Sharm El Sheik and The Red Sea

Note: This is Nate again. Maria thought I should write more posts, so strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.

As you know from our previous posting, we flew from Luxor to Sharm El Sheik. However, we had to make a connecting flight through Cairo. This was the same day that Obama gave his speech at Cairo University, so we were delayed and ended up missing our flight to Sharm El Sheik. Customer service informed us that there were no more available seats on the flights to Sharm El Sheik for the rest of the day, but thankfully we were able to fit onto a later flight a few hours later.

Immediately upon our arrival, we realized that Sharm El Sheik was totally different than the other Egyptian cities that we visited. Unlike the hustle and bustle of everyday life in the other cities, Sharm El Sheik is a laid-back resort town. It is located near the tip of the Sinai Pennisula and sits on a desert-like plain nestled between a range of red-rock mountains and the brilliant, turquoise waters of the Red Sea. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort and instead of being the only Westerners in a city full of Egyptians, we became the only Americans in a resort full of Europeans.

Here's the beach of our resort. The brown stuff in the water was some sort of coral-like substance. There wasn't much life in this area, but there was a 10 foot drop-off at the edge where the snorkeling was fantastic.

When we first saw the Red Sea, we initially thought that the water's color and clarity was comparable to the water in the Caribbean or Hawaii.

We soon realized that it is actually much clearer.

This is the middle pool of 3 huge pools that were back-to-back... to-back at our resort. When combined, these pools stretched over 500 yards. I took this picture from the slide, which was about 2 stories high. We had a lot of fun going down the slide! So did a drunk, topless lady. I did not take any pictures of her, sorry. Our resort was not a nudist resort, so needless to say, she caused quite a commotion, especially amongst the waiters that live in a country where the majority of the women cover their heads.

Here Maria is lounging in the pool with the slide and the topless lady in the background. We really had to be careful to put on a lot of our sunscreen, especially me, because the sun was so powerful. I have never seen so many bright red, sun burnt people in one place. By the way, I was just joking about the topless lady being in this picture, so quit looking for her.

Maria and Kimberly getting a drink at the swim-up bar. Since it was an all-inclusive resort, Maria loved the unlimited orange soda. Orange soda and slides made Maria a happy girl!

Maria and Kimberly were getting ready for dinner, so Mike and I shared another sunset together. This time on the slide. The drunk, topless lady had already gone to her room, but not before taking off her bathing suit bottoms on her balcony in front of everyone, so don't waste your time looking for her in this picture either.

We spent our first day in Sharm El Sheik soaking up the rays, snorkeling, going down the slide, swimming up to the swim-up bar, and relaxing by the pool. On our second day (spoiler alert!), we took an excursion to the city of Petra. On our final day, we took a snorkeling excursion to the Ras Mohammed National Park. The Red Sea is an underwater paradise and this Park is one of the best spots. Little did we know how famous the Red Sea is for its snorkeling/scuba diving. According to this website, www.scubatravel.co.uk/topdives.html, 4 of the top 10 dive sites in the world are located in the Red Sea. Here are Maria and Kimberly on the boat headed to our first snorkel site.

Our first site was awful, because the water was rough and not very clear. Maria is extremely afraid of sharks, so she decided to stay on the boat for the next site.

This picture really shows how the desert comes directly up to the water.

Maria missed out, because the second site was amazing. It was the best snorkeling that I have ever done. Instead of floating a few feet above the coral, like you would in the Caribbean and Hawaii, you swim in the open water alongside a wall of coral. The depth of the water was about 75 feet, but I could clearly see all the way to the bottom and the color of the water was a beautiful, deep blue. It was weird seeing scuba divers swim underneath me while I was floating on the surface checking out the coral and fish. I loved it!

At our next snorkel site, Maria decided to join me. As we were putting on our mask and fins, a guy in the water yelled, "Shark! Shark!" I looked at Maria's face and her eyes completely filled her mask. I then heard the guy yell again, "It's a whale shark!" From watching the Discovery Channel, I knew that whale sharks were harmless vegetarians. I quickly asked Maria if she wanted to swim with it, to which she emphatically said, "NO WAY!", so I jumped in the water and swam after the shark. I swam as fast as I could towards the shark, as a multitude of people, who apparently did not watch the Discovery Channel, swam towards their boats. I was the second person to reach the whale shark and I reached out and touched it.
Okay, this picture isn't of me, but it's crazy how much it looks like me. However, the rest of the story is true. I really did touch it, but I touched its tail, not its head, just in case it mistook me for a plant. I then resurfaced, amongst a crowd of people that had reversed their course and were now headed towards the shark, and I yelled at Maria to come join me in the water. She calmly let me know (sarcasm) that her prior position had not changed, so she stayed on the boat and watched the shark swim by. She later told me that seeing the shadow was enough excitement for her. This is another picture of a random guy with a whale shark. My whale shark was big, about 20 feet long, but not nearly as large as the one in this picture.

Fortunately, Maria overcame her fears and joined me at the 4th snorkeling site, which was very much like the spectacular 2nd site. I held her close the entire time that we were in the water, but we did not see any sharks. She later admitted that the snorkeling was absolutely amazing and she was glad that she finally joined me in the water. Overall, the Red Sea was a relaxing and great way to end our Egyptian adventures. As I previously mentioned, we visited Petra in between our Sharm El Sheik days, so we will share that adventure with you on our next post. Thanks for reading, Nate