The Road To Ruin

In newspapers, magazines and travel guides all around the globe Loutro has been characterized as the last paradise. Of the thousands of tourists who have stayed in Loutro over the years many keep its image in their hearts to remind themselves of a better world. People often begin their descriptions of Loutro by telling of its most cherished quality, the fact that it is only accessible by boat or by foot. The absence of motorbikes and automobiles is what gives Loutro its character. The sea is its highway. Anyone who looks out onto the sea is forced to look at the world through different eyes than those who travel down a road with all its ruts and twists and turns. Roads provide escape routes for thieves, conduits for noise and pollution. Loutro sits at the edge of the world just a few steps behind the rest of us.

With a road to Loutro people would be forced to lock their doors, a sense of community would be destroyed, she would no longer be unique, just another village in Greece. What would Loutro be without the 11:00 o’clock ferry bringing in the supplies for the day? How would Loutro survive in an economic crisis if forced to compete on an equal foot with all the rest of Crete, without her special status as the last paradise? And where will all her faithful devoted fans go when they realize paradise has at last been paved and turned into a parking lot?

A road to Loutro would be a road to ruin. All of us who come to her for comfort and consolation have already been down this road! We come from the future with a message we have seen ignored over and over again in the name of greed. What she offers us cannot be measured in Euros or Dollars or any other currency. She offers us the chance to correct the biggest mistake we make as humans, the mistake of selling what is not ours to sell! If she truly is the last paradise then perhaps this is our last chance!