Foinikas abandoned village, Paphos
Where should I begin, this was definitely the most adventurous trip I have ever been on in Cyprus. Me and Blanco were not ready for what was to come. We set off from Larnaca on search of the abandoned village of Foinikas using Google Maps to guide us. I truly thought Google Maps was trying to kill us with the directions it was giving us and the roads it was making us go down!
After almost two hours and a lot of diversions, we finally made it to the road which would start our adventure. It was a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, which then turned into a rocky road. I’m pretty sure that that part of the road is part of the dam and submerged under water during the rainy season. It was really bumpy and quite dangerous if you’re not in the correct vehicle. If you’re planning on visiting, I would definitely recommend that you go in a 4×4.
After around 30 minutes we got to the village of Foinikas and what a sight it was! It’s situated on the Dam of Asprokremmos and the views are just amazing. The village is said to be infested with snakes, although we didn’t see any I would still recommend that you tread carefully.
We spent the rest of the day exploring the village, checking out the ruins, and also saw some buildings submerged under the water from the dam. It’s such a shame that this village was abandoned as I’m sure it was beautiful once upon a time.
The sun started to set and we needed to head back to Larnaca, and classic me and Blanco thought it would be a good idea to find a quicker route back. This didn’t quite work out and we got further and further into the mountains, the roads getting steeper as we were going. At one point, my car couldn’t go any further up the steep hill, so it was down to Blanco’s driving skills to get us back on track. He managed a three point turn on a very narrow slope, which had my car on two wheels tilting over a cliff. Luckily, he managed to turn us around and we headed back the same way we came, and lived to tell the tale! 🙂