Day 18-25: from -30 to 2,285 meters

We have been chillin' in the little beach town called Dahab for the last week. Everybody (well almost everybody, we've met a few total jerks-- okay one total jerk jewelry sales man, thought he had us but he didn't) seems very relaxed here. Not a lot of hassle, great food, beautiful beach and mountains. But best of all is their diving! We did four dives here, but the most amazing is the infamous Blue Hole. The Blue Hole gets its reputation for the regular diving related deaths that occur there, but we were assured that this almost always happens to silly Russians, free divers, and technical divers. AKA those that have been drinking, those that go with no air, and those that go deeper than any man before. We had no such problems on our excursion.
The dive starts with a wall of coral, wich extends to the sea floor some 130 meters below. We stayed above 25 m, accompanied by one very friendly and curious flute fish (imagine a flute with fins and eyes, and there you have it). We finished by entering the Blue Hole (imagine a hole that is blue, and there you have it). The water is warm inside the Hole, and therefore has a wide variety of corals and fish and snorkelers that get in your way alike. This by far was our favorite dive, simply breathtaking views of how vast the underwater world can be.
Dahab is also a great place from which to take a day's adventure to Mt. Sinai (wherest theest teneth commandmenteths werest struckethed) and the ancient St. Catherine's. We climbed Mt. Sinai at night, with hundreds of religious pilgrims, watched sunrise from the peak, and descended to St. Catherine's (known for it's burning bush and Byzantine art). My favorite part was the monks who police the church at St. Catherine's. They just looked so ready, willing, and able to smack any picture-takers upside the head. Diane likes that we actually made it to the top, believe it or not without a bump or scrape to show. We are both very proud of ourselves for ditching our "required" and "all inclusive" "guide" (who incidentally turned up later demanding money for his lack of services-- if only he had known us better, we never pay for unsolicited services). We also met some great fellow travelers along the way.

We are off to a new destination tomorrow, to be disclosed in our next installment. HA!