Abu Simbel
Today started at 3:30 am...yes, that's right 3:30 freakin a.m. Ouch. Not so easy to get up. I think I got about 5 seconds of sleep. We joined up with a long convoy of tourist vehicles guarded by the tourist police who have some lovely little automatic weapons..yee haw. It was about a 3 hour drive into complete desert to the Nubian town of abu Simbel.
I fell asleep (sort of) on the bus and once we arrived, we all drove straight to the ancient Egyptian temples dedicated to Ramsees II and his favorite wife Nefertari. It was pretty spectacular! They completely moved both temples to save them from a man-made lake created when they built a major dam here. It looks like it was quite the operation. The people building the dam were just going to leave the temples underwater and not do anything. Luckily, some groups stepped in to save it. We were actually pretty close to Sudan (about 150 km away).
Tonight, we are headed off down the Nile a bit to a Nubian village to have supper. Should be pretty interesting. Apparently, we should wear good running shoes....I'm sure my flip-fops will be great! :) And we have to trek through the sand for about 15 mins. I don't have a flashlight so it might be a little interesting.
Tomorrow afternoon, we board a felucca for a few nights so no blog for a little while. Hope everyone back home is a-ok! :)
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