Hi, my name is Christopher Kontaratos and I am the owner of Life Cycle. I am a dual national, Greek/English, youngest son of an English mother, Elizabeth, from London and a Greek father ,Nikos, from Spetses. I was born in London but was brought up on Spetses where I attended school. From a young age, my mother used to take me on walks up the mountain of Spetses and I developed a love for the natural environment. One of my fondest memories from my childhood is when my mother showed me a wild asparagus plant and how to pick them. From then on I was hooked on how our lives are entwined with nature. It is easy to imagine how growing up with such stimuli can instil someone with a deep love of all things natural. Once I was 18, I deemed it wise to complete my mandatory military service which was 9 months at the time. I was stationed on the Greek – Turkish border on the island of Kastellorizo. With that out of the way, I attended university in Plymouth, UK for 3 years and graduated in 2022 with a BSC in Environmental Resource Management. My parents met in the 80s when my mother was touring Greece and they decided to start a life together on Spetses. Originally, they rented out beach equipment but soon they moved on to purchase the property my business is currently situated in with the intention of using it for renting bikes and for carpentry. Eventually, after their divorce, the building was vacant and my desire to base myself on Spetses led to me restarting the old family business. With my previous experience of bicycle service and customer relations working in my father’s new shop, Nikkos bikes, I was ready to establish myself and work independently.
Along the way, I have had various mentors that have offered me training and opportunities in the tour guiding industry. Through their gentle nudging and invaluable guidance I started guiding hiking tours on the mountain of Spetses through organised groups. Since then, I have learned through trial and error what people tend to enjoy most on their visit to our wonderful island and I have spent a lot of effort to improve on these excursions.
I hope you found this brief entry into my past interesting. For myself it has been a fantastic journey so far, both personally and professionally, and I believe that there are many more wonderful moments ahead.