Day Three
Part One
April 9, 2008


Catching Up:

Sleep! A great friend to me. I awoke refreshed this morning and ready to engage this time zone. Greg and I went down to the Club Hyatt for a nice breakfast. Hummus, shaved beef, fresh dates with honey, croissant with fig preserves, and fairly decent coffee.

This place, undoubtedly like it was 5000 years ago, moves for the river. The Nile teems with life and activity. Many bridges connecting distinct parts of the city. Boats of all shapes and sizes, barges, sail boats, skiffs, little fishing boats. The earliest depiction of a boat in the entire history of mankind comes from an Egyptian stone pot dated to 3200 B.C.

These of course were made of papyrus. Ingenious little devices, no? At breakfast we looked down from the balcony to see several fishing boats with shirtless men dipping nets into the river, almost exactly as pictured. The main difference was the outboard engine on the back and the Nike shoes on the men. Now a more common site would be a 200 foot long party boat. Neon lights from stem to stern, loaded with revelers.


Some of the only green you see here is along the river, otherwise the color scheme is decidedly brown/ochre. Like one big khaki blanket. The great Sahara could come in one night covering this place and you might stub your toe on a skyscraper before seeing it. When asking one of our guides about the size of the population here she says: "We are about 17 to 18 million people. I say 17 to 18 because we fluctuate, moving in and out, like the desert itself."