Sinai - Beautiful Desert, Beautiful Sea

The past five days have been spent on the Sinai Peninsula in the small, but touristy, town of Dahab. The area has some spectacular scenery. The town sits smack dab between the Red Sea and the steep, rugged mountains of the peninsula. The sea itself is a wonderful turquoise and has abundant fish and coral life. Right off shore there are great reefs with a wide variety of colorful fish. Contrasting starkly with this is the dry and barren mountains. The mountains rise ruggedly to around 8,000 feet and despite a total lack of vegetation, they are beautiful. All of this combined makes for a truly amazing setting. My time has been split between soaking in the sea, snorkeling, exploring desert and canyons by jeep, and making a night hike to the top of Mt. Sinai (where Moses received the Ten Commandments) to catch the sunrise. All wonderful trips but it would take too much to go into detail. Besides, I will be home soon. There is a lot of potential for adventure here, however my time is limited so I have been getting packaged up and rushed around to see the sights. By "packaged" I mean handing over the money to someone else and letting them get me there and showing me around. Not exactly the way I enjoy traveling, but as I am finding out, Egypt is that type of place. Tourism is the name of the game here so everything is pretty much handed to you. But on the bright side, if something goes wrong I can blame someone else! It is well worth it though, Egypt is an amazing country with some fascinating history. I will be itching for some time to return.

Dahab

Sinai sunset

Wandering through the White Canyon

Taking in the sunrise from atop the mountain

Besides the sites, I have certainly been enjoying the food (of course I have to mention food). Egyptian cuisine gets knocked on pretty hard when compared to other regional cuisines like Israeli and Lebanese, but I have never been to those countries, so my palette isn't ruined. I am finding the food here quite delightful. Falafel has been a staple in my diet. The falafel itself is deep-fried and stuffed into a pita with different sauces and topped with salad. Delicious and cheap...perfect. There are variations of this as well with essentially spiced refried beans or spiced ground meat instead of falafel. Tea is the favorite drink here, for the locals and me as well. It is done really well with a loose black tea, lots of sugar, and fresh mint; really tasty. Also, there is a refreshing drink of boiled, sweetened, and chilled hibiscus. After a hot slog through the streets of Cairo, this is especially a refreshing treat.

This was only the appetizer

So my days here are coming to close quickly. One more quick jaunt out to the western desert and then I will be finding myself on a plane home. I am excited to return to Missoula but of course will miss the freedom that comes with travel.