Potámi is the name of town and beach on the north-west coast of Samos, west to Karlovasi; if you go toward inland, you find this forest. Potami means "river" in Greek and the name drives from the one in the photo above. If you trace this river toward mountains, you will find a waterfall (but I did not see it myself; see below).
This (right) is the Byzantine church of Metamorphosis that you find just at the beginning of the path that follows the river. It was built in the eleventh century, the oldest standing in Samos.
It was difficult to take the photo of the whole as there was not enough space and there were too many trees around it.
The church is not kept very well and rather damp. This is the ceiling of the church; small dome is supported by four capitals and columns (you see one of them in the upper end of the photo), reused materials from the early Christian period.
If we follow the path with indication "Castel", we are supposed to find ruins of a byzantine fortress, but we did not do so, and walked toward the waterfall.
We walked for about quarter of an hour following tha path (like the one you see in the first photo of this page), we arrived at a very steep criff (see right). It is a bit difficult to see here, but there are very narrow and steep steps installed on the criff. Pay attention to the person coming after me to recognise how steep it is.
At the top of these steps, there is a cafeteria that offers dring and light food. To see the waterfall, one has to descend the same kind of steps and go forward some way more. Unfortunately, I was then wearing beach sandals and I found it dangerous to continue. There was quite a lot of tourists visiting this place, and not a few of them gave up to proceed around this stairs as I did.
If you plan to visit the waterfall, you'd better ware sports-sandals; normal shoes are not the best choice as you have to walk across the water just ahead from here.
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