We decided to spend an extra night at Gouvia Marina yesterday in order to have additional time and not be so rushed in finishing our business here. After a quick stop at the laundromat we hopped a cab into Corfu Town. I jumped out at the Port Authority to take care of the entry formalities while Chris and Ty continued into town. Despite what we read in several sources, Gouvia Marina does NOT have customs and immigration personnel on site. (That was the primary reason we came here.) But we were advised by the marina staff after arrival on Monday that we could roam about the area that day and deal with officialdom in town at the commercial port on Tuesday ... so that's what we did. Technically we were illegal immigrants for a few hours and probably shouldn't make a habit of doing that!

So, after securing our Transit Log at the Customs office (cost now is 45 euro), then visiting Passport Control to have passports stamped and, finally getting our Transit Log stamped by the Port Authority staff (additional cost of 15 euro), I hopped another cab to meet up with Chris & Ty in the Town Centre as planned.

They had been scouting things out for nearly 2 hours and Tyler was eager to take me to the "Fish Spa", assuming there was no way I would ever sit for 15 minutes while little "Doctor Fish" nibbled away at my feet. Well, he was wrong and that's exactly what the two of us did. I want this trip to bring new experiences and push us out of our comfort zones a bit, so this was a small way of demonstrating that. I was initially somewhat skeptical, but our feet take a beating out here and I was wiling to try anything reasonable to bring a bit of relief. It ended up being a surprisingly refreshing and relaxing experience and our feet still felt great after several hours of roaming the hot streets of Corfu Town.

After lunch we set off to secure Greek cell phones and the process was time consuming and a bit frustrating. (It took two trips, spread over a four hour period.) It's also apparently VERY expensive to purchase pre-paid voice & data packages here ... almost as expensive as using our sat phone. I'll do a bit more research over the coming days to see if there are other options or better packages available, but for now we're sufficiently wired up and it'll be easier to communicate with each other when we're not all in the same place. Family and friends wishing to call us should use this number: 030 697 6940210.

Since we're trying to get on the same schedule that the locals do, we had a bit of down time back onboard Interlude after returning from Corfu Town around 6pm. By 10pm it was time for dinner and we went to Harry's Taverna, just 300m outside of the marina gates in the small village of Kontokali. Good food, reasonable prices and great authentic live music and Greek dancing for entertainment. This was the first time any of us had heard a Bouzouki (a plucked string instrument in the lute family) being played and hopefully not the last...The music and dancing were quite captivating and made for a memorable evening which was capped off when the owner brought us a complimentary plate of fresh fruit and shot glasses filled with Limoncello.

We were back onboard and tucked in by 12:30 am. It was another full day but one that finally delivered some of the experiences and sights that we'd been looking forward to. We'll be leaving Gouvia Marina later today, heading South probably to the island of Paxi (also spelled Paxoi). It's time to get away from marina life and begin enjoying some of the many small anchorages and villages that Greece is famous for.