Cyprus:"Mr Fontana"
When we first arrived at Zouk we were greeted like long lost friends by a Cypriot man we later remembered to be the boss of the car hire firm. Not being entirely sure of his name I shall call him simply "Mr Fontana".
When we popped in to the car hire office to swap our Daewoo saloon for a 4x4, the woman behind the desk described Zouk as “the boss’s new home”. She wasn’t far wrong, for almost every time I have been on the waterfront and passed Zouk, “Mr Fontana” has been there.
Amusingly his beaming “Hello, howareyou?” is invariably followed by the ringing of his mobile phone and an “excuse me” and so conversation never proceeds very far. On the one occasion that it did get further than a greeting, I was pleased to note that his attitude to car hire is as laid back as everything else in this part of the world seems to be. We enquired about taking our Toyota RAV4 to the Blue Lagoon – a bay along the Akamas Peninsula which is good for swimming and normally best reached by boat. There is a dubious track along the peninsula which the locals seem to manage (in a 4x4 or Pickup Truck) but the Tourist Information Office had suggested a ‘road’ across the top of the peninsula instead. “Mr Fontana” had no qualms about us taking the car off road, or driving to the Blue Lagoon and without hesitation he told us that the best way of getting there was the track along the peninsula.
It struck me as quite trusting; I’m sure that there are some parts of the world where you could rent the most capable off road car available and still receive an incredulous “Gee, you’re not going to take it off road are you?” from the hire car people.
When we popped in to the car hire office to swap our Daewoo saloon for a 4x4, the woman behind the desk described Zouk as “the boss’s new home”. She wasn’t far wrong, for almost every time I have been on the waterfront and passed Zouk, “Mr Fontana” has been there.
Amusingly his beaming “Hello, howareyou?” is invariably followed by the ringing of his mobile phone and an “excuse me” and so conversation never proceeds very far. On the one occasion that it did get further than a greeting, I was pleased to note that his attitude to car hire is as laid back as everything else in this part of the world seems to be. We enquired about taking our Toyota RAV4 to the Blue Lagoon – a bay along the Akamas Peninsula which is good for swimming and normally best reached by boat. There is a dubious track along the peninsula which the locals seem to manage (in a 4x4 or Pickup Truck) but the Tourist Information Office had suggested a ‘road’ across the top of the peninsula instead. “Mr Fontana” had no qualms about us taking the car off road, or driving to the Blue Lagoon and without hesitation he told us that the best way of getting there was the track along the peninsula.
It struck me as quite trusting; I’m sure that there are some parts of the world where you could rent the most capable off road car available and still receive an incredulous “Gee, you’re not going to take it off road are you?” from the hire car people.
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