During our trip to the Pafos region, we discovered a small village called Simou. We had visited the "Baths of Aphrodite" just past the beaches in Latzi (pronounced La-tchi), and were looking for a "fish taverna" to have lunch near the sea. We noodled around in Latzi and in the next town over, Polis, but the places we found seemed overly touristy and (...being native Cypriots now) we wanted something a bit more authentic.
We decided to drive for a while, and took a left turn off of the main road when we saw a sign for "Traditional Cypriot Taverna" 5km this way in Simou. We spotted a a restaurant called Sa-Buneri halfway up the road to Simou overlooking the Evretou Dam and a grand valley, so although we did drive up the hill to Simou, we ended up coming back down the hill to eat.
Simou is another charming small village. It boasts one of the oldest trees in Cyprus - an olive tree said to be over 1000 years old. We met Maria, who runs one of the two tavernas in town with her family. Although we didn't eat at her place, she gave us a tour of her restaurant and her bird farm where she keeps parrots, turkeys, chickens (including silkies), ducks and rabbits. OK rabbits aren't birds, but they seemed to all be happy together.
Halfway back down the hill, the restaurant was fabulous. We had great meze (Cypriot mixed grill), and the view was not be missed.
We had the company of a little dog and a kitten for lunch who kept snuggling together just near our table.
It can be difficult to leave a restaurant in Cyprus - generally it takes up to 30 minutes from when we decide that we are ready to go until we manage to get the bill and make our es
cape. Sa-Buneri was the hardest yet for us. It probably was closer to an hour - although the service was great up to this point, we couldn't manage to make the owner give us the check.
We had spotted a sign for the "Skarfos Bridge" off the road between Simou and the restaurant, so when we finally made it out, we decided to have a look before heading back to Nicosia. We made the left to head down the mountain, and when we arrived at the bottom of the hill, we saw a sign pointing back up hill to the Skarfos Bridge.
After trying the dirt roads we could find, we asked a couple who were picking pomegranates at their orchard if they knew where the bridge was. Once they understood what we were asking, they gave us the local directions, along with a couple of fresh pomegranates. We shared some apples from Andreas' farm with them in the traditional Cypriot exchange of fruit.
It turns out that the Skarfos Bridge was built by the Venetians, and is (we think) about 500 years old. As has been much of our experience here, we had the bridge to ourselves, and took lots of pictures before the drive home.
