Day 4: Aswan

12 uncomfortable hours later we finally arrived in Aswan tired and stiff from a long night of infrequent stretching stops. Showers and food were in order. Aswan is much cleaner and open that Cairo. Starving we searched for a restaurant, it was 3 stops before we settled on a place based on viewing the food on customers plates. The owner greeted us and suggested dishes, within 10 minutes our table was filled with the freshiest veggies, tahini, bread, rice, and meat I've ever had. We ate long after our hunger warrented basking in the first decent meal since arriving.


Later that evening, after a nap, we boarded a felucca boat, the traditional transport of the Nile, sailed around Elephantine and Kitchener Islands before docking in a Nubian Village. Immediately upon docking, we saw our next mode of transport....CAMELS, large, dirty, smelly, camels!! For someone with short legs, its pretty difficult to hop up on, but I managed to get my little stumps onto my sweet ride!

It's not a graceful animal, the camel, it's a pretty bumpy ride. A young boy maned my camel and made sure I didn't die even though he failed to mention to lean back when the camel stands up, somehow I managed not to fall to my death. Once I was up, my camel received a swift whip on the ass, making it lunge into a pace I hated. Yelling at my camel boy to not whip my ride, he laughed and walked off leaving me and my camel alone. He followed closely behind another camel but failed to break fast enough not to poke the girl in front of me with its nose. My camel loved to walk on the edge of the sand, I did not, my camel didn't mind the possibility of tumbeling down the sand to sudden death (ok not death but some broken bones definately), I did! I tried to yell for my little camel minion to return but he took his time and when he did he found it funny to make the thing run. It's not so funny when you are on the big sucker. By the time our 30 minute ride ended in the middle of the village, I was ready to travel on my own two legs. Again, I had no warning when it kneeled forward and finally sat back. How none of us went over the heads of these animals I will never know but I do know I have had softer landings before.

Camels parked, we headed into the Nubian School for a quick lesson. The Nubians are the original Egyptians, as the minority, they continue to have their own seperate villages and spoken language. The buildings are colorfully decorated with hand paintings and designs. It is a beautiful break from the tan lanscape of the cities.

In the school our Nubian teacher made his best effort to teach us the numbers and alphabet in both Nubian and Arabic, we did not pick it up quickly. But with enough repitition, we were able to mumble our way through it. With lessons learned we headed to the house for a traditional dinner (stuffing our faces earlier, we decided not to pay extra for this meal), the group chowed down and we played with their pet crockadiles. They are surprisingly soft!!! With our village trip over, we climbed back on our felucca, this time opting for the laying under the stars on the roof. The hustle and bustle faded into silence and a few of us talked about the beautiful places we've seen, while attempting to pick out the Dippers.