The Last Weekend in Cyprus: Part 1

From the time we had our first meeting about the Cyprus trip up until two weeks into the trip, we tried to plan an out of country excursion for a weekend.  This trip has been done for the past four years.

We debated taking a cruise to Egypt and seeing the pyramids, but opted to avoid the conflict there.  We thought about cruising to Jerusalem to see the Holy land, but the price was out of our allocated budget.  Petra in Jordan, Istanbul in Turkey, even Italy and Greece were too expensive to plan a trip at the last minute.

 So instead we opted to see more of Cyprus.  Things we would otherwise miss, such as Salamis and Famagusta.  For our last weekend, we tagged along with the other study abroad students on a trip to Latchi (which is near Polis), a small seaside town on the southwestern side of the island past Paphos.  In all honesty, it was a weekend trip meant for leisure rather than learning.

Naturally I couldn’t go a whole weekend without at least trying to learn something in Cyprus or about Cyprus.  Blame it on my silly insatiable curiosity.

 The trip to Latchi was excruciatingly long because there are no direct roads from Nicosia to that side of the island.  As a result, you literally have to go around the outskirts of the island, around your elbow to get to your thumb, if you will.  Luckily I was seated near Chelsey and I was able to introduce her to the musical Ragtime, which is one of my favorites.

After checking into our hotel and eating a late lunch, I grabbed a chair and headed straight for the beach.  I was determined to get some sun on this last weekend since I had the makings of a killer farmer’s tan.  Then we decided to get into the sea, which was a far better experience than we had in Ayia Napa.  While there were still rocks all over the place, they were much smoother in Latchi and it was much easier to get in and out of the water.

Since Kendra, Chelsey and I had become Dr. Legg’s three musketeers by this point in the trip, we didn’t pass him up on his offer to take us to dinner with Thanos and himself.  The plan was to head to an even smaller fishing village and have dinner at a very local fish tavern.

Since I had won the twenty-euro photography prize, I asked Thanos if I could use it to cover a traditional fish meze.  He agreed and he, Dr. Legg and Kendra joined me for what would be my last meze experience in Cyprus. 

I am happy to say that, while some variations of the seafood was unexpected, it was delicious and I was able to eat everything that came to the table.  We had small crabs that you literally just popped into your mouth, legs and all, fried calamari (but I still prefer the calamari we had at Little Plates), octopus, sea bass, another large fish, some small fish, king prawns, mussels (which were far less disgusting than I’d imagined), salad (of course), the traditional tahini and tzatziki dips, and watermelon for dessert.

 I’m so glad that during my time in Cyprus I was able to experience the two traditional meat and fish mezes as well as a non-traditional meze at Little Plates.

Saturday morning, Dr. Legg took Kendra, Chelsey and I back into the Troodos Mountains.  This time, the goal was to visit the Kykkos Monastery and to, hopefully, find some Moufflons.  We had no idea how great of an adventure we were about to have on our final Saturday as temporary Cypriots.

We were informed by the hotel manager that, while Kykkos was only about 50 kilometers away, it would take us around two hours to get there because of the twisting, winding mountain roads.  Added to that was the fact that there was a road rally which was taking place that day, on the road we needed to take.

As we were winding our way around the Troodos Mountains, fearful of the occasional cars that would come racing around curves in our lane, and trying to dodge the jagged rocks that these cars were spewing onto the road when they took the turns too tightly or too wide, we saw a sign that said “hideout” with an arrow.  My dear friend, Mr. Curiosity, struck all of us and we ventured up the dirt road to see what the hideout was, unsure of what we would find.

What we did find was a tower at the very apex of the mountain that turned out to be a fire watchtower.  A gentleman sits up there all day, looking out over the mountains for fires that might start.  He informed us that the hideout we were looking for was back down the mountain and on a dirt road offshoot. 

 The hideout turned out to be a little cement bunker in the side of a mountain that was very well hidden.  A sign next to the bunker, naturally in Greek, had a date of 1957 on it.  This date seems to suggest that this hideout was in use during the Cypriot revolution against England for independence.  Perhaps the Cypriots used this location as a scout post to watch out for advancing British troops.  Another date of 2003 leads me to believe that’s when the EOKA (I don’t know what the acronym stands for, sadly) dedicated the hideout.  Overall, it was an interesting, albeit brief and somewhat interpreted Cypriot history lesson.

So, three hours later, we finally reached the Moufflon preserve.  Oh, you’ve never heard of a Moufflon?  Yeah, neither had I.

The Moufflon is actually indigenous to Cyprus and can’t be found anywhere else in the world.  It resembles both a ram and a deer and is now a protected species in Cyprus.  The Moufflon population drastically dwindled because Cypriots would hunt them for their meat, but it’s now illegal to do this.

The Moufflon Preserve only holds a few Moufflon at a time and it would seem the preserve serves as a way to help control/enhance reproduction of the species.  At first we were worried we wouldn’t see any animals but, after a somewhat exhaustive hike up 55 stairs and several steep inclines, we finally found the Moufflons hiding at the top of the preserve in a herd. 

 It was a sight that I think very few visitors to Cyprus take the time to seek out.

It's a sight that I will not soon forget.