoying a slice of watermelon, a peach, and a cool juice on the upper terrace of the house, after the refreshing dip is like landing in paradise. Through their donations, many buildings were renovated and infrastructure was created. The Halkites in Tarpon Springs, referred to as “the Greek island of the United States,” never forgot Halki. At that point, many spongers migrated to Tarpon Springs, Florida, where they established a lucrative sponge industry they are still active today. In the first years, the profession was very arduous and dangerous, a “mission impossible.” Gradually, the modernization and use of special devices led to overfishing of the sponges and the deforestation of the sea-beds with the result being that activity declined. Sponges abounded on the shores of the Mediterranean and spongers reached as far as the coasts of Africa to collect this otherwise humble, animal species, as Aristotle first pointed out. It was a whitening process that upgraded the product and made it appealing to the tastes of the ladies of the time who used it for their daily care.
This terrace was called ‘snow’ because the sponges were ‘snowed’ there. There, in the old days, spongers used to dock with boats and treadmills and unload their wares as they returned from the ‘hunt’ of the sponge. The view from our veranda was unique and unforgettable as was the first dive directly into the sea from a spacious patio terrace at the lower level of the building, where the moorage is located. "Also," she says, "there are varying amounts of pigment within the retina, and that can affect the color." Age and other factors also can change the color, so even two dogs of the same species could have eyes that glow different colors.We then followed the lady who welcomed us when we arrived and crossed the courtyard of the church of Agios Nikolaos, paved with a beautiful mosaic, before arriving at our small hotel. Powell says this is due to different substances - like riboflavin or zinc - in an animal's tapetum. Squirrels, kangaroos and pigs don't have the tapeta, either.Īnd not all eyes animals' glow the same color. Humans don't, and neither do some other primates. But sometimes the light doesn't hit the photoreceptor, so the tapetum lucidum acts as a mirror to bounce it back for a second chance.Ī large number of animals have the tapetum lucidum, including deer, dogs, cats, cattle, horses and ferrets. When light enters the eye, it's supposed to hit a photoreceptor that transmits the information to the brain, Powell explains. That light-reflecting surface, called the tapetum lucidum, helps animals see better in the dark. Cynthia Powell, a veterinary ophthalmologist at Colorado State University. "A lot of the animals we see, especially the ones that go out at night, have a special, reflective surface right behind their retinas," says Dr. But why do some animals' eyes glow at night?
A cat's eyes glow thanks to its tapetum lucidum.Įyes that glow in the pitch-black night make for many a scary tale.