would be a nice title for a book I thought but also a good idea to implement in reality. The 'Akamas' is the most western tip of Cyprus, the area after Pafos, the tourist center. Once one has left this nice but rather touristy town behind and starts climbing up into the hills, a little bit of the bygone and more rugged Cyprus appears, as always as soon as one moves away from the coast. Sure the coast has it's charm too, but not in the main tourist season when hordes of holidaymakers of all colours decent on the strip stretching from Aya Napa to Pafos. The mountains are not as crowded as well as the northern coast of the southern (Greek) part of the island. The Akamas is ideally placed, away from the crowds and more quite and serene.

It was a long time since I had visited Cyprus, so after five years it was about time to go again. The flight from Beirut to Larnaca is short, really short, 25 minutes. The time spend in Immigration can take you longer than the flight. November is low season, and instead of the dozen or so holiday flights that greet you in the high season on the tarmac, there was just one other plane at the gates when our plane from Beirut arrived. Arrival procedures where easy, lots of rent a car services and on the way to Ni cosia in no time. Driving is another thing getting used to, it is on the, sorry, wrong side of the road. :) It takes a bit of training and getting used to, on the highway no problem, but traffic circles are another story. Anyway, it was all good and the next day it was off to the Trodos Mountains, to the monastery of Johannes Lampadistes in Kalopanagiotes. The drive from Nicosia goes through the Mesoaria plains until the foothills of the Trodos Mountains, when the road slowly winds up the hill, the valley getting narrower by the mile. The land was dry, it had been a long and hot summer, and rain was desperately needed also in Cyprus. In the valley there was a little stream that was still flowing down from the Trodos Mountains, but if no major rainfall was to come soon, the days would be numbered for the creek. In contrast to most of the Middle East, the countryside was very clean and tidy, something that is appreciated if one comes from an area that sometimes feel more like a rubbish dump then anything else. But that is a complete other story.

The weather was nice for the whole time, and it was relaxing to travel with old friends and stay at their house. The Akamas peninsula was nearly empty but windswept the days we visited, clouds came in from the west and the forecast was advising of rain for a few days later. It was nice to travel during the 'empty' days, not much tourists and mostly locals. Even Limassol was pretty, autumn and winter have their advantage in those tourist hot places. For sure the time around Christmas and New Year, which is just around the corner, will see an influx of people, but very well so.

Back in the Levante, the Christmas season has started. While in Cyprus, finally, after 2 and a half years, a President was elected, also not all are happy about the choice. It is still the old guard from the civil war, there are young and inovative people that could have made a better choice, but so be it. Besides the presidency now for the first solved, it is the formation of the government now that hinges on the same deals, we will see. The other problems still persist, trash crises, electricity crisis, refugee crisis, war in the east, security situation and for sure a few other things. A day or so ago, a cosmetic surgeon was murdered after having been kidnapped 40 days ago and dumped in Sidon. Gee what did he do wrong? We finally had our first rainy days, and so did Cyprus. Weatherforecast indicates that more rain is to come next week, good, but the electricity and TV, as usual will suffer when it rains. The change of the year will be spend in Germany, if everything goes well, one more Christmas and I be free. Photography wise, besides being in Cyprus, I have continued with the work on the Rue Hamra project and the Graffity in Beirut. Mostly I used the Olympus cameras, OMD5 an EP2, which I kind of rediscovered for its grainy B/W setting which I like. I hope to write at least one more post before the year ends, and kind of promise that I will try and do more next year. Good Bye.