Yesterday was a grueling day. We checked out and left the hotel at 6:30 a.m. and didn't arrive to our cruise ship until 2:45 p.m. We spent the entire time visiting the sites on the West Bank. It was extremely hot and dry. The sun was very intense. I took this photo just before we left on our excursion from our Luxor hotel which obviously is right on the Nile. The air is very dry and very clear. When we were here in January it was winter and the air was polluted from all the fires. People heat their homes by burning, what I'm not sure, and they were burning the fields after they had harvested the sugar cane. Now the air is much clearer and much easier to breath.
The tour of the West Bank was our longest and will be our most challenging excursion. Originally, we had scheduled this morning for another day, but for some reason the Nile river authorities wouldn't allow us to follow that schedule. They regulate the traffic on the Nile and our program had us sailing at night, or going through a lock at a time that wasn't allowed. This meant that our first day would be our most challenging, which isn't the best case scenario. People were jet-lagged, hot and tired, but were also real troopers and they all seemed to love seeing the temples and tombs, as was I. I've seen these sites 4 times now and I still enjoy visiting them. I mostly enjoy going to Hatshepsut's Temple, but only first thing in the morning! It gets so hot there! Here's a photo of the temple from the entrance.
The priests of Thebes wouldn't allow Hatsheptsut to build her tomb in the Valley of the Kings (since she was a queen). Her work-around was to build her mortuary temple on the other side and tunnel her way into the valley--clever woman! There are some amazing colors still intact in the temple. I'll try to post more photos later, if we have time.
We had our first meeting with Samuel yesterday and I'd say we hit the ground running. There's not much time. He gave out a written Dragon visualization that he asked roommates to read out loud to each other, at least once a day, so that we would all learn it and know it by heart. The visualization has all the activated Dragons merging into each other one-by-one in reverse order of their activation. I think it's going to be very powerful when we all do it together with Samuel!
Well, I need to stop for now. It's 7:15 a.m. I need to get ready for the day. We visit two temples--Edfu and Kom Ombo and have another group meeting this afternoon. I'll try to write more later today.
Thanks and Love,
Stuart
.
No comments:
Post a Comment