Last Day in Ustica

For our final day in Ustica, the agenda included returning to a few of the natural salt pools not far from our hotel.  Here we  are above, walking down the hill - not shown are my completely desecrated and salt destroyed loafers...the only shoes I've had for the trip!

All along the hillside, there are wild garlic plants, and of course, I had to pick a few and open them up to try.  The raw garlic wasn't too strong; actually a bit sweet.  After I tried it, Maso, a doctor, said it was a bad idea and that the wild plant wasn't for eating.  Wish I had known before, but am happy to say that I survived.

In addition to the natural pools, we were also in search of an alleged "grotta segreta," or hidden grotto, that Antonio, our friendly van driver had told us about.  Water deprived and worn out, our crew proved resilient, and we located the grotta segreta.  If the grottos on the first day were like Pirates of the Carribean, the grotta segreta was more like from a scene out of Goonies, but minus the "boody traps."

We had a nice swim, and then it was back up the volcanic rocks to head over to the pools.  I opted to stay out of the water this time, in favor of a coffee with a few of the guys.

After hanging out for a bit, it was time for this motley crew to have some lunch, which on this day was a simple panino from a truck parked at the top of the hill.

Then, it was down to the port to catch our boat back to Palermo.  Here's a photo of the group at the dock, awaiting our ferry ride back.

The ride to Palermo was only a few hours, and I slept the whole way.  We had an hour or so to kill before our bus left for Mazara, so we went to a spot called Cibus, suggested by one of the guys in our group who lived in Palermo.  At Cibus, you choose your food from a deli case, and I definitely went crazy because everything just looked so good! Octopus, clams, shrimp and little fried fish, plus some chicken and eggplant caponatina (with tomato sauce and capers), it was a veritable feast!

Then, it was about 9:30 pm and time to catch the bus to Mazara.  About an hour and a half later, we were back in Mazara. Fran and I decided that we weren't tired, and to head to the city center for a beer.  Claudia met us, and at 1:00 am, the place was teeming with people.  This is the height of summer in Sicily, and one day before Feragosto, the August holiday.

At 3:00 am, we decided it was time to go home.  After all, I was heading back to Palermo at 8:40 am to "hopefully" pick up my luggage from the airport.  And so, Fran and I dropped Claudia off, but on the way back home, decided it would be a good idea to check out Batita, the big outdoor disco in Mazara, because, well, it was summer and you know, everyone was going to be there.

As it turns out, everyone was there.  Or at least it seemed that way.  The place was jammed, and we ran into Pippo, a good friend of Francesco, whom I had met last year in Mazara.  The photo captured a good one of the three of us, that has since been digitally immortalized on the Batita Facebook page.

By 4:00 am or so, it was time to head back for a brief snooze before heading out to the airport in the morning to check on my bag.