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There are three ways to get to the Blue Grotto. By boat from this harbor, by bus up the road to Anacapri or walk up the 800 Phoenician steps. We chose to take the boat because we didn't know any better. However, the sea was calm, the weather was nice and the boat ride was enjoyable. Lacking calm seas (or a strong stomach) and nice weather, the bus would be a good choice.
I washed this picture out a little to make it easier to see all the boats. I count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven...oh, maybe nine counting ours. At 15 to the boat, that's 135 people waiting their turn. From arrival to row boat, to visit, to back in your own boat a turn can't be more than 20 minutes or so.
I really washed this one out so that you can see the age of the people transferring from the big (?) boat to the row boat. Turned out to be a fairly easy manuver. The oarsmen have it down to a science. Money is a great motivator of science.
The name of this boat is the Titanic. In spite of the obvious difficulties presented by the number of people in this boat and their age, the evolution went as smooth as silk. There seemed to be a lot of "Shut up and sit down Fred. Wait until your told. Turn up your hearing aid." In this situation, money seemed to breed patience.
Well here you are. Excited? You will be when you see the size of the hole into the grotto. The guy in the blue shirt is heading for the Grotto, but you can tell that he isn't there because he is not lying down yet. See the stairs to the right? Those come down from the bus.
Here is the alternate way to get to a row boat. You can't avoid the rowboat and you'll see why soon. The orange roof of the bus is visible near the top center and the steps can be see to the middle right and middle bottom just above the guy in the checkered shirt. The boat with the sun roof is where you bay the row boat fee and the entrance fee. All very official.
A view of the opening from inside. See the bow of the row boat outside the hole and the oar of our boat crossing the opening? To enter, you lay down in the bottom of the boat, the oarsman rows up to a chain that is fastened to the wall, lays down and yanks the chain to pull the boat inside. Pretty cool, eh? (A little Canadian talk for you.)
I took these two pictures.
A picture post card. Now I ask you, whose is best? Naw, skip it.
Even if I didn't take the best picture, we still loved it. Our
picture inside the grotto. Come visit us. The Grotto is only 15 miles from our
house.
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