2020 – Egypt

Posted by on March 31, 2020

Egypt, Cairo and The Red Sea, Marsa Shagra, Marsa Alam

We saw the effin’ pyramids! Despite the craziness over COVID-19 and having to cut our Egypt trip 2 weeks short, we at least got in a few days of diving in the Red Sea and managed to spend a full day at the pyramids in Cairo, all during a global pandemic, historic rainfall in Cairo, shutdown airports, travel restrictions through Europe and a harrowing escape from Egypt to get home before all airports shut down.

Greg and Chad happy to be on the plane to Egypt.
We had a long layover at CDG (Paris) so checked in to the YotelAir ( terminal 2E - FYI ) for a 4 hour nap. 6 hour rental for 80Euro.
This is how I wanted to wake up for our first morning in Egypt.
The Sphinx is not as big as you might think.
Sphinx has seen better days.
006-egypt2020-c.anderson.IMG_3583
Greg distracted the scammer camel driver while I grabbed a few shots of his camel. Reverse scam success!
It was WINDY on the Giza plateau. At some points it was like getting sand blasted.
Closeup you can really see that the capstone is missing...the top is flat!
The top section has many casing stones still in place. The pyramids were all covered in smooth limestone casing stones that now litter the bases as they have fallen off or been used for other building througout the centuries.
These are the size of the stones of the pyramids. They are gigantic. Unlike the pyramids of the Maya, you can't really climb these pyramids because the stones are too tall.
The pyramids are WAY BIGGER than you think. Probably one of the most amazing things we've ever seen. It is absolutely mind-boggling to think about: 1) Someone had the insane idea to build these, 2) The amount of labor it took to build them 3) The engineering feat to pull it off, and 4) Why...just why?
The blocks are huge.
Late afternoon gazing out our hotel window.
Yeah, we saw the effin' pyramids.
This camel scammer followed us around for a good hour hoping we would finally give in to his offer for a ride. The camels at the pyramids are a very well known scam. They promise you one price, get you up 10 feet in the air on the camel, ask if you want a picture. You hand them your phone or camera, then they demand more money to give it back and let you down. Just don't do it.
017-egypt2020-c.anderson.20200311_111804
Smooth casing stones near the bottom of the smallest pyramid. They look very similar to stones we've seen in Incan structures in Peru.
019-egypt2020-c.anderson.20200311_113935
The pyamids are so much bigger than you think.
Cairo gets 1 inch of rain a year. We were there for the start of a 2 day storm that dumped more than 4 inches and completely shut down the city for days.
Very rare rainstorm in Cairo as we jet off to the Red Sea.
023-egypt2020-c.anderson.IMG_1755
Marsa Shagra at the Red Sea. While Cairo was experiencing biblical rainfall, the desert was raging with a sandstorm.
The sunrise and sunsets were blue during the 2 day storm.
Finally the sandstorm is over and the sunrise over the Red Sea is telling of a beautiful day.
The beach bawadi for afternoon tea.
The architecture at Marsa Shagra was very sureeal. Very arab. Looked something out of Star Wars, "Luuuuke....Luuuuuuke!"
029-egypt2020-c.anderson.IMG_3728
The stark contrast between the beautiful blue waters of the Red Sea and the desert is stunning.
The water looks so inviting, but pretty cold at only about 71degrees F..
032-egypt2020-c.anderson.IMG_3735
033-egypt2020-c.anderson.IMG_3742
034-egypt2020-c.anderson.IMG_3744
035-egypt2020-c.anderson.IMG_3787
We were up every day very early, mostly because of the 9 hour time change.
037-egypt2020-c.anderson.IMG_3762
038-egypt2020-c.anderson.IMG_1874
We had to book an emergency flight out of Egypt to avoid the government's shutdown of the airports due to COVID-19. We escaped to Germany, of course they have a beer tap at the hotel's reception desk!
Flyin through the fire to get home, the airports in Germany were literally empty.
041-egypt2020-c.anderson.60617233485__422AB84B-8458-47AA-9467-A89C68F674FF
Nobody anywhere in Germain airports as they were on stay at home lockdown orders weeks before the US was.
Yes, the germans are my people. This makes me so happy.
Empty airports.
Empty planes.
We remain hyper vigilant in keeping clean but most importanly protecting others in the case that we are already COVID-19 positive.
Ghost planes. No people.