A mere 300 permanent residents.
Beaches so remote, a torturously hot hike or boat ride is required to reach the most pristine.
A studio to call my own, just five paces from a tranquil bay where dolphins gather at dusk.
The island of Tilos would appear to be my version of the Greek ideal.
Except….
with so few greek residents, I meet more tourists than locals. Unlike Nisyros — which gets excursion boats filled with volcano seekers from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, leaving the island to natives outside of those hours — Tilos gets tourists who park themselves for weeks at a time.
Also, everyone in Tilos is half of a couple, except for me. I feel my lack of coupledom acutely here, which hardly ever happens. Tilos is definitely for two’s.
After I leave the island, I find out I missed out on a museum devoted to the mastodon –midget elephants that roamed Tilos and disappeared from the earth around 4600 BC.
Unbelievable.
How many chances will life grant me to see the bones of an extinct midget elephant?
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