Upper Red Sea - Egypt

Greetings,

We are in the upper Red Sea with Egypt on either side of us. We are moving slowly with traffic of oil barges on either side of us. The sea is only 20/25 miles wide at this point. The traffic lanes are only 1 mile wide and this is oil country. Traffic is heading to the Med or Asia, busy part of the shipping world. Beautiful day mild, gentle breeze just right for our cruise to get in line to enter the Suez Canal.

Yesterday was Petra, Jordan. What an experience. It was a two hour bus ride through amazing terrain, barren fields, sheep, goats, Bedouin tents, mountains devoid of any trees, stark to say the least. Unusual to say the least, but beautiful. Arrived at Petra, one of the new seven wonders of the world. Began a trek that last six miles, down hill was easy, coming up was difficult - for me, but I made I ridding the last section on horse back - a sight for sore eyes - a silver mount at that. This is a lost city that was not public for over 1000 years. The city is lost in the mountains. Take a look at one of the Indian Jones movies it was filmed here. The most famous sight is a building referred to as the treasury. I have pictures for all to see. The entire area is breath taking. In total it is a six mile walk past buildings carved out of the mountain, royal tombs, cliff dwellings and a theater that sat over 4000 people. The entire experience was overpowering, but beautiful.

After the "walk", lunch was served at a Crown Plaza hotel. In total there were 32 buses from the ship at Petra. The buses brought guest to different hotels in the area for lunch. Lunch worked well, but the mob visiting the City was significant. The guide said tourists are down, due to the unrest in the overall area. If yesterday was down in number. I would not want to be there when it is in full gear.

All I can say is that Petra was an exciting experience which I enjoyed very much. The next adventure is Egypt with its pyramids and sphinx. I am confident that this will be a great day as well. After Egypt we sail to Greece. These final few stops are filled with so much. I need to take a breath and try to record mentally all that I am exposed.
I'll be in touch after Egypt. Take care. Enjoy the approaching season of Spring.

Love,

Bill