Kilimanjaro

So the guide book says the climb to the top of Kili is essentially a long hike, and if you are in decent physical shape it should not be exceedingly difficult. Umm ya understatement of the year! Also it seems in Africa the best remedy for 9+ hours of difficult hiking is a few more hours of strenuous hiking as they kept taking us to our tents and then making us march up and down the mountain. The trek started out great, the first day we drove to the trail head (7500ft) and saw wildebeest, zebras and monkeys along the way. Then we had a 3 hour hike through the rainforest to our first camping spot (8692 ft) which the monkeys seemed adamant about reclaiming. The second day we went from the forest camp to Shira 2 camp (12,595 ft) which was a pleasant 9 hour hike uphill. Upon arrival our guide tried to get us to hike 1 hour more up the mountain and then come right back down to "acclimate". We politely declined/hid in our tent. The next day involved more......hiking! We had a 7 hour hike to Baranco (12,956ft) but not before trekking around the lava tower (15,088ft) to acclimate, also known as our first fourteener. By this time we were in the alpine desert and it was very cold especially when the clouds rolled through. Day four we hiked to Karanga camp (12,998ft) which was 4 hours of very difficult hiking. Upon arrival to our camp our guide informed us that we had to acclimate some more and we hiked an hour up and down the mountain. Day 5 arrived and we hiked 4 hours to Barafu camp, Swahili for ice hut, (15,088ft). The hike was very difficult, we had to go up and down steep cliffs and involved quite a bit of scrambling. When we arrived a Barafu we tried to get as much sleep as possible since we pushed the the summit (19,334ft) at midnight. We woke at 11:30 and put on all our winter gear, it gets to about 30º F below zero on the mountain with lots of wind. Our ascent up the mountain took a little over 7 hours and there were several times I was convinced I was going to be brought down in a stretcher. We watched the sun rise on the mountain and made it to the summit about 7:30am. We took some pictures and then hurried down the mountain which took 2 more hours. After an hour rest we had to make a 4 hour hike to our last camp. I have never been so exhausted. Our last day we had a 4 hour hike the the gate and made it safely out of the park but I am afraid my mountain climbing career is now over. I am still so sore I can barely move.

Egypt

Well we have made it safely to Africa. Spent our last day in Greece walking around the city and toured the Acropolis and the Parthenon. The city was very cool and we really enjoyed seeing all the ruins. Very late that night we had a flight to Egypt with a stop over in Turkey. I was wearing a tank top and shorts and shoulders are very offensive to these people so I had to change at the airport when we got in at 2am. We got to our hostel in downtown Cairo which is an "interesting" part of town. The building looked scary from the outside with the first 2 floors abandoned but the 3rd floor with the hotel was pretty sweet. The next day we went to the Egyptian Museum and saw the King Tut exhibit which was amazing. We walked around the city a little bit in the afternoon and had some fun trying to cross the streets, they don't so much have traffic laws and lanes and stoplights seem to only be suggestions. The next day we hired a taxi and went to the pyramids at Giza. The pyramids are a pretty far hike so we got some horses and rode through the Sahara desert to get there. Was a really fun time and we had about a 25 minute delay when the guide's horse ran away. Pretty hilarious to watch. We took some amazing photos and then went on to two more sites with pyramids. None were as impressive as Giza but we did get to go inside of one. The tunnel you climb down is only about 3.5 feet tall so it was pretty challenging, more so for George than me. We finished off the day by walking around Cairo which is an incredibly chaotic city. We left for Tanzania that night after midnight. Upon arrival in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania we got checked into our hostel and arranged our Kilimanjaro trek and safari. Today we travelled by bus to Moshi and will begin our 7 day climb up the Lemosha route tomorrow, next stop 19,335 feet!

Santorini

Well I am very far behind on my blog but I will tell you about Santorini. We took a ferry from Ios to Santorini at noon and made it to the island in time to rent a scooter and get checked into our hostel which was fairly nice but not as cool as the one in Ios. The first thing we did upon arrival was check out the closest beach The beach was amazing but the wind was pretty gusty, we had to put rock on our towel to keep them from blowing down the beach. After we got some dinner in town, at 11:30pm when the locals eat, and called it a night. The next day we took a boat trip (on a pirate ship) across the caldera to climb the volcano. Santorinin is actually a large active volcano, home to the largest eruption in recorded history. After the volcano we were able to swim in some hot "springs" aka rust colored water that stained your suit. But nonetheless it was still cool because we swam to them from the boat which you had to jump off. We then explored some more of the island and watched the sunset over the ocean. The next day we woke up bright and early for our snorkeling adventure. The water is crystal clear and we saw some cool fish. We wrapped that up in the early afternoon and got on our 8 hour ferry ride back to Athens where we arrived about 2 in the morning after outsmarting some shady cab drivers.

Greece

Hi, we made it through Greece, we got into Athens very late on the first night. When we arrived at the hostel a lot of people were still up having a few beers, they mentioned that they were getting ready to go for a walk to the acropolis at midnight. We unloaded our gear, bought a few beers and went for a walking tour through the city with a few Germans, and an Argentinian. We got to see the Parthenon lit up at night and several other monuments. we finally made it home at 4am with our new best friends. The next day ....err, 2 hours later we woke up and headed to the port of Piraeus to catch a ferry, we headed for the island of Ios for 2 days (the owner of the hostel lost our reservation, to make it up to us he upgraded us significantly to an awesome hotel that was built into the mountainside, complete with an ocean view balcony and a sweet pool. The beaches were amazing and we made friends with three British guys that were very entertaining. The nightlife there was crazy and didn't even get started until after 3. Needless to say we did not party until 5am like our British pals. The next day we spent time at the beach and rented a scooter. George was fairly diligent/obsessed in the pursuit of scooter to rent, turns out you need a valid motorcycle license to rent a scooter in Greece, unless you deal with the shady places. 20 minutes later we were on a scooter and the entire island was ours to explore. So far the Greek islands have been outstanding, we are meeting great people from all over the place, I will post some photos asap.