Adventure Around the World

Hello from the busy, sprawling, oh-so-hot-even-in-October city of Cairo! I type with the sound of the Islamic call-to-prayer summoning in the background. We've been here two days so far, and have packed in the touristy fun. Yesterday we got lost in the Egyptian Museum (stuff from 5000 years ago- now that's history!), tried to avoid the "I don't know what you're looking for but I've got it!/You looking for a husband?" touts from the salesmen at the bazaar in Islamic Cairo, and today, basically succoumbed to every tourist trap our guidebook warned us about at the Pyramids in Giza. Yes, we rode camels, and yes, we'll be feeling it for the next several days I'm sure... Tonight we're off to Luxor via a train that promises to be sketchy, as it is the only thing here that actually was lower in price than we were informed, rather than double the price, as we've come to find most things here are. Everyone here claims that we look Egyptian (minus the lack of headwrap), but learns otherwise as soon as we stare blankly in response to anything Arabic.

As our timing on this trip has been impeccable so far (yes, that's sarcasm), we find out that Ramadan begins tomorrow, in which Muslims fast during daylight hours. It promises to be fun foraging for food in a country that basically shuts down by day for a month straight. The food here, so far, has been amazingly delicious though, and we remain optimistic. We also just learned that Israel issued terrorist warnings for the Sinai Penninsula beginning tomorrow, so that too, will be exciting and may cause us to re-evaluate our plans for the next week or so.


As for how the rest of our trip to Rio went: rain, rain, rain. Again, stellar timing. Luckily though, we managed to find enough dry time to hang glide from Pedra Bonita, a mountain in the Tijuca Forest (actually more peaceful than scary, contrary to what one might imagine), explore the favelas (ghettos), visit Christ the Redeemer and take a million pictures from every angle, as well as find a lot more foods that we will thankfully never eat again. Unfortunately, due to miscommunications/misinformation (who can really tell when it's in Portuguese?) we didn't get to see a Brazilian soccer game though, which was a bit disappointing, but we'll live. Besides, it wouldn't really compare to Duke basketball anyway. :)


Off to find some food before the Ramadan challenge begins tomorrow...