Today we took a boat tour around Zakynthos – an island to the south of Kefalonia. For years we’ve been wanting to visit Zakynthos to see one of Greece’s most photographed beaches: Navagio. Navagio is also known as shipwreck beach since a boat smuggling cigarettes wrecked here 40 years ago.

People flock to the lookout point atop the cliff to get a picture of the ship from above with the sun beaming down on the shore. It shows up on my social media feed regularly (recently with the tag of Revere Beach as a joke.) Tourists have taken their lives in their own hands trying to get a great view of the ship from above, resulting in several deaths. This year, the Greek government decided to ban visitors from going onto the beach and the lookout point over the shipwreck.

When we approached Navagio in the morning, cliffs cast a shadow over Navagio not giving the same vibe that we had been thinking about for years, though it was still cool to see the dramatic shear cliffs that surround the small beach and the shipwreck.

The second boat stop was the blue caves, Zakynthos’ version on the blue grotto. There were many caves formed along the coast by the wind and sea centuries ago. The boat took us around and close to one of the larger ones.

Our third stop was Alykanas, where we disembarked and walked to lunch at Neraida, right by the beautiful beach. The boys quickly swam in the warm water after lunch before we boarded the boat to return to Kefalonia.

Later that afternoon I worked while the boys went on a walk and did our last load of laundry for awhile.

For dinner, we went to Ampelaki about a half mile down the road from our AirBnB. We started with plump anchovies and tomatoes on bread, and pougakia which were described as “money bags of Messinia pastry” – chicken, mushrooms, cheese. For entrees I ordered moussaka, D had “Kreatopitta – the Kefalonian meat pie” of veal, pork, rice, tomatoes and herbs with handmade filo, and Paul had sea bream. We were stuffed!

Strolled through the city center that was filled with kids playing soccer, tons of people eating and drinking and strolling, shops selling Kefalonia trinkets of all types, and stray cats and dogs running everywhere. Finished the night with a glass of wine on the roof deck, listening to the singing of a group of men who perform greek folk songs every night at a restaurant on the bay.