We started our morning with breakfast with Diane just outside the Yurt where we stayed last night.  It felt so right sleeping in the round again!  

I asked Diane if there was anything that I could help with and she asked me to carry some items out to the table.  I noticed that there were only two plates and I informed her of that.  She replied that some people don’t like her to eat with them.  I hastily invited her to eat with us and we were so delighted to have her company.  She is such a pleasure to talk with.

Not only did we have the sea in front of us as we had our breakfast but we also had this lovely banana tree.

We drove down to the village of Mantiniea a little later.  It amazes us how narrow the roads are and makes us appreciate our little car even more.  We actually did pass a couple of cars as we were out driving.  William just pulls over as far as he can and lets them pass us.

There was about a dozen houses, of course a church and a couple of little restaurants in town.  We went in for lunch at this little place.  No one there spoke a bit of English but somehow (without a menu) we were able to communicate what we would like and got a really great lunch.  Rice and Beef for William and I had beans and spinach soup.

Most of you have seen our personal yurt so many times I won’t bore you with pictures of the Pacific Yurt here in Greece.  But if you are like me, you probably cannot wait to see the inside of a real Mongolian Yurt.  The dome is actually supported by two interior posts.  The hand painted rafters are beautiful!  There are 10 times more rafters in this traditional Mongolian yurt compared to ours.  

Both Yurt’s use the lattice side walls but there are no windows in the Mongolian Yurt.

At the top of the lattice there is a wooden slat interwoven in the notches to hold the rafters instead of the metal cable we have in our Pacific Yurt.  We do not believe there is any insulation in the Mongolian Yurt but there is a interior side curtain.

The top of the dome is open on the Mongolian Yurt but Diane has added a tarp to cover her dome.  And there are 3 ropes that wrap totally around the side.

The Mongolian Yurt has much shorter side walls.  The Mongolian Yurt cover is in one piece whereas our Pacific Yurt has a top cover and several sections of side walls.

Diane has multiple units here on her Property sitting just about the Sea in Greece.  She has a long rock Kitchen Building, the Mongolian Yurt, a wooden yurt shaped office, a bath house, a tree house and of course her Pacific Yurt which she rents to travelers.  She has a guest log book and I noticed that most of her visitors are actually from Europe.  She told us at breakfast that her location will be in the National Hearld next week so perhaps she will gain more tourists from the US now.  We have invited Diane to come stay with us when/if she travels to the US.

Beautiful views to the sea, olive trees that are more than 250 years old, and our Earth Momma friend Diane with a very big giving heart – we will be sad to say goodbye tomorrow as we continue on our travels to Santorini.
Make sure you read the article about Diane that I told you about.  You can Read it here.

Taxelidonia – The Swallows.  A beautiful name for a beautiful YURTOPIA.