Day 17- Blue Grotto (Capri)

Today was one of those days where you both love and hate Italy simultaneously...

We endeavoured to head off early in the morning to catch an early ferry over to Capri, as we had heard all sorts of rumours about the killer line up to get into the blue grotto. A couple staying in our room at the hostel in Sorrento told us that the day before they had got all the way to the blue grotto when the captain of the boat said that they had to turn around (as someone was sick) and return to the main port, where everyone could catch another boat out to the grotto again... After all that, they never ended up seeing it!!

Anyway, we were determined that today we'd not only get into the grotto but that we would also swim there (even if that meant one of us "accidentally" fell in and the rest of us had to save that person!!)...

Well, we caught the ferry, bought our all day "all island" tickets and went to line up in the blistering heat for the bus, only to find out that there was a fire on the road to the other side of the island and that we would have to take another route... So, another line up in the heat and just when we're about to hop on the bus, we're told our "all island" tickets are not valid for any of the buses at the main port... First, we have to line up for the cable car up to the town center and THEN we can catch every bus in sight!

So after another line up, we finally get to the top and find the line for the next bus! By this time our 'early' start was void (it was already 1pm!) and we were all feeling a little heat affected and ripped off...

However, as soon as we hopped on the bus and started to wind around the narrow streets that climbed up the edge of a ridiculously sheer cliff face with the most stunning views of the coast of Capri, all negative feelings melted away and we fell in love with this gorgeous place!

After a quick lunch at Annacapri (yes, you guessed it... the usual!), we caught another bus to 'la grotta azzurra', walked down some stairs and there it was... No lines, just straight on to a little boat and in you go!!!

Ok, so this was a fairly momentous way of aging gracefully (yes, I became a little wiser today!!)- as I said before, we were DETERMINED to jump in for a swim... AND WE DID!!!

Hands down THE BEST SWIM I HAVE EVER HAD!!! Thanks to our cheeky little boat-man who slyly said with the straightest face, this is a good spot to swim... We were like, 'Now? What would happen if we jump in now?' and he just shrugged his shoulders and turned away while saying 'You can´t jump in with your shirt, it'll get wet!' haha!! Thanks, that's what swimmers are for... (here's something we prepared earlier!) So we took that opportunity to jump in and then proceeded to shout at Wayde until he realised this was his one opportunity to have the most amazing swim ever!!! He got the message...

Two words: Electric blue...

That water was incredible... Unfortunately, we all either left cameras at the hostel, the batteries had died, etc. so apart from my "old gal" we only had mobile phones to document this momentous occasion! Here are some little videos that I think show how excited we all were...




Four O'Clock consisted of little details around the blue grotto, the boat-men, a man fishing off the cliff, etc...

After our grotto experience, we headed off to another 'beach' nearby and after some positive peer pressure, jumped into the crystal clear water from the rocks... The only down side was Wayde's encounter with a local Medussa (jelly fish- ouch!)... After this we decided we all needed some liquid therapy while waiting for the patrols to leave the grotto area, so that we could sneak in for a farewell swim in the grotto... And sneak in we did!! It was like a bizarre little theme park ride... All these boats turned up out of nowhere and there were about 50 or so people swimming around inside, all squeeling like kids!!

Lots of fun!