Eat Climb Repeat

As the title suggests, my life in Kalymnos is fairly straightforward. A few beers and some sleeping get thrown in there somewhere too. 

After a rest day we headed to the Grande Grotta cave. Take a look at how small the people look on the ground. This thing is massive! Following a 5.10d warmup, I somehow managed a 5.11d flash and a 5.12a onsight. Maybe there's some validity to rest days! (I also found heaps of double knee bar no hands rests). This cave is absolutely stellar and I can see why it's so popular. 

It's also a nice spot to crack a beer and watch the sun set behind Telendos Island. 

The next day we hit up another wall nearby. A couple of hours of climbing near this cave full of silent and still goats became quite unsettling. The climbing was awesome though! Nabbed the onsight of a super technical and thin verticle 5.11d. The sheer variety of styles here is another reason this place is becoming one of my favorite climbing destinations. 

And now I've done something that I've always vehemently avoided as a traveler and as a photographer... I took pictures of food... Given that I plan on doing nothing more than climb every day while I'm here, I figured you deserved something more. And the food here is so good! All of these restaurants are family owned, serving up only the most authentic Greek cuisine for insanely cheap prices. I've gone out for dinner twice now and have paid 7 Euros each time. And this includes bread and dip for starters and dessert and alcohol after the meal. Not entirely sure how they make any money here but I'm okay with it. And the hoards of stray cats running around trying to mate is great entertainment while you wait for your meal. 

I've also been taking full advantage of having a legitimate kitchen with a stove and refrigerator. This is a new style of travel for me and it feels so cushy. The produce here is very cheap so I've been making all sorts of tasty dishes. Today I experimented with a balsamic based red cabbage slaw. Came out great!

Today I also bid farewell to my climbing buddies. It's been a great week climbing with them and hope to cross paths again in either Colorado, Squamish or Patagonia (where Chad recently built a house).

Now I shall try and find a busy climbers bar and attempt to secure a climbing partner for tomorrow!