The Cyprus Blog at TripToCyprus.com

Cyprus has never ceased to amaze me. Even after 7.5 years of exploring Cyprus, i still manage to find new pristine places that i have not seen before. For many, the only waterfall in Cyprus is the Kalidonia waterfall. Few others know Milomeri and even fewer have heard of Mesa Potamas waterfall. To my surprise, i came across this Chantara Waterfalls and i can definitely say that this is the most beautiful waterfall in Cyprus, unless there are more hidden gems like this!

Also known locally at the Handara waterfalls, this waterfall is easily accessible by road (earthern road). The beauty of this fall is because of the split in the main falls because of the huge rock in the middle. This offers numerous photographic opportunities to try out the slow-shutter technique to bring out the silky flow of the water.

This falls is located between Phini Village (or Foini Village) and trooditissa monastery. Phini Village is just a short drive from Kato Platres. Once you reach the village, you will see a clear signboard for handara waterfalls. This is a 2 km drive on earthern road. The road was a bit bad, but we managed it in regular family cars. If you are coming from the other side, drive to trooditissa monastery (this monastery is not open to public), cross the parking lot (the end of the parking lot if marked by an arch) and continue on the earthern road. The moment you leave the parking lot, the road becomes earthern. Keep going towards foini/phini (taking a left at one junction) and you will come across this waterfall right on the road.

The adventurous ones might dismiss this waterfall because of its accessibility through road. But, don’t worry, even they have lot to explore here. Once you gather the courage to clamber up the side of the waterfall (a path visible to the left of the waterfall) and then jump over some rocks, you reach the top of the fall. It was extremely slippery at the top and my camera had some close calls. Once you are at the top, you are rewarded with two more small waterfalls. We wanted to climb to the top of the third one to see if there are more, but it proved to be too slippery for us to continue! We spent more than an hour exploring the place and taking lot of photographs. I would give a big thumbs-up for this place and rate it as one of the must-visit places in Cyprus.

written by Rajaram S

Forget the beaches, forget the half-naked Britishers, leave the shores and head out to the countryside. It is spring in Cyprus and this is when Cyprus is at its best. A cool breeze, a bright-but-not-hot sun, green grass, wild flowers, a light drizzle - it is paradise out there.
Over the next few weeks, I shall be writing posts which concentrate on seeing the best of Spring in Cyprus. Road-trips, picnic spots, small treks and the like. The past few weekends, I have been doing just that and there is no reason why you also should out there doing the same

You could go on a trek…

or visit the rose gardens in Agros village…

or go in search of fields of yellow flowers…



or catch the dawn/dusk sun for some wonderful photo ops….

or go in search of white flowered almond trees…

or go into one of the hundreds of orange farms …

or hope that Yermasoyia dam gets lot of water and it overflows (with water and greenery!)…

To catch all the posts on the best of springtime in Cyprus, visit Spring in Cyprus

written by Rajaram S

NOTE: If you are seeing this through e-mail or in a feed reader, you may not see all the photos. Due to the large number of photos in this post, i have put many of them in flash slideshows which don’t show up on feeds.

The snow trek is a yearly routine which happens every jan/feb whenever we have a sunny weekend following a week of good snowfall. We had decided to go to troodos last Monday (Monday was a day off for us) as there had been good snow the week before and the snow was visible on the mountains even from Limassol. I checked the weather forecast for the weekend and it showed…

I went WOW! A snow trek during a snow shower. All were ready for it and this is the first time (in my 7+ years in Cyprus) that i decided to go to troodos when the weather was supposed to be “bad”.
We were not disappointed. What started off as a slight snowfall turned into a heavy shower and we loved it!Click on the photos below to see bigger versions (No new windows opened!)

Driving the car on some stretches was a bit scary, but we managed to reach until the artemis trail and return safely (with only a little push needed at one point).

Our original plan was to do the Kalidonia waterfalls trek starting from the top. When we got out of the car at the start of the trail, it was freezing! We had to get as much as cover as possible before we could start. It was also snowing lightly which added to the fun. This year, Anith was the new person on the trek (we make sure that we introduce a new person to this trek every year). But, the depth of the snow wasn’t as much as the previous years. So, it was like walking on a thin layer of snow, not the usual buried-until-the-knee kind of snow. After some distance, there was ice/water layer on the trail which made it difficult for the people who weren’t wearing the waterproof boots. So, we turned back and decided to try another trail. Some photos from this trail. Click on the images to get a bigger version.

Our next stop was the Persephone trail. From the roundabout at the troodos square, take the exit towards the troodos police station. The first walking trail you will come across is the Pouzarides trail. A little further, you will see the start of the Persephone trail. We have walked this trail few years back in summer but that is for another post! This is a one-way trail around 2 kms long offering good views of the open mine. The snow was fresh and extremely soft. So, our attempts at sliding were futile. We didn’t go a long distance on this trail as it started snowing heavily. After a few customary photos, we headed on to our next stop, the artemis trail.

We weren’t sure whether we would make it upto the artemis trail. After the troodos square, the road wasn’t cleared much and it was white in many places with the final climb to the trail almost entirely on snow and ice. But, it was fun trying to park near the trail. We had to take u-turn and that is very challenging with ice all over the place. The snow was fresh as it could be with no signs of human activity on them.

Vidhya wanted me to take photographs of the snow which flies out when one walks across the fresh surface. The photos weren’t upto the mark, but there were ok.

Artemis trail is highest walking/trekking trail in Cyprus and is 7 kms long. It is a circular trail which runs around Mount Olympus. This trail offers impressive views of the surroundings of Troodos, including the Prodromos dam. I have been on this trail a couple of times, not more because it is difficult to convince people to walk for 7 kms. But, there was no sign of the trail now because of the snow. But, we knew where it started. There, we saw a sign pointing the direction of the trail.

It was ironical that the signs were pointing in a direction where the only thing that the eye could see was snow.

We had already been 2-3 hours in the snow and we were not in a mood to walk 7 kms in knee-deep fresh snow. So, we decided to save the artemis trail snow trek for later and attempted out usual stunts on the snow. We tried to slide and the only thing that slid down the mountain side was the plastic thing that we had. It turned out to be a big effort for harish to go and retrieve it! Since the snow was soft, we had a downhill race and you can see the results in the flash slideshow below. On the whole, it was a super-fun day and it was the heaviest snowfall that i had ever seen

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written by Rajaram S

When i was in Seattle, i ordered a lot of photo-related products like photobooks, photocards, photomugs etc from snapfish, shutterfly and many such stores. During one such order, I was given a free 8*10 print. So, i chose to choose some of the pictures taken in Cyprus and ordered a print. The individual photos in the picture below are clickable and they will take you to the relevant post about that place.

The photos in the picture above: (Starting from top-left, going left-right and top-down)

• Taken at Stavravouni Monastery on a cloudy day.
• Aphrodite Trail near Baths of Aphrodite in Akamas
• Ski Slope on Mount Olympus in troodos. Photoshopped with a radial blur!
• Kalidonia Waterfall in winter
• Yellow Flowers near Kurion Beach on the limassol platres old road
• Kelefos Bridge
• Roudia Bridge (no, this is not the roudia bridge, but the approach road to it. The bridge is behind the camera!)
• Flamingo watching at Akrotiri Salt Lake
• River Walk near the kelefos bridge (A long-due post!)

written by Rajaram S

Cyprus is not known for extreme weather. During the winter season, we do get the occassional thunderstorm which have even lead to minor flooding in Larnaca and Nicosia. Though rare, these thunderstorms do put on a spectacular show with ample thunder and lightning to please the weather watchers and to scare the ones who have been brought up with a fear of the same. Yesterday night, the show was grand, with huge lightning strikes lasting for more than an hour. So, there was enough time for me to setup the camera and the tripod and take some lightning strike shots! If you want to know how to take photographs of lightning strikes, check out this post on my other blog.

Few years ago (in 2003), there was this big cloud buildup in Limassol. It looked like a big black flying saucer as the cloud had clear edges. it seems that such clouds give rise to Tornados and indeed, we had the best ever tornado strike (is this also called a strike) in recent history.

Almost all the tornados started off from the sea and moved inland. The one which moved over Omonia Avenue caused a lot of damage. It was so powerful that it even bent steel posts. Some shops, like the Karmi Fruit Market on the beach road were badly damaged. One passed just next to our building and it carried a garbage bin and crashed the bin onto the security cabin of our office. Vidhya was in our house at that time and i immediately called her and asked her to start taking photographs. She went out on the balcony and starting taking photos. As she was taking photos, she suddenly realised that it was getting very windy. Then she realised that a tornado from the right, which she didnt notice as she was taking photos towards the left was right on top of our house! She ran back inside the house Below are some of the photos taken with the Nikon coolpix 2500 , the one i had before i got the D70 SLR.

written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S