Here we are at our hotel, The Movenpick El Gouna. It is a resort on the Red Sea. We inquired about scuba diving but found out that the dive for that day had already left and we could not dive the next day as we were flying in 2 days (A definite Scuba No-No). Instead, we sat at the pool and relaxed for our 2 days.

We arrived at Luxor today. Luxor (also known as Thebes) was the capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom (1549-1069BC). In the morning we toured the West Bank of the Nile. First, we toured the Valley of the Kings and saw the Tomb of King Tut Ank Amun (Born in Babylonia, Moved to Arizona, King Tut.) In addition, we were able to tour the tombs of Ramses III, V, and IX.

The Valley of the Queens was named in error. The explorer thought it was for the queens when it was really for the sons of the Pharoahs. We toured the tombs of the sons of Ramses III.

Hatshepsut temple at Deir Al-Bahri. Hatshepsut was a Queen who ruled while here child was too young and then had temples and sculptures made to make her look like a man. She was the only female Pharaoh and reigned from 1472-1457 BC.

We saw the Colossi of Memnon. It stands in front of the Mortuary temple of Amenhotep III most of which has been destroyed by earthquakes and floods in ancient times. The West Bank of the Nile is known as the City of The Dead due to the burial chambers, while Luxor is known as the City of the Living.

In the afternoon, we toured the Temple of Karnak which is dedicated to the three gods, Amun-Re, Mut, and Khonsu. The original temples were built in the 18th and 19th Dynasties with additions being made by the Ptolemies and the Romans. They still display the earth and mud brick used to get the large blocks to higher levels of the temple. Once in place, they would remove the dirt and the temple looked as if the stones were magically lifted there with no help.

After that, we toured the Temple of Luxor. Funny how just behind it is a McDonalds restaurant. Guess you can’t stop progress. Luxor Temple was also dedicated to the same 3 gods as Karnak. There was a stone road in the olden days connecting both places (about +2 Kilometers). Both places were used when the priests took over and ruled Egypt for 100 years. Luxor temple has many statues with likenesses of Ramses II. At one time, it had been used by the Christians for a church with part of the walls torn down. Upon close inspection, you can see one block that has been replaced and rebuilt but they put it in upside down. It is a disconnected foot that attaches to nothing. We also saw paintings of Jesus on the wall at Luxor and Karnak temples. The Luxor temple had been buried by sand for many years. During that time, a Mosque was built on top of the temple wall. The mosque is still used today but the back door cannot be opened as it now has a two story drop.

After our touring, we joined a transport to Hurgada, our next destination. We joined an armored convoy with at least 20 large buses and several vans. The drivers played leap frog until they got to the first police escort. We were never told what problems happened in the desert in the past on that road, but we had 8 armed guards traveling with us for the trip. The rest stop was quite a scene while they guarded us as we took a break. Good thing Cindy slept for most of the trip. Seeing the driving was very scary and at some points, the entire convoy would pass one car on the road that was going too slow for them. It seemed the only speed the drivers knew was “Full speed ahead!” Finally, at the Red Sea for relaxation.

We sailed to Edfu Temple which is also a temple of Horus. It was built by the Ptolemies and is one of the best preserved in Egypt. Huge carvings on the walls. Some original paint is still on the walls. We then sailed to Esna and waited for 9 hours so we could pass through the Esna Lock. 17 ships were ahead of us on our side alone. There were also ships heading south.

We started our cruise on the Nile today. Before sailing the Nile, we took a Felluca sail boat ride to the Botanic Garden. Of course, Someone had to ask what happens if the wind dies down. Our poor boat man had to use these huge oars to get us back from the garden. We saw the Agha Khan Mausoleum on the bank of the Nile. He had been an early UN Secretary General who had a home and was buried in Egypt even though he was not Egyptian. We went to Kom Ombo temple dedicated to Horus and Sobek that evening. It seemed like all 300 Nile boats had stopped at the same attraction at the same time. It was like being in China again. The unusual item it had were the mummified remains of 3 crocodiles. One still had a piece of wrapping on its mouth. The temple took on a different look as we saw it in the night and it was lit up.

Our luggage was set outside our door at 4:30am for departure to airport at 5. We took a domestic flight to Aswan. Cindy slept on the flight and Norm read. Upon arrival we were transferred to the docks and boarded the Solaris II on the Nile. We were met by our guide and were taken sightseeing in Aswan, population of 700,000, which controls the major traffic flow on the Nile. There are about 300 boats that travel back and forth on the Nile between Aswan and Luxor (which was also once the capital of Egypt and was conquered by the Nubians between 750-650BC). Perfume and papyrus shops abound everywhere. We drove over the original Aswan Dam, built in 1902 during the British occupation. Then we visited the High Dam which displaced 1.5 million Nubians as a result of the flooding, similar to the 3 gorges dam in China. The government constructed housing for them to move. The Abu Simbel Temple had to be moved also, to save the ruins. The Dam also created Lake Nasser. As we approached, there was a monument representing a Lotus flower, symbol of Upper Egypt, commemorating Egypt and Russian cooperation for building the dam. Nasser had asked America and Europe to assist with the project and was denied at the time, except for the then Russia. This was probably due to the fact the Egypt had a revolution just before to free itself from British rule. It took 10 years to build and was completed in 1971. Much of the agriculture business was lost as a result of the hydro-electric dam, so industry changed to aluminum and iron.

We then traveled by speedboat to Philae Temple. After the construction of the Aswan Dam, but before the High Dam, this temple for Goddess Isis was submerged for half the year. The new High Dam would have totally submerged the temple, so the Egyptian government with assistance from 20 other countries moved the temple (comprising 37,000 stone blocks) over a 10 year period to the new Philae Island, Agiliqiya Island. The scenes on this temple depict the legend of Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris. Osiris’s evil brother Seti killed Osiris because he wanted Isis for his wife. Osiris’s body was cut into 16 pieces and spread across Egypt. Isis searched and found all the parts of his body, and used her milk of life to bring him back to immortal life. Horus avenged this by vanquishing Seti and uniting Upper and Lower Egypt. The temple was defaced by the Christians while they were under Roman persecution and lived in the temple. The Coptic Cross and alter was built into one of the walls.

The High Priests were the only ones allowed in the sanctuaries. As the priests became very powerful and rich over time, they took over from the pharaohs (who had also used religion as their basis for control as they were considered descendents of the Gods). Alexander the Great liberated Egypt from the Persians in 332BC. The Ptolemy’s were next after Alexander, and the death of Cleopatra VII, ended the Ptolemy rule. In 50 BC Roman rule began. The Arabs arrived in 641 AD. We also attended the sound and light show of Philae at night.

After dinner, our entertainment was a belly dancer and a “Whirling Dervish”. The man spun and spun and spun like a top in his colorful costume.

We toured old Cairo today. As we drove out of Giza, we saw several camels riding toward the pyramids to start work as photo shots for tourists and sand taxis. We saw the Mohamed Aly Mosque which is set inside the Citadel of Salah El Din(a walled fortress). It has lead coverings on top of all of the domes. The inside has a huge clock and chandelier that were both gifts from the French king in the 1800’s. Sadly, the clock has never worked. The mosque is of Turkish architecture as Aly was from Turkey. We then toured St. George cathedral, considered the hanging church as it is built atop of Roman building ruins. It was built in the 4th century. Inside, you can see the escape tunnel where the early Christians were to run away if the Romans discovered the church. It now has clear church features on the outside too but in the beginning it was a very normal looking building. It had alabaster floor and pulpit. The pulpit is supported by columns for each of the 12 disciples (the one representing Judas is black; Thomas’s is gray, while the others are white.)

After the mosque and church, we visited the old Cairo bazaar where most people thought we were Spanish or Italian. I guess we no longer look American. It was ok when Cindy would say “American”, the vendors all said “You are welcome here.” After that, we went to the Museum of Antiquities. We saw lots of Tutankhamen artifacts. His was the only intact pyramid ever found in Egypt. It was found at Karnak near Luxor. We saw several royal mummies and lots of stone sculptures. We had lunch at Felfela and had authentic Egyptian food. We had fava beans that were basically refried beans, a fried taamia dish and veggies. After we were done with lunch, we watched a black cat come waltzing out of the kitchen. We wonder what was disguised in our food. At least we did not order the Pigeon that was also on the menu. For dinner, we ate Mexican food after taking our lives in our hands to cross a busy roundabout. Since we are writing this, we must have made it safely. This town has traffic like a cross of Biejing and Delhi. Crazy!

Our first day started out as a rush. It turns out that our phone could not ring and we were awoken by our tour guide knocking on our door saying we were already 30 minutes late. When we did get going, we toured Giza Pyramids (Cheops, Chephran, and Micernius) the oldest being about 4500 years. We saw the funeral boat of Cheops that carried his coffin on the Nile for all to see before internment. At Chephrans pyramid, we walked hunched over practically in a ball, into the burial chamber. The air was a bit close and scented of body odor. I don’t think the Pharaoh is happy with that. We were so hunched over that even the next day both of us had very sore legs. We also toured Memphis, the first capital of the unified North and South Egypt. It was founded by Ramses II (The Great). There were actually 7 different King Ramses and 17 total dynasties of Egypt. In Memphis, we saw many statues that had been found in the area.

We also toured Saqqara. This is where Imhotep the first, told King Zosher to build a monument for his afterlife. We saw in the distance 3 of the early attempts, with one pyramid that changes degrees half way up. We walked around Zosher’s 6 step layer pyramid that was built 4700 years ago then through an area with 42 columns, one for each area of Egypt at the time of Zosher’s reign. In the evening, we saw the Sound and Light show at the pyramids where the Sphinx narrated the presentation. Who knew that a rock could talk.

The start of our marathon trip to Cairo. Frankfurt airport was nice but our trip was goofed up and we did not have business class tickets for the flight from Frankfurt to Cairo. Since we were extremely tired we decided to pay for the upgrade for this next flight. We finally arrived in Cairo the evening of the 21st.

We spent the day at the pool. It was incredibly hot. Huge change from the deep south. We had dinner at Azul Profundo for sea food with Marc Hodes. Another nice dinner. What a nice way to end our stay in Santiago.

We toured the Concha Y Toro Winery. We learned the abbreviated form of wine tasting, and we noticed that most of the people did not care for the wines. We, being the fine wine connoisseurs that we are, had no problem finishing ours. Many of the wine barrels were from Napa Valley, but the best ones were from the oak trees in France. In the afternoon, we relaxed at the pool. We had lunch at a local restaurant and had Pastel de Choclo an Andean corn dish kind of like scalloped corn with meat, eggs and veggies.

We toured the Ushuaia Jail and Maritime museum. We saw that Carlos Gardel, the man who invented the Tango, spent time in the prison here. We saw paintings and drawings of Edward A. Wilson, a doctor who had been on trips with Scott and Shackelton to Antarctica. He was the great uncle of David Wilson, our ship historian and David had good stories about Edward Wilson. We tried also to go to the Yamana Indian museum but, we suppose that because the Yamana no longer exist, there was no one there to open the museum. We flew to Santiago in the mid day and many people terrorized the new arrivals to the Antarctica voyage by telling them that the trip was rough and they would be sea sick. Nice change, Antarctica cold to 30 degree celcius on the same day.

Feb 15 & 16- Welcome to sea sickness again. Not a great way to spend the evening of Valentines Day last night and not a lot of fun today. Norm has been sick off and on for 2 days now. The passage is still getting better than yesterday. We did not see too much on the trip. 2 Wandering Albatross and one penguin. We arrived at Ushuia early tonight and we had a light dinner and then Cindy, Norm and Marc Hodes went to La Cantina Fuegina De Freddy to split a King Crab at 10:30 pm. It was incredibly good.

Happy Valentine’s Day! And a beautiful Antarctica day it is, complete with 2 degrees Celsius, 20 knot winds and snow. Up early again, as our Endurance group was first for the volcanic sand beach landing at Whalers Bay. We fought the wind, sleet and snow climbing up to Neptune’s window for the spectacular view. Few pictures were taken due to the snow, but it was worth the trip. The couple sea lions on the beach were the smart ones as they had taken cover in some of the remains of the old whaling station.

Then off to Pendulum Cove for, yes, swimming, at the geothermal springs, created by the volcanic activity! Well as already described, the weather conditions today were not overly favorable, and while many bravely foolish or possibly foolishly brave souls went ashore for this experience, we chose to stay warm on board. A blizzard was still going on at this time. As the picture is from the ship, things are a bit blurry.

Half Moon Island was our last stop of the day and was known to sealers as early as 1821. The crescent shaped island in the entrance to Moon Bay on the eastern side of Livingston Island is home to nesting chinstrap penguins and blue-eyed cormorants. This evening was the final cocktail party and Captain's dinner, followed by a talent show of our wonderful staff. We are now on our way back to go through the Drake Passage toward South America. Two more days of cruising before this wonderful, but cold, experience draws to a close.

While this was our day to sleep in, it ended up as an early morning as we entered the Lemaire Channel about 5:45am and could hear the ship sailing through the ice. After hearing this continuously along with doors shutting, we decided to check what everyone was observing. We quickly dressed and flew up the stairs to the promenade deck to see breathtaking views of the one mile wide channel. It truly was a “Kodak Alley”. We are now on our second photo file for Antarctica. After breakfast, we headed out in the zodiac for the morning hike to see more Gentoo and Adelie penguins, blue-eyed shags, and southern polar skuas on Circumcision Bay, Petermann Island, discovered in 1873-74 by a German expedition. There was lots of snow and even a small waterfall cascading down the incline. Hard to believe that shortly in March, everything will be totally frozen, including the waters in the area around the island.

When we arrived back on board, a barbeque lunch on deck was being prepared. As it began to rain we chose to eat inside, but many enjoyed the feast on deck. The lobster was especially tasty. While eating, we traveled to Pleneau Island at the southern end of the Lemaire Channel. We had a zodiac cruise of this pristine area known as the “iceberg graveyard”. So we added to our collection of iceberg photos even though it was raining. While our zodiac did not get to experience this, others were fortunate to be close to an iceberg that calved and then flipped over. Others observed the survival of the fittest as a leopard seal caught and devoured a penguin. We have seen the pictures, quite gruesome! We were very chilled at the end of the hour, so more hot chocolate! Dinner was of course exceptional again and visited with Joan and Stan from Philadelphia.

We have anchored off of Mikkelsen Harbour. The rocky islet is on a small bay on the southern side of Trinity Island in the Palmer Archipelago. The harbour was discovered by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901-04. The island is home to Gentoo penguins and fur seals. Moss patches are scattered amongst the rocks. Red and green algae have formed on top of the snow. Our zodiac encountered 2 playful leopard seals on the way to the island. The penguins were swimming and popping out of the water like dolphins do. Upon shore we were greeted by Whale bones and an old whaling boat from the early 1900’s.

In the afternoon we traveled to Cierva Cove in Hughes Bay. It is named for Juan de la Cierva, Spanish designer of the autogiro, the first successful rotation wing aircraft in 1923 which was used for exploration here in the past. The glacial fronts were most impressive and the Fauna included blue-eyed shags, brown skuas and snow petrels. We took a zodiac tour of the area and enjoyed the scenery, especially the Minke and Humpback whales(fluke pictured) that were frolicking and feeding in the area. Also complete with icebergs and a leopard seal.