Journal Entry: Day 224

Dahab, South Sinai, Egypt,

Unfortunately, I did not write much these last few days. I was busy visiting Tenerife with my parents, we also did a day trip to the neighboring island of La Palma, a long ferry road to explore the famous volcano that destroyed many homes. Sadly (or hopefully for local people) the volcanic activities had almost stopped when we arrived, furthermore, it is very difficult to get close to the lava as police presence prevents us to do so. And the few accessible roads are busy with local traffics and curious visitors. As expected I had exactly 0 interesting recordings there, but it was a nice trip to do as a visitor. and to spend time with my parents. Then Yesterday I traveled all day long with a transiting flight through Rome up to my current location, Dahab. The plane was delayed and the arrival at the Egyptian airport was completely chaotic, with officials (not looking so much official) distributing immigration cards, and visa stamps the same way as if they were drug dealers. Nobody knew exactly what was happening, and everybody walked all around the arrival hall 5 times to find the right paper and the right person, I never experienced that much chaos on arrival to any country. Finally, one guy collected all our passports, and we waited 50 minutes for him to come back with our visas. Then I had a final 1-hour drive up to Dahab and arrived in the middle of the night. I am planning to stay 1 month in this country. I am not expecting to record many interesting sounds in Egypt, but I will try to do my best. Although I am here because it is a gateway to other parts of Africa, and also to discover life in this country as I have heard many good things about nomads living here. I have to say Dahab is quite relaxed and interesting, it is mainly a ‘hippie’ kind of town, where locals and international travelers mingle. The main activity around here is diving in the nearby Red Sea, some spots here look pretty spectacular in terms of sea life. However, there is a sharp contrast with the land side, where everything is arid and looks dead and somewhat trashy and dusty with not many animals or plants. Although the mountainous landscape of the red sea is quite scenic particularly at sunset or sunrise.

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