Jeep tour--caves and Aphrodite--weaving and swimming

Our (very vocal) Cypriot Jeep guide (improbably named Jason, of Micky's tours), took Mary and me plus a Danish mother and son and a Norwegian couple with adopted Ethiopian boys,  us to limestone caves at Avakas Gorge then  along a nature trail  in a valley at Pegeia, which contained some common but also very rare and threatened plant species.

In a hilltop village,  we found an Australian born Cypriot lady with 8 children who has emigrated back to Cyprus; she runs a small museum. In the same village, Ineia,  we met an elderly lady weaving on a century old loom and Mary bought one of her weavings. Her house reminded me a little of the small house we saw of a farming family in Peru.

We visited a turtle protection reservation at Lara, for loggerhead turtles and their nests, where a small tank held some tiny baby turtles.

After a nice lunch at Polis, we went to the Bath of Aphrodite--where the magical waters make all women look twenty years younger--judge for yourself--Jason said he had been bringing his wife every day for 30 years!! At the Jeep, Jason said he thought Mary looked like someone older he knew once---clever guide!

Lastly we stopped again at Lakki to swim for an hour, in a very warm, clear, sea.  I suggested challenging the elder boy from Norway to a swim race, then he mentioned he can swim 7Kms and is a Norwegian national representative swimmer. I kept away after that. He is the one doing aerial water gymnastics.

Finally, after  a 30 kms drive back through dry fig orchards and prickly pears, home and  a pic of a large Greek Orthodox church, I think.