The Pyramids

We woke up early had breakfast, went to the Egyptian museum, the pyramids, and the sphinx all in one day. The Egyptian museum was one of my favorite highlights of the whole tour. It just had so many incredible artifacts. We actually went twice & still did not see everything in the museum.

After the museum we had koshery for lunch which is one of my favorite traditional meals. It is like spaghetti mixed with lentils, crunchy noodles, garlic, and other herbs that make it sooooo delish. They have koshery restaurants all over Egypt. Imagine a restaurant that can be as big as 4 floors only serving one thing on the menu, and it is always packed. 

The first glance of the PYRAMIDS from the bus

Gotta have the cheesy tourist photo. 

Could we be on the Bangles music video?

Sarah caught me having a moment with the pyramids. 

A little yoga action at the pyramids

The main reason why the pyramids were created was for the pharaohs & wealthy to be comfortable when they came back to their afterlife. They were the first civilization to start mummifying or burying their dead. They believed that they would come back just how they were left so they wanted to preserve themselves as best as possible as well as their belongings. They even would put their servants near them so when they all came back they would have their proper help. 

The Egyptians were such an incredible civilization. They invented paper, perfume, beer, and wine. We saw the three most famous pyramids & got to walk inside one of them. There are tons of temples & over 100 other pyramids scattered all through Egypt. I feel like we saw a lot on our 2 week tour, but it would take more than a lifetime to see all the ruins & artifacts. At every temple that we went to there were teams of people still doing excavations. They are constantly discovering new artifacts. 

 

Fall into the G.A.P.

So you would think traveling to Egypt I would have plenty of Egyptian trivia.  Don’t worry that is coming…   

This was my first guided tour which I was pretty apprehensive about. We lucked out with a great group which made the trip. I would say that the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages on the tour. 

Sarah and I joined a G.A.P. tour with 10 other Canadians & I now know a plethora of information about Canada. Did you know that there are 3 Territories and 10 Provinces in Canada? Did you know that Canada is a part of the common wealth? Meaning the Queen of England is on all their money & the UK technically has some type of power over it just like it has power over parts of Ireland, all of Scotland, & Australia. (On a positive note it does make the visa process much easier if you are apart of the common wealth.) 

SA- RAH from the good ole ATX. (This is her first time out of the U.S. & she sure did it with a bang by choosing to meet me in Egypt & South Africa )

Don (the dude) & Rita from Toronto (Ontario Province.) Both lawyers. Rita also proved to  be a great dance party friend. 

Erica a social worker from Quebec. Of course speaks French ,& spends a fair amount of her time up north where the Inuit live (formerly known as Eskimos. Indians now are called Native Americans, just like Eskimos are now called Inuit. They were given the Eskimo name by the Indians which means eater or raw meat.)

Gerald & Tannis both farmers from the red river valley, (which is the province in southern Manitoba.)

THE 4 PACK!!! All are from Winnepeg (Manitoba Province.) Most are now widowed, have grandchildren & jet set around the world together. They loved their cards, wine, & any other kind of adventure.    

Mudy in all his glory. He is born & bread Egyptian. And is a very energetic informative tour guide. His name was Charlie & we were his angels the whole tour. (No he never stopped calling us his angels!) 

Laura from London (a small city in Ontario) now lives in Toronto. We got to celebrate her & Gerald's birthday on the trip with some serious dance party action so you know I was in paradise!

The Death Road

A Roller Coaster

rickety rocketry

dust flying

heart skinking

horn beeping

eyes bulging

people panting

hands sweating 

Teeter totter

The Death Road

(We were not even officially on the death road when we passed by this bus. It had just fallen of the skinny cliffside road that we were on as we could see all the passengers taking their luggage out of the bus. No one appeared to be injured.)

The turns are so tight that it is a miracle a bus can even squeeze down this road. Not only that, cars are coming from both directions & when they meet up someone has to reverse basically teetering over the edge. It is beyond intense. It was an 18 hour bus ride total, but it felt like a 18 hour roller coaster ride you could not get off of. When you go to a theme park you can choose what rides you want to ride, and somehow there is a feeling of invincibility. Not when you are on a shady bus hovering over cliffs. 

Pampas

I arrived in Rurrenabaque in a tiny little jet. Literally we landed on a field. There is not even a paved runway which results in a lot of flight cancelations due to the rain.

Luckily, I met a wonderful British couple on the flight. Our tour we booked was a bit of a farce but we regrouped, and had a great time while we waited on our group to fill up. With enough tours that I have taken, I try not to compare because everything is negotiable, someone will always pay less than you, and they will say anything to make money. 

There was jungle & wetlands right outside of Rurrenabaque. The Pampas tour was through the wetlands. We drove 3 hours in a crazy jeep ride & then 2 hours in a boat that we had to dig out of the swamp to ride in. We arrived to hammoksville, bungalows, the cutest family ever, & the best food.

Another river crossing. 

A very handy 7 eleven (not like the one back home, but it did carry wine!)

 

This cool plant that shrinks up when you touch it. 

A sunset a the local bar where we had great games of volleyball. 

The biggest, chillest, beaver-like animal I have ever seen.

All it did was eat dirt.

We went out marching through the wetlands. We saw all kinds of snakes, but no one attempted to hold the anacondas or cobras. 

HOWLER-MONKEYS!!!! (Seriously the loudest animals on the planet.)

The chefs that ran our lodging had two of the cutest girls ever. 

Us swimming with the pink river dolphins. I got a couple of arms lengths away but they are a bit shy. They would come up for air breifly & you could get a good glimpse of them. There was definitely no flipper action though.

After the tour we were rained in, and all the flights were cancelled for days. I was running out of time and needed to get to Lima so I could meet Sarah in Egypt. I cancelled my flight, and booked a cheap bus ride down the world's most deadliest road... 

The Salt Flats

Mon & only I had 3 days left. What should we do? Spend 2 nights on an overnight bus & almost get stranded in a small city hundreds of miles away from where your flight home is. What any reasonable traveler would do, right?

We saw some cool statues made out of sand, ate some shady meals, did some yoga, elected NOT to climb the mountain since we were still pretty warn out from Huayni Potosi. Not to mention we howled at the moon with our new best Argentinian friends.  

We had a dinner, an amazing sunset, bottles of wine, s sky full of stars, & a guitar.  

The next day we woke up & hiked around and miraculously bought the last 2 bus tickets back to La Paz so Monica could catch her plane (for an extra price of course!) 

Happy trails to you.....