For many years I have been intrigued by Mexico. We’ve all seen the stereo-typical lazy mexican siesta-ing under a the shade of his sombrero. We’ve all been introduced in some shape or form to mexican food such as burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas and tacos. Now it is finally time to experience the true Mexico…… one Margarita at a time

In preparation, I’ve been learning Spanish all year. My skills are coming along nicely at the unfortunate expense of my waning French. I’m lucky as many words in Spanish are similar to French so my listening comprehension is good. I am scheduling some extra tuition in the weeks leading up to d-day.

Flights are booked. I fly out Monday 20th Feb 2012 with a quick overnighter in LA before heading straight to Mexico City. Below is a rough idea of my planned itinerary.

I’ll finish up with 3 days in LA to “do Hollywood” and shop myself into a stupor before arriving home in NZ on the 1st of May. As with my previous trips, I’ll be combining a mix of small group tours with independent travel. I’ve found this approach suits best as I can get the best of both worlds. Thankfully I don’t have any major issues with obtaining visas this time so there is nothing left for me to do but countdown the days.

Tengo que estudiar el espanol…..hasta pronto!

During the last few days I went to a Nile Cruise belly dancing show and dinner, shopped at the infamous Khan Al-Khalili souk, drank tea, smoked sheesha and got my hand tattooed with henna at the Fishawi’s café, visited the Cairo Citadel complex and wandered the streets of Gezira.

Arriving in Alexandria was like arriving into a new world. After so many days in the desert, it was a relief to get back to civilisation, do some laundry and see the coast again. Alexandria is known for its café culture and delicious coffee – blissful cappuccino, latte and espresso. The shopping was immense, whole streets lined with shoe shops – paradise. Also a highlight was the deliciously fresh seafood – Fish, prawns and calamari. Superb. We spent the day negotiating taxi to take us from place to place, including the catacombs, Pompey’s Pillar and the Montazah Palace and Gardens.

We climbed up the maze like mud-brick ruins of the old fortress of Shali to watch the sunset. Siwa is exactly how I imagine an oasis to be: a small area of lush green palms in the middle of the arid desert.

The next day we hired bikes to get around to some of the sights including Mountain of the Dead, the Temple of the Oracle and Cleopatra’s Bath. Cycling was actually really lovely. I quickly discovered if I got up some speed it creates a cool breeze. I did have to be careful not to get stuck in the sandy patches though!

The afternoon was a true highlight. We hired a 4×4 to take us to the sand dunes on the outskirts of town and we spent hours screaming with excitement as we went up and down the steep sand dunes and hooning at speed on the flat. The highlight was a “corkscrew” sand formation which was like being on a roller coaster! Wahooooooo. We also stopped to do some sand boarding. The best of all was finding a cold spring in the middle of miles of sand where we could swim. The water was amazing and refreshing and there were even some little fish in there. There was also a natural hot spring which was so murky and smelly we had to go back to the cold spring to wash off. What an amazing day!

It is barren, it is arid, it is hot and there is sand and rocks for as far as the eye can see. Words cannot describe the ever-changing landscape and it was fun stopping off from time to time to examine the unusual terrain. Within a short space of time we hooned through the sand dunes, explored the white sands and the limestone rock formations of the White Desert, picked through the ground for black stone desert flowers, fossicked for crystals and admired the black bleeding from the hills in the Black desert.

We parked up for the night in the White Desert. The limestone rocks reminded me a bit of snow, however the heat soon expelled any delusions there! It was so peaceful sitting on a rock watching the sun slowly go down. It was so quiet it was deafening. Dinner was cooked for us on the campfire and mattresses were set up for us to sleep under the desert stars. It was so hot that no bedding was needed. We sat after dinner drinking sweet Bedouin tea and keeping a close eye on the 5 or 6 foxes that were checking out our campsite, trying to scavenge food or water. We were advised to pack away our jandals if we didn’t want a fox to steal them! Going to the toilet involved sauntering off to find a suitable rock to hide behind and peeing in the sand. I think it will seem weird to have to go back to using a real toilet after roughing it for a few days.

It was about now that the character building really started. None of us could sleep because of the heat and the knowledge that the foxes were milling about so close by. A gentle wind picked up and started to sprinkle sand on the mattresses. Annoying but manageable. Next thing the wind really picks up and blows big gusts of sand all over everything and everyone. Eyes stinging, we evacuated to the safety of the 4×4 (windows firmly shut) and bunked in for a long, hot, sandy night in the middle of a sandstorm. I didn’t take nearly enough water and after an uncomfortable and sleepless night, the desert didn’t seem like such fun anymore. In the morning the wind finally died down but the mattresses and everything outside were buried in the sand. My skin was caked in a fine film of sand, my hair was full of sand, I was tired, thirsty, grumpy, hot, sweaty, dirty and ready to come home! Only now can I look back at this adventure and laugh. Especially since for weeks afterwards I was still finding sand in places I didn’t know existed….. 

I took hundreds of pictures in the desert. I have picked out a sample to give an idea of what it was like.

Being a group of 5 girls we spent a considerable amount of time drooling over the gold and silver jewellery and we all ordered personalised cartouches and other souvenirs. We also went to a perfumery where we watched them blow the intricate perfume bottles and fill them with natural perfume oils mixed to mimic the CK, Hugo Boss and Chanel brands we see in the duty free shops.

Today was hot. Excruciatingly hot. Nearly 50° hot I suspect. We left the hotel at 4pm to visit the spectacular temple complex of Karnak which was magnificent and extremely impressive. However, I was so hot I could only focus on finding shade and staying hydrated. In fact while we were there a tourist was carried out on a stretcher – heat stroke, I am quite sure. The Karnak temple is the largest temple complex ever built by man, and wasn’t constructed by a single pharaoh or even during a single time period. Construction began in the sixteenth century BC and continued for over 1,300 years. Approximately thirty different pharaohs contributed to the complex, adding temples, pylons, chapels, or obelisks.  It is like a giant open air museum.

The next day we explored 3 tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings was used as a royal burial ground for 500 years. There are over sixty lavish tombs of pharaohs, nobles, and queens dotted in the Valley of the Kings. The tombs are cleverly cut into the rock and are barely visible from the surface. The usual design was with a long tunnel  leading to the main burial chamber well underground. The artwork depicting Egyptian mythology painted on the inside the walls of the tombs was incredible  but to preserve the wall art, no photos are allowed. We also visited Deir el-Medina, the workers village who worked to build the tombs for the Kings and Queens. During their days off the workmen could work on their own tombs, and since they were among the best craftsmen in Ancient Egypt who excavated and decorated royal tombs, their own tombs are considered the most beautiful on the west bank. Again no photos allowed.

 The temperature is really really starting to become unbearable now. During the peak of the day it is reaching into the late forties. Thankfully we are managing to arrange most activities for early morning or late afternoon and evening to avoid the absolute unbearableness of the heat.

That evening near Aswan, we caught a boat to visit the Philae temple on a little island in the Nile. Again the temple was relocated to higher ground to save it from flooding.  We watched a lovely little light and sound show and then caught the boat back.

The Aswan area is home to an ethnic group called the Nubians. The Nubian people don’t speak Arabic but their own language and have a very distinct culture. It was lovely to spend the late afternoon in a boat, cruising the Nile and stopping on Elephantine Island to relax with the Nubian people with some delicious Nubian coffee and sheesha (water pipe with apple flavoured tobacco). I must admit I have come to really like the sheesha. In Islam alcohol is prohibited so many an relaxing evening in Egypt is spent smoking sheesha, drinking sweet mint tea and playing dominoes instead. The sheesha tobacco can be flavoured with peach, cherry, orange, flowers, mint or melon but my favourite remains the more commonly found apple.

A lovely elderly Nubian man joined us on the boat for a wee while to talk to us about the Nubian way of life. His delightful presence was more interesting than anything.

After his visit we jumped off the boat and scrambled up the banks of the Nile to jump on the back of some camels. It was a beautiful desert sunset as we raced our camels across the desert to a Nubian village. Go Commanda Go!

A Nubian family were our hosts for the evening. We were cooked a delicious traditional meal and the evening was topped off with dancing and a party led by the young children with the women singing and drumming.