Snowbirding

Winter getaway ideas

Egyptian Market Mania

 in Egypt / Snowbirding  tagged bargains / Egypt / Egyptian pounds / haggling / Luxor / market / Nubian / Shopping / souq / travel by

Prices are enticing in Egypt, especially since their pound devalued, doubling the power of the U.S. dollar to nearly 18 pounds per dollar.  I looked forward to scoring bunches of bargain Christmas gifts when we visited the souq.  My chance came at last in Luxor, and I ventured out from under our guide’s protective wing for an hour. It was seriously intimidating.  Vendors swarm the path and shout “shirts, scarves, camels, no hassle, just browsing, have a look, everything free, where you from?”  I can not shop with all that going on.  I walked several blocks to the end of the street without daring to stop to look at anything.  On the way back I saw a dress that […]

Tomb Raiders

 in Egypt / Snowbirding  tagged adventure / Egypt / exclusive viewing / tomb / travel by

  I’m about to spill some nefarious doings, so will offer no details that might finger a perp.  When the Egyptian government needs money, they sell exclusive viewings of exquisite tombs.  I was one of only three people in our tour group willing to shell out for this privilege.  The pricey entry fee buys just 10-minutes inside, but strings were pulled to allow us more time.  When another group arrived for a viewing, they were encouraged to visit nearby tombs until the tomb was not “full.” Every inch of every wall and ceiling was decorated, all of it inset into […]

Camel Caravan

 in Egypt / Snowbirding / Wildlife/animals  tagged camel tour / Egypt / San Simeon Monastery / tipping / travel by

When our tour guide asked whether anyone in our group preferred a truck trek in lieu of the planned camel tour, I said: “We came for the camels!” I was so excited I dubbed it “Hump Day,” but the camels didn’t seem as happy. The memory of their grumbling still makes me smile hysterically. The handlers made interesting noises as well. They urged the camels forward with an odd kiss/whistle, and when a rider wanted the camel to kneel, he made a gagging sound. The toughest part of the ride, I was told, is in leaning back and holding tight […]

Egyptian Donkey Ride 4

 in Egypt / Snowbirding / Wildlife/animals  tagged bread baking / crops / donkey tour / Egypt / New Gourna Village / Nile River / outdoor oven / sugar cane / tomb builders / travel / Valley of the Kings by

A donkey ride in the Valley of the Kings helped sell Mom and I on the tour we booked to see Egypt.  We both grew up riding horses on the family ranch, but neither of us has ridden much in the last 40 years or so.  Also, donkeys are small and quick and can easily turn out from under a rider.  Between those issues and that fact that Mom is under doctor’s orders not to re-break the collar-bone she shattered last year, I couldn’t help being leery about this ride. Our bus delivered us to New Gourna Village where we mounted up on the street with traffic passing by.  The donkeys were tall enough that […]

Dam Vendors

 in Egypt / Snowbirding  tagged Aswan / dam / Egypt / locks / Luxor / Nile / Nileometer / travel / vendors by

Pushy souvenir vendors can be a pain around popular tourist attractions, but on the Nile, they take an entertaining tack.  As our river cruise ship slowed to approach the locks between Aswan and Luxor, a bundle sailed over the heads of passengers sitting on the sun deck and splashed into the swimming pool.  Then a voice from the river, four decks below, shouted, “Hello?  Excuse me…” Peering over the rail, we found two men waiting in a row boat with piles of goods they hoped would tempt us.  More row boats made haste to join the first in bombarding us with tablecloths, towels, and garish gallabiyahs.  The ladies […]

Discovering Meaning II—Sotol

 in Snowbirding / Texas  tagged archeology / first inhabitants / making paint / pictoglyphs / Seminole Canyon / sotol cake / state park / Texas / travel / west Texas desert by

Mind boggling, the truths archeologists can tease out of an ancient glob. First inhabitants of Seminole Canyon in Texas used bulbs from a yucca-like plant called sotol to cook up portable, storable cakes. Raw sotol bulbs are soapy and painfully gut cleansing. Those problems were overcome by covering them with prickly pear leaves and hot coals to bake, letting them sit for a time before grinding them into meal, adding water and forming them into cakes to be seared on a hot rock. This painstaking process produced a  cake with a dirt/yam fusion flavor. Obviously food options were scarce in the west […]

Crustacean Liberation Cruise 2

 in Our Quest / Snowbirding / Texas / Wildlife/animals  tagged ALDFG / Anahauc / crab trap cleanup / Emily Ford / Galveston Bay Foundation / game warden / Lone Star Law / NRG Energy / Patricia Vannoy / Texas / travel by

“See the lady in the pink shirt? I think she’s from Colorado. She’s got a blog and everything.” I was actually wearing green, so I overheard Emily Ford, the event organizer, pointing a faux me out to her setup team. A retired Water Resources Director and lobbyist from Houston, was also awed that I’d come 1000 miles to the Texas gulf to rescue crabs from derelict traps. Well, excuse me, but Abandoned Lost and Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG) kills countless sea creatures every year including dolphins, whales, turtles, seals, and yeah, crabs. Why wouldn’t I want to help? An unexpected bonus came in my being assigned […]

Jungle Bowl

 in Peru / Snowbirding / Wildlife/animals  tagged Aguas Calientes / Amazon River basin / caiman / cocaine / football / Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica / jungle / medicinal plants / monkeys / Peru / soccer / Tambopata by

My favorite bowl game took place in the Amazon River basin in Peru. The ball was round, and the “crowd” didn’t speak much English, but they gave us the best seats in the house. We only heard about the game because our jungle guide mentioned it as we returned from an excursion to see monkeys, caimans, and medicinal plants–complete with instructions for making cocaine. The game might have been better if the field had been longer since the players generally kicked the ball from one end to the other.  We didn’t get to see much tricky dribbling. We also didn’t get to see anyone score. […]

Discovering Meaning

 in Snowbirding / Texas  tagged evolution of letters / pictographs / Seminole Canyon / West Texas / writing by

Who’d have thought an obscure canyon in west Texas shelters the oldest known writings in the Americas?  These icons were painted about the time the pyramids were going up in Egypt. I’d never fully connected primitive pictures with writing, but these images very likely hold a message. Over time the same basic symbols show a progression from confusingly detailed to simple and more symbolized, a slow tightening to letters. The exhibit’s explanation of that stripping down and stylizing tendency strikes a chord here. It’s what I do with every draft I write: enhance character while stripping out non-essential detail, words, even syllables. Since the meaning […]

Where To Hear Tunes

 in Snowbirding / Texas / Travel tips  tagged Bronson / Las Vegas / Live music / Nashville / Texas / travel by

What city is the live music capital of the US? Austin? Really? How does Austin out croon Nashville, Branson, and Vegas? Willy, Waylon, and the Boys I guess. Luckenbach is right down the road.