Aswan DAAAAAM!

Aswan is HOT. Like being thrown in the midst of a charcoal pit hot. With everyone laughing and not sweating as you sit there in shock hot. Its hot.

We took the night train from Cairo last night, arriving this morning. Hussein, a friend of our cousin's husband picked us up and drove us around all day. First thing we did was check out the High Dam, the view is great and the water is much cleaner than in Cairo. We took a boat to Philea, an island close by that has some temples. Lots of the pictures and words are chiseled out as each new generation tried to erase the last one. There's even some crosses cut in from when it was a church. At this point I was dead tired from the heat.

The Aswan people and the Nubians here are the nicest, most genuine of Egypt that I've come across so far. Which is not hard with pushy Cairenes and crazy eyed Alexandrians. The nubian guy who took us on the boat is getting married tomorrow, and Hussein said we might check out a Nubian wedding tomorrow, maybe its the same one.

I'm slogging around looking for shade and water all the time. Had the tastiest sugar cane juice today. Its all over the country. They have these storefront stands with big ass machines that they feed a couple sugar canes at a time through, and out the bottom comes a couple cups of super fresh sugar cane juice. I think 90% of the machine must be storage for the used up canes that make the delicious and refreshing stuff. Tomorrow morning we'll take a falucca on the nile for a couple hours, and the next day we are going to Abu Simbel early in the morning. Halfway into this trip through beautiful Egypt.

PS. Aswan is hot.