Just got back from a week at the Red Sea. We shared a flat with our Egyptian family and, for the most part, had a good time. We didn't do too much together, which was sad, but Froody and I had are hearts set on doing a lot of snorkelling, and they didn't. We did all spend an evening in the desert on safari, which meant riding quads across a wasteland. Really. Egyptian deserts are not at all like California or Arizona desert. It looked like the surface of the moon. This desert was in the shadow of the Red Sea Montains, hugely tall and jagged-y peaks, like Mordor. Really.
OK, back to the safari. You ride the quad to a "bedouin village" which, in reality, is a desert theme-park. I expected to learn a little bit of the bedouin lifestyle, but instead you go there and do some desert-y stuff, like climb a sandy peak to watch the sunset, ride a camel (for all of 2 min), drink bedouin tea (tastes a lot like egyptian tea), ride your quad in a circle, and then eat lunch. The food was pretty good. I think if I knew ahead of time that the safari was I would have enjoyed it more while I was living it instead of in retrospect. But, riding the quad at night back to the beginning was pretty sweet! Especially when the crescent moon and stars showed up.
But the most frikken' awesome thing was the snorkelling!!1! We went with two different organizers. The first called Prince Safaris and it really was the cheapest snorkel trip out there. For about 20 LE each we got on a boat (with 40 others) to some nice snorkel sites, gear rental, and lunch (if you were quick; they ran out before we got ours). The ride out was rough and several people hurled. :-( But once there it was calm enough. Froody and I kicked out away from the boat to the main reef both times so we were pretty much left alone. Most of the other tourists (German and Arabian)stayed very close to the boat,but there was plenty of fish for everyone to see! It was amazing. I wish I had the words to describe it for you. Clear water. Warm sea. Hard and soft corals. Every kind of fish: Angel, Butterfly, Trigger, Wrasse, Parrot, Damsel, Pipe, Puffer. And, several species of each kind! I felt like I was seeing famous celebrities in person- so many fish I had seen dead, floating in preservative, or alive and in small tanks, nothing like being in the ocean right along side of them. Our second trip with Aquanaut, a very good outfit, it felt like being on a dive trip at home it was so well run. For starters, it left ON TIME and not 45 min late. Plenty of food. All staff spoke English. Nice gear. And it only went to sites depending on weather, not to some pre-arranged-must-be-followed itinerary. We had perfect weather so the sea was nice and calm. And again, the skin diving was amazing. Heavenly? yes. I had to keep from crying I was so happy to be somewhere I never thought I'd go. The dive guy said they rarely got Americans as it's so expensive compared to the Caribbean, and it's true. Even Froody loved being in the water here. AND, he said if we go again (in December! cross my fingers!) we might even go DIVING!!! Though I will admit, there isn't much more you can see diving. We saw everything, even lion fish and a beautiful file fish that hung out with us about 2 m below the surface. Again, I wish I could tell you about the clouds of black stripey sergeant major fish and cardinal fish and half-and-half fish. Each fish was like a work of art (hello, picasso trigger fish), really, and just when I think you couldn't do more to a fish, there would be one with a crazy tail or freaky color mix.
My kind of heaven. I was sad that day, knowing that it was our last snorkel and that we were going back to Cairo the next day. The good thing was knowing we were going to our own apartment. We are ready for all the freedom that entails, our friendly hosts notwithstanding.
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