My Egyptian Adventure - May 2023

 (FYI. Many of the pictures have captions that you can read if you click on the picture. Also play the videos, they are fun!)

When we were diving with our dive shop in Cozumel in Oct we found out about a dive trip they were organizing to go dive the Red Sea in May of 2023. We were all in! It's a trip of a lifetime; 3 days in Cairo and 6 days in Sharm-El-Sheik with 4 days of diving in the Red Sea. After our experience in Mazatlan, Jim felt that the long plane trip and all the travel would be too stressful, so he opted not to go. I had to do a lot of soul searching but I decided to go with the group. Visiting Egypt has always been a dream and it did not disappoint!

On May 6th, after attending our granddaughter Kalyn's college graduation from the Business school at the University of Northern Colorado, I flew to London on British Airways. The flight was great, overnight to Heathrow, with 2 meals and free drinks. Quite a nice change from domestic flights. You barely get peanuts and sodas even flying to Mexico or the Caribbean. I got into Heathrow mid morning and I have to say, it was the strangest experience. When you have a connecting flight you don't go thru immigration or customs. You just scan your boarding pass multiple times and walk down miles of corridors to the departure area. This was a huge warehouse structure filled with hundreds (maybe thousands) of passengers and lined with endless high end retail stores and duty free shops. I'm surprised I didn't see a Maserati store! Very few restaurants or coffee venders. They did have a caviar and champagne bistro though. I found a pub and had a GREAT beer and settled down to wait. They don't announce your gate until an hour prior to departure. Of course my flight was delayed and I didn't get into Cairo until 1 am Monday morning. Overall my flight took 30 hours! (Pictures of Heathrow)

Cairo never sleeps. There was a lot of traffic and so many stores and restaurants open, even at that hour. Lots of lights and neon. I met up with Engin and Xime (pronounced Seme) for coffee and chocolate cake for breakfast at 2 pm. The group gradually assembled and I got to meet everyone. There were 13 of us all together. I needed to get Egyptian pounds at the bank across the street from our hotel. To do this I had to get help from the busboy at the hotel. This is because traffic never stops! There are no stoplights or crosswalks or lane markings. Crossing the street is like playing Frogger. I just held on to the bellboy's arm and prayed. Unfortunately, you have a repeat performance when you go back across! It was a terrifying experience.  

We went out to dinner at a Shawarma restaurant. It was our first experience with ordering unknown foods in an unknown language. The menu was in Arabic. We translated with Google lens and it sort of worked. One waitress spoke some English and we pretty much got what we ordered, LOL. A very interesting view from the restaurant was a group of stores across the street. There were 3-4 blocks of 2 story shops selling formals and bridal gowns, all right next each other, all lit up, all selling very similar dresses. It was a spectacular display. (Pictures of Cairo day 1)

There are an amazing variety of vehicles in Cairo, from horse drawn carts to the most decrepit VW buses; rusted, dented, missing parts, overloaded with riders! After they die they come to Cairo to be resurrected. And lots and lots and lots of scooters. We came to joke about the "music" of Cairo; horn honking.....all the time, everywhere. (Pictures of Cairo street scenes)

Tuesday we met up with our guide and drove to Giza across the Nile to visit the Saqqara Necropolis. There are over 11 pyramids/tombs including the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the 1st pyramid built in Egypt, built by Imhotep, one of the 1st architects in history. It was built around 2630 BCE. We were able to go into another one of the other pyramids, the Pharoah Teti. The entrance is a long steep stone hallway, with wood rungs across the floor to keep you from sliding down. It's also only about 4 1/2 feet tall so you have to crouch down while descending. Beautiful carvings and hieroglyphs on the walls. The paint on the carvings is the original paint, over 4000 years old! (Pictures of Teti's tomb)

Then we went to the Giza pyramid complex, with the Great Pyramid, King Khufu's, being the tallest. (481 feet). It's the oldest and last remaining of the original 7 world wonders.  The other pyramid is for his son King Khafre and the 3rd is for the grandson King Menkaure. They were built in the 4th dynasty, circa 2550 BC. We were able to go into the pyramid of Khafre. It still has part of the limestone cap at the top of the pyramid. Then we went to see the Sphinx. It was an amazing day and an incredible adventure! (Pictures of Khafre's Pyramid).

Tuesday night we took a Nile River dinner cruise complete with a belly dancer, lots more boobs than belly, and a whirling dervish. Everyone got into the dancing and the videos are great! (Pictures of the Nile Cruise)

Wednesday we started at the Cairo Museum. It's old and in disrepair in places but so, so incredible. They are building a new museum and most of King Tut's treasures have been moved there but it was still overwhelming and amazing. My pictures don't do it justice. (Pictures of the Cairo Museum).

Our next stop was an essential oils factory and then a papyrus museum. (Pictures of Cairo tour). After lunch we visited 2 ancient churches, The Hanging Church and the Cavern Church, where the Holy Family found refuge when they fled the Holy Land for Egypt during Herod's reign. The icons are so beautiful and so old. (Pictures of the churches.)

We finished off the day by visiting the Khan El Khalily bazaar. What an experience! (Pictures of the bazaar)

On Thursday we flew to Sharm El Sheik on the Red Sea. When we got to the terminal in Cairo we were reminded again that everyone smokes, everywhere. There was an actual smoking room in the departure area! The only problem was, they kept the door open so the smell went all over.  (Pictures of our hotel in Cairo). 

Next Blog: Sharm El Sheik

 August 18, 2023

I can't believe it's been over a year since our last blog! 

The winter of 2022 we spent in Arizona, in Black Canyon City. We met new friends and had some great trail rides. The most amazing discovery was "Crested Saguaros" Pictures of Crested Saguaros. We also took Randy and Val to Crown King for the first time. On the way back we had to stop at the "Yacht Club" in Cleator. Population 8, Dogs 5, Grumpy cats 2. Check out the bathroom signs. They're great!  Pictures of Crown King and Cleator

We headed for Colorado in April and  had snow in Cotopaxi at Jim and Amy's. We spent the summer working at Lake John, close to Walden, CO. This was our 4th summer there. We decided that next summer, 2023, we would go to South Dakota. We really wanted to be closer to our son Jeremy. Pictures of Lake John It was a very busy summer but we still managed to find time to go to some high mountain lakes with our friends Howard and Dannette. Jim and Howard also spent lots of time fishing on the lake and at Delaney Buttes. Pictures of Wildflowers and high mountain lakes

In October we started heading south. We spent a few days in Red River, NM at Jim's sister Judy's house. The colors were amazing. Pictures of Fall colors

We always go to Taos one day and explore. This year we went to the "Mabel Dodge Luhan" house. She was a very important part of Taos art colony in the 1920s. Here is a link to a short article about this fascinating woman.  (Mabel Dodge Luhan) Dennis Hopper bought the house in 1970, after Mabel's death.  Among the more notable guests were musicians Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Bo Diddley, actors Jack Nicholson, Anthony Quinn and John Wayne, beat poet Alan Watts, and politicians George McGovern. Here's a link to a short article about his time there. Dennis Hopper's life in Taos.  A trip to Taos isn't complete until you've gone to Arroyo Seco to visit the artisan shops and The Taos Cow, amazing ice cream next to the river. So fun. Pictures of Taos and Arroyo Seco 

After getting settled at Rivers Edge RV park in Black Canyon City, we flew off for 2 weeks in Cozumel. We stayed in a great little boutique hotel, Caribo Cozumel. Great prices and SO nice. We were 2 blocks from the grocery store and our favorite taco restaurant, El Pique. Pictures of Cozumel

We dove with Engin and Xime again. Amazing dives as usual. We always see something different. The pictures Engin takes with his GoPro are the best. These pictures are in no particular order and the videos are great. There are 2 amazing videos of octopus. Pictures of Cozumel diving 2022

We got back just in time to say hi to the grandkids and head back to Golden for Thanksgiving. We stopped for the night in Raton, NM and stayed at the Raton Pass Motor Inn. It's a restored roadside motel that was on the original highway before I25 was built. Each room is decorated by theme and has a name. We stayed in "Man's best Friend but others are Santa Fe Trail, Bettie's Boudoir, Butch and Sundance, Field and Stream or Big Texas to name a few. and the lobby is all vintage cool. Check out the 8 track stereo! Pictures of Raton Pass Motor Inn

One of the really fun things about Rivers Edge is that Joyce, the owner, schedules a "Ladies Day Out" once a month. December's trip was a day in Jerome, complete with lunch at the Jerome Bordello, shopping and wine tastings! We finished off the day with a trip on the Christmas train out of Cottonwood. Lights, elves, adult beverages and Santa. So fun! Pictures of Jerome

Christmas day we flew to Mazatlan for 2 weeks. It was the final year on my parent's timeshare there. We've always traded the week for a dive trip but this year we decided to spend New Years on the beach. Our friend Paris came with us and we had a great time eating street tacos, drinking beer and margaritas at the pool and shopping. The fireworks on New Years Eve were fantastic. Pictures of Mazatlan However, there was a dark side. Travel outside the hotel district was not recommended so we did no sightseeing or exploring. (There was a "Do Not Travel" advisory to Mazatlan due to crime and kidnapping. We didn't see it before we left.)  On Jan 5 Ovidio Guzman, son of "El Chapo" was arrested in Culiacan. Violence broke out and planes were fired on at the Culiacan Airport. Mazatlan is close to Culiacan so buses and taxis stopped running and they closed the airport. For 2 days there was a lot of fighting and burning. The hotel advised us to stay in the hotel. Of course our flight was cancelled and we weren't able to rebook it for 6 days. So we wound up staying for 3 weeks instead of 2. Believe it or not, we got a little tired of  beer, tequila, sea and sand. The vibe was just a little weird. 

The winter in Arizona was cold and wet. Lots of snow in the mountains. We didn't go jeeping until March. Our friends Wendy and John and their friends Andy and Candy came and stayed for a month and we had a blast.  We took a great trip to Crown king and Cleator. The wildflowers, especially the poppies, were incredible. We stopped at the Crown King saloon, the oldest bar and brothel in Arizona but they were closed. But we had a great lunch at the cafe next door and had fun reading all their signs.  We started to go all the way to Prescott on the Senator Highway but the road was almost impassable due to high water crossing the road and rocks. (This was a 37 mile toll road that was built in 1866 to the Senator Mine and then on to Crown King, named for the Crown King mine) Pictures of the Drive to Crown KIng

We love it at Rivers Edge. As the name implies the RV park is located on the banks of the Aqua Fria River. Normally this is a huge dry wash . However, this spring with the constant rain and snow melt the river bed filled up to the banks, ready to overflow and flood the campground, with the possibility of a flash flood from further  upstream. Some of the low laying spaces in the park already had water in them when we packed up and moved to higher ground for the night. When we got back the next morning the flood waters had receded by half and the river was down to a trickle in a couple of days!  It's amazing how fast the water can change in the desert. Pictures of Rivers Edge RV Park

In April we headed north to Colorado for doctor appointments and to get Becky ready for a big dive trip to of all places.....Egypt and the Red Sea! That's the next blog.