Marsa Alama

The dive center, run by Aquarius.

A smaller wooden boat, folouka. Nour and I went out on one of these for our first dive at Marsa Mekki. Aquarius has named all the various dive sites near their center, or they were already named. Either way each one has clear water, extensive coral reefs, and marine life to spare.

The Red Sea.

The hammocks, where Nour, Tom and Tomoun spent at least one hour napping every day. While I have learned how to sleep-in I still suck at napping. Oh well.

John-Baptiste (or JB if you are assumed to be a stupid American who cannot pronounce one of the more common French names), Peter, and Mathiue (here I will admit I have no idea how to spell this other horribly common French name-stupid American). Peter, 49-year-old PE teacher, was a joy to be around. He all chatted with all of us daily about teaching, politics, media, relationships and life. Peter spoke perfect English and felt bad when he could not remember words like amicable, I told him not to worry.

Nour and Tomoum on the boat. Only Nour and I went out on the boat, Tomoum was teaching Tom how to dive. The boat dives were amazing. I went down to 30 meters and saw amazing coral and fish!

The hut compound where we ate all out meals when not on the beach or boat and slept.

The Indiana Jones style rope bridge leading into the hut compound, which was across the road from the dive center and small cafe area.

Lounge chairs with the moon, around 5pm

Scuba Faye

Diving boat

Set up area on the large boat.

Some Egyptian environmentalism.

View from the larger ship we went out on one day for two dives and the site we started at for one dive.

My hut.

Lounging chairs where I spent a considerable amount of time getting super tan! OK not really that tan, but I am trying.

Boats for the dive center, a southward view towards some hills and dessert.

A stop to get some Pizza, there was no pizza, but we did see remnants of wedding.

Where we stopped to get pizza. They also had an amazing amount of baked goods.
French pastries abound in Egypt.

Several facts leading up to a vacation

1) Only two out of the supposed eight interns have arrived, making training sort of pointless.
2) The apartments for the interns are not ready.
3) Nour is originally from a tourist/diving town and has lots of friends who are well connected and excellent divers.
4) Cairo is smoggy and summer is still on!

All facts considered Tom, Nour and I head off to Marsa Alam on the 13th of August with a quick overnight stop in Hurgadah to pick up Nour's best friend and dive instructor Ahmed Tomuom. The four of us travel to Marsa Alam and arrived on the 14th for a four night/five day stay filled with two dives a day, excellent food, a super chill environment, and a wonderful ecologically minded break from Cairo.

The road to Marsa Alam