Breaking news

Jo saw her first hoopoe.

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Catch up

Other than our report on new year, we have not reported since we were left hungry in the doldrums in the Nile at Aswan. I am pleased to report that we did get lunch and dinner and, interspersed, we saw some ruins, a monastery, and the Aga Khan mausoleum. At nine that night was the english son et lumiere show at Philae. Since I fell asleep, I will let Sara describe. "Oh nile... Ecstasy...Don't kill the fish who ate his manhood..." And so on with lots of pretty lights on the monuments. Home by 11:00 and up at 3:30 for a ride in an armed convoy to Abu Simbel to see the temples of Ramses II and Neferteri. Worth it. Finally a revolt in the ranks and only Jim went to the Nubian village.
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One more thing

Jim joined the dancing... "All of the sudden I looked up and there was Jimbo dancing with us."
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Happy New Year! Gala

We were some of the first in the door for our free non-alcoholic drink of either oj or hibiscus tea. We were also some of the first to eat the hand carved lamb (head and all). And Mom was definitely the first at the dessert table. And Rebecca is now dancing some traditional nubian dances. I wonder if we'll be the first to head to bed... Sara

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Islamic Cairo

Yesterday we saw lots of mosques and the bazaar. At the bazaar we were entertained by the salesmen: "How can I take your money?" To Sara: "Spicy lady, spicy lady." To Rebecca: " I would kill my wife for you." To Jim: "How many women do you have?". When Jim held up his hand with all fingers outstretched: "Wow" Night train to Aswan.
Right now we are sitting in the middle of the river nile at noon. You might wonder: "where are they going to eat lunch?" Well, that is an excellent question without an answer or any options available. But that doesn't mean we don't have smiles on our faces. We are having a great time! I mean, it is pretty hilarious, we are actually floating backwards because there is no wind, waiting for a motor boat to save us.
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Pictures

Sara was smart enough to bring her USB cable so here are some photos from the trip thus far.

Cathy, Catherine, and Jim before the hike up Mt. Sinai.

Jim at the top of Mt. Sinai at sunrise.

Burning Bush. THE burning bush.

Catherine, Jim, Cathy, and Sara at the Suez Canal.

13th Century paintings (Sara thinks) of St. Paul and St. Anthony and their raven bringing them bread at St. Anthony's Monastery.

Cathy and Sara in St. Anthony's Cave. (This one's for you, TJ.)

Jo and Boo at Dashour Pyramids with Asian tourists behind us.

Boo on a camel at Giza.

Sphinx and Pyramid at Giza.

Catherine and Jim listen to our guide Mona in the mummification temple.

Mohammed Ali Mosque (not the boxer) in the Citadel in Cairo. The mosque kind of looks like a frog Boo says.

At the top of a tower overlooking the Ibn Tulun Mosque.

Jo and Cathy look back at their pictures in the Egyptian Pancake House.

She can't hear you.

Jim's spa vacation

We have had several different workout routines on this vacation. The first two days we basically had a walk, walk, climb up up up up, climb down down down down, walk. The third day we had stand on marble, walk a few steps, stand on marble, walk a few steps, sit down, stand up, for two hours, then walk for an hour, then take a taxi. Today we upped it a notch and did climb up up, squat and climb down down down, squat and walk, rest and look at empty tomb and then reverse, for three cycles. Granted, we were at three different pyramid sites, so we were not bored. Combined with a colonic I call Cairo cra_, we will be in excellent physical shape. The pyramids and Sphinx were everything they were advertised.
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Pyramids

Need we say more?

Ok, we'll say more. We went to 3 different pyramid complexes today, including the large one at Giza that is famous. We climbed inside 3 different pyramids. It was really awesome. We had to crouch down and climb down a long way. It was smelly and hot and hard to breathe inside, but still very awesome. One of them smelled like amonia (possibly embalming fluid says Sara) and one smelled like sweat (all of the European tourists, we think). There were amazing hieroglyphic carvings as well in a tomb of a nobleman. There were hippos and birds and did we mention hippos? The hippos had long tongues. It was very cool.

We forgot to mention that at the Egyptian Museum yesterday that we saw mummified crocodiles. They were huge and really cool. There was a tiny baby crocodile too because live mama crocodiles carry babies in their mouths, and this mummy crocodile had a baby in its mouth, so they think it was probably a female, but they aren't sure. There were also other mummified animals - dogs, cats, birds, etc. Pretty weird.

We had a really nice dinner tonight at this restaraunt right on the Nile River. It was pretty schnazzy. It was recommended in our guidebook but when we got there, it had changed names and had become super trendy. All the wealthy, hip, young Egyptians were there. In the summer, it is open air on the water, but in the winter, we were under this big tent with space heaters. Not that it is cold outside. It's not. It feels rather amazing actually. There were big TVs too, with English Premier League soccer on. The lentil soup was amazing, and the Egyptian beer, Stella Local (not Stella Artois of Belgium) was pretty good too.

That's all for now. Signing off with Sara and Rebecca's blessings. -Jo

Coptic Cairo +

Today was the first full day Rebecca and I (Jo) were in Egypt. We spent the morning in Coptic Cairo which is the Christian area. There were many very old churches (7th century) including one where the Holy family supposedly hid in the cave (crypt) beneath it to flee King Herod. There was also a very old synagogue there. As we left, a woman told Rebecca where to find all the other synagogues in Cairo. I guess she looks Jewish.
We then got back into the car with Joseph the driver who took us to the Egyptian Museum. This museum was immense and overwhelming, like the British Museum or the Louvre. We had seen King Tut traveling exhibits in the States, and now we see why they were sort of disappointing--all the really awesome stuff is here. It was incredible.
Then we wandered around downtown Cairo a bit. It was tiring. Traffic here, both in cars and on foot is an adventure. Kind of scary. Signing off - Jo
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Saint Anthony.

Again we walked. This time 1188 steps. With a cave at the top. The one st anthony lived in for forty years. There were a lot of scrawny crows around because everyone who reaches the cave gets a loaf of bread (for the reference check the latturner guide pages 25 to 35). So we reached the cave and squeezed ourselves in to discover a cupboard that held some of st anthonys prized possessions... Which were surprisingly similar to things tj loves: olives, coconut, sweeten condensed milk and a six pack of bud. Stayed tuned for some additions to franks obituary...sara
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Christmas on Mt Sinai

Three hours, two camels and 750 steps later we are huddling and freezing in a coffee hut waiting for the sun to rise. Jim, mom and I lurve mt sinai and the hundreds of people waiting with us. About this time on adam's peak we had had enough of the moths and the cold and had started our descent. But we are going to try to hold out here (though two more hours of sleep would have been killer.) Dan don't worry about terrorists - they can't out number us pilgrims. We are waiting for g-d to give us those tablets but we might have trouble carrying them down... Merry Christmas.
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West bank

So we went down the mountain. Tablets were heavy and we were tired. Limping by the time we passed St. Catherine's Monastery. At the parking lot by 8:30. No driver. Took a taxi to hotel. Ate breakfast. Still no driver and he had our room keys. Got in room for 5 minutes. Driver here, time to go to St. Catherine's. Forgot St. Catherine's was far enough so that a couple who was to accompany us up the mount grabbed camels there. Had meltdown. St. Catherines was worth it. Greek orthadox dating to the 4th century. Beneficiary of crusader munificence. Exquisite icons. A collection not harmed by the iconoclasts. Site of the burning bush. Then back in the van to trace our steps and leave west asia and return to north africa under the canal. Night in a beach resort on the red sea.
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About to leave...

Boo and I are still in Nashville. We leave in about an hour and a half for the airport. Thus begins about 24 hours of traveling. We fly to Detroit and have about a 4 hour layover there. Luckily the Detroit airport is fancy. Then we fly to Amsterdam. I'm not sure how long we will be in Amsterdam, but it's at least a couple hours. Then we fly to Cairo, due to arrive at 8:45 PM Cairo time on December 26, after leaving Nashville at 2:10 PM Nashville time on December 25. Sounds exhausting. But after so long on the plane, we'll be rarin' to go for an adventure in Egypt.

To Sinai

Sara arrived at 2:30 am.
At 6 we were awakened, breakfast at 7 and our drivers arrived at 7:30. Off to the Sinai. We headed east to Suez and took the tunnel under the Suez canal and left Africa for Asia; the Near East for the Middle East. Once on the Peninsula, we headed south along the Gulf of Suez, where we could see massive ships lined up to get on the canal.

We stopped at springs where Moses put trees to make the water less bitter. We also stopped to wade in hotsprings on the edge of the Gulf. Turning east, we travelled down a wadi with towering granite mountains on either side. We are now resting at our hotel for a 1:30 am departure for our climb up mt sinai.
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Cairo airport

We are waitong for Sara. The blackberry is not working.
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Amman airport

We made it to Amman after a very pleasant flight. Jim commandeered 4 adjacent seats and we were able to alternate sleeping upright with stretching out over 3 seats. I was a little unnerved by the map showing our landing flight noting Baghdad and Gaza. The first map showed Chicago and Grand Rapids. I guess that Dan's repeated references to seeing my head on CNN has had an effect. Full moon over Amman. There are Cinnabons and Starbucks at the Amman airport.
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A Christmas climb

Jim, Catherine, Sara and I will be climbing Mt. Sinai early Christmas morning with a goal of observing the sunrise. This raises questions about how difficult this will be. On our Sri Lanka trip, Rebecca, Sara, Daphna and I climbed Adam's Peak (pictured), also on Christmas with a goal of observing a sunrise. Will Mt. Sinai be as challenging? We made it up Adam's Peak, but never saw the sunrise. Our driver, not wanting to lose sleep, got us there early, we got to the top early and it was so crowded and uncomfortable, we did not stay. We did see Adam's (or Buddha's) footprint and our achievement is one which we refer to proudly. I would like to actually see the sunrise at Mt. Sinai.

luc.

my moms asked me to post some luc photos. he's cleaner cut now. he wishes he could go to eqypt but he doesn't like planes (too loud and cramped.)

Frank and Jo

Egypt will be a Frank pilgrimage trip. We will visit the places where he first met, and fell in love with, a camel and where he did his most important archeological work. But for the Frank connection, we would not visit the pyramids at Giza or King Tut's tomb.

Jo, if you really want to blend in you need to know how to wear a head scarf. No one will know the color of your hair.

Another travel picture

Here is a picture of Jim and Cathy with their travel group and drivers in Ethiopia.

Some of my early comments might lead you to believe that Frank was coming with us to Egypt.

Sadly, Frank passed on in February. He found out he was terminally ill a mere 5 days before he was to travel with us on this trip to Ethiopia. He died before we got back.

It is important for our readers to be aware of Frank. It is inevitable that any Lacoco trip blog will refer to Frank since he has had such an impact on our prior adventures. He has been and will be missed.

Sara and TJ in Chicago

This is a travel picture of TJ and, actually, Sara since she has been exiled to Massachusetts.

TJ is not going with us to Egypt. He says it is because he has to take care of Luc. There also is a bit of general contracting to be done. See, scresidence.blogspot.com.

Maybe next time TJ?

More of Catherine, Jim & Mom on the road to open air museum near Kiev.

TJ...

Jo had a genius idea. As soon as TJ comes on a trip, the name can become Coco Splaru. Pretty funny. Or Coco Larusp. Maybe no longer stripperesque.

More photos

I took out the Xmas 2006 photos because they did not fit the theme of being abroad.

Boo and Jo in Tallin, Estonia

Here's the gang + Alison in Moscow.

Near Kiev

As requested by Cathy, here is a photo at the Ukranian open air museum near Kiev. Catherine leads Jim, Cathy, and Rebecca with traditional Ukranian buildings in the background. We got here after a long, meandering path through the countryside. On a side note, I have not been to the Middle East before, so I don't know how to blend in, but I do have dark hair, so that puts me ahead of some members of the group...

More current pictures

I have discovered that we will not be able to attach pictures while we are in Egypt. So I thought it would be nice to attach more recent pictures of the Lacoco team before we leave.

Here we have a picture of Cathy and Jim celebrating their wedding anniversary in Madagascar.

Above, on my request, Jo attached a picture of Catherine leading the Lacoco Kiev group. (Finding recent pictures of Catherine is somewhat difficult)

Pictures of other team members will follow.

Jim and Frank

also have learned how to blend in.

We also know how to

ride camels.

Been there; done that.

As most of you know, we have been to the Middle East before. So we know how to dress.

Miracle

It worked.
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Trying it from my blackberry

Thought I would try to email the blog from my blackberry.
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new tricks

Go Luc Go, I am coming on strong.

Eight days to departure

Inspired by the India blog of my dear friend and prior Lacoco travel companion, Christie, I have secured a Blackberry, created a blog and will spend this week practicing.

The Lacocos are off to Egypt on December 22. Or actually some of us are off on December 22. Some of us aren't leaving until Christmas. And we are travelling on three different itineraries. Jim, Catherine and I are flying to Cairo from Chicago on the 22nd through Amman, Jordan. Sara is flying from Boston through London on the 22nd. And Jo and Rebecca are flying from Detroit through Amsterdam on Christmas day. This is reminiscent of our trip to Sri Lanka, where the Lacocos travelled east through Oman and Francois (may he rest in peace) and Daphna travelled west through Singapore.

I also realized that when I named this blog Lacocoegypt I missed a great opportunity. Now that Jo is travelling with us, we need to call ourselves Coco Laru. Sounds like a stripper. Thoughts?