Today we woke up to a fresh fruit plate before breakfast.
For breakfast, we had arepa and scrambled eggs. Hot chocolate and toast with tamarind jam.
Today is a slow day to rest and hang out by the pool and eat.
Later in the day, more of the family arrived.
We played in the pool and enjoyed the hot and sunny day.
Was woken up by the hard rain,which made me stay in bed longer.
Finally got out of bed and prepared a breakfast of rice and eggs with tomatoes and onions.
Later in the day, I visited a cousin living near where I was and made plans to visit his farm in three days. Got to take home some coffee beans grown on my cousin’s land.
We left the house to go pick up my wife at the airport. The airport is about 28 km (41 minutes) from Circasia. It is going through an expansion to better serve international flights.
After waiting what seemed like an eternity, the wife was out. We headed to a steakhouse restaurant on the outskirts of Armenia called Boludo Parrilla. We enjoyed different cuts of beef from churrasco, baby beef, and others.
The restaurant has a great view of the mountains on the back of the building.
Just outside the restaurant, we indulged in some delicious Ice Cream at Stracciatella. Everything from chocolate and hazelnut, cheesecake, pistachio, stracciatella, and berries.
With our bellies full we went back to the house to pack our bags and head to my wife aunt house near Chinchiná for the weekend. It is about 70 km (over 1.5 hours with traffic on Pereira).
After the long journey, we were received to a family dinner with a homemade dessert.
Woke up late and had a delicious Colombian breakfast. Arepas with shredded beef and fresh papaya.
The plan for the day was to go to the Parque del Café.
The park is 20 km from Circacia or about 35 min drive toward Montenegro. Once you get there is small free parking on the facility. During high season you will have to park in the nearby paid parking lots.
There are many shops outside the park for other souvenirs.
Don’t forget the sunblock since you will be walking from ride to ride under the hot sun.
We purchased the Pasaporte Multiple ($63,000 pesos – $20 US) which includes unlimited rides to most attractions, it is limited to one ride on some of the attractions. Once you enter the park there is a fantastic view of the park and the Colombian landscape.
From the scenic view point, you can take the cable car to the main plaza. Here you can find more shops and food spots. The snacks like ice cream, water sodas are reasonably priced for a park.
We started the day with one of their roller coasters.
Since today is a regular weekday there was barely any line at any of the attractions. We got to go multiple times back to back.
100 cm is a good height for the little ones since they will be able to ride most things with an adult.
We got to ride the go-carts, but are not as fun since the park controls/limits the speed remotely.
The new Yipee ride was the favorite of the group.
The adults took turns watching over the kids to go on the Krater. This will take you straight up and drop you down in a second.
We got to enjoy other more gentle rides with the kids including the bumper boats.
You will get wet even if you don’t go under the water fountains shooting water in the center and side of the area.
The kids were tired by this point. We spent six hours from ride to ride and snacking along the way.
Heading back from the park we got caught in a crazy strong rain once we were in Armenia. Once things calmed down a bit we got some well-deserved food. We had some Colombian burgers and Hotdogs with all the toppings and salsas.
Got the convenient red-eye from Spirit leaving Denver at midnight. The flight is 3.5 hours to Fort Lauderdale with a 5-hour layover and one more flight to Armenia Colombia. This saves you from spending an extra night in Bogota to reach Armenia and the same on the way back.
Landing in Armenia you get to go into the runway and then walk inside the building to go through customs and get your bags.
From the airport, we took the scenic route through downtown Armenia and made it to the house in Circacia for a fantastic Colombian homemade meal.
We had a relaxing afternoon. The kids played outside while I was enjoying the magnificent view.
Later that day we went to downtown Circacia and stopped by the grocery store to get Colombian candies and snacks.
On the way back to the house we stopped to pick up some empanadas for dinner and outside the vendor, we found some goats. Sofi was not afraid to pet the goats.
We finished the day with too many empanadas.
Day two started with a beautiful view of the pyramids.
Staying on a location with a rooftop view is a wonderful opportunity to admire this wonder of the ancient world. We enjoyed every morning and night just relaxing at the rooftop and looking at them.
After a quick breakfast we were picked up by our driver (same as the night before) and guide (Mike). Our first stop was the Giza pyramids. We arrived a the ticket counter and bought our tickets for the complex. The cost of the complex was 120 EGP (March 2018), if you want to enter the pyramid there is an additional cost of 300 EGP, and about 60 EPG for the two other pyramids.
If someone local offers to take a picture of you or offers you “free” scarab stones or other items be aware that they expect you to offer money for this service.
After spending some time by the Great Pyramid we headed to a nice viewing point of all three pyramids.
In this area you could take a camel ride, but don’t do like I did and poorly negotiated a camel ride for all of us. The cost for 30 minutes should be around 50 EPG (~$3 USD) but I ended up paying $20 US for each adult, our son was included with the paying adults, lucky me! Also for this price I made sure that this was tip, as well as our pictures on the camel and in front of the pyramids (I still got asked for more money from the camel handler after he took our pictures. I refused to pay more).
After our camel ride we spent some time around the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure.
If you are interested in ancient civilizations take a closer look at the bottom casing stones on the Menkaure pyramid, they look very similar to stone walls from Cusco Peru.
Another thing you can do that I skipped due to time was to visit the Khufu ship. The ship is an intact vessel from Ancient Egypt that was buried in a pit in the Giza pyramid complex. Plan to spend 3-4 hours to not rush your visit.
From the Pyramids we drove to the famous Sphinx. We entered the location through the Sphinx temple which shows magnificent stone work. Keep an eye for the precision used to place the large block and the stone work on the corners. Passing through the temple you get greeted by the Sphinx statue and like most tourists the traditional posing pictures began.
We left the complex and headed south (40 min ride) to the Saqqarah Pyramid complex. The main attraction of the complex is the Pyramid of Djoser (also known as the Step Pyramid). This Pyramid is older than the famous Giza pyramids. The cost for the complex was 120 EGP.
On the complex there are multiple pyramids but most of them are in bad shape but you can find many well preserved rooms and structures.
Besides looking at the Djoser Pyramid, walking around the Unas complex we drove slightly north to visit the funerary complex of king Teti.
In the complex you can go underground and see the walls and ceiling covered completely in hieroglyphics. Going down you feel like an archeologist back in the day entering the unknown for the first time.
I would recommend to plan between 2-3 hrs at the site, my visit felt rushed. With more time I would have explored the Serapeum located north west of the Pyramid of Djoser (150 EGP). This site contains 24 sarcophagi of 80 tons each, with covers of 15 tons of granite.
After spending an hour in the complex we headed further south (30 min ride) to see the Red and Bent Pyramids at Dahshur. The entrance was 60 EGP.
Our first stop was at the Bent Pyramid which has the best preserved cover stones and gives you a glimpse of how these pyramid would have looked back in ancient times. Also is the only pyramid that changes its external angle of construction about half way up into a less steep angle.
After spending about 20 minutes outside admiring the Bent Pyramid, the heat and wind was taking a beating on us, we went to see the Red Pyramid. Here you will have to walk and climb a set of stairs to go the entrance.
Going inside the Red Pyramid is free, but be ready to walk down (and climb back!) a passage, 3 feet in height and 4 feet wide with a slope at 27° for 200 feet. Once inside it opens into a 40 feet chamber. From here you can continue through another passage into a similar chamber. Here you can climb the wooden staircase into the third and final chamber. This one is a 50 feet tall chamber. One thing to be aware is the smell, you know some tourist used these chambers as a restroom.
We spent about an hour at the site. Since the day was starting to be very hot we spent some time under the cover of the entrance of the pyramid after our steep ascend. You can have a nice rest with the view of the desert.
At this time we left for our hotel back in Giza. Along the way we stopped at an overpriced restaurant but very delicious. We had a good introduction to traditional Egyptian food which consisted of lentil soup, tomato and greens salad, baba ganoush, tahini sauce, chickpea salad, roasted eggplant and as main dish kofta. We ate it all!
After a long and hot day we rested at the hotel. Later at night we joined other guests at the rooftop to enjoy the pyramid light show.
Even if your destination is scheduled to be in the 100° during the day it might be cold at night. Bring a light jacket with you.
Later that night we did not want to go out for food and ordered in. The hotel did not have a restaurant, but could get you food from some of the local places.
We ordered from a local Egyptian food restaurant (about ~6 USD), the only problem was that we did not order enough and it was so good that my son kept eating and we barely left anything for the wife. Don’t fall for the same trap, order enough for the wife!
Visiting Egypt had been the number one thing I wanted to do for years and finally we are heading there. We flew from Denver to Frankfurt Germany for our first leg of the trip.
When transferring on the Frankfurt airport, be ready for long walks. Every time I have transferred here it has taken over 30 minutes to arrive at the connecting gate.
After arriving at our connecting gate we grabbed some breakfast and were excited to start our final leg of the trip to Cairo. We boarded the bus that will take us to the plane, but had to wait for some last minute passengers for over 20 minutes outside. On the bus, but the doors were fully opened and the temperature was in the 40’s. We planned for 100 degree weather in Egypt, and not for winter in Germany.
Even if your destination is a warm place, take a lite jacket with you. We could have used a jacket at the bus waiting for the plane as well as in Cairo.
Finally the bus closed its doors. We arrived at the plane and were able to warm up after our freezing experience at the gate.
Finally arrived to the Cairo airport and proceeded to the immigration control. Once there we stood in line for the next available agent. When asked for the documentation we showed the agent our passport and our E-visas we had acquired prior to our trip. To our surprise we were asked “What is this?”. I explained that it was the fairly new electronic Egyptian visa. The agent replied that they had no idea what it was, that I needed to get a visa from another window. We went to the line where they sell the visas and informed them about our electronic visa. They had no idea either and we were asked to pay for a new visa at the counter. I didn’t want to spend another $75 dollars total on three new visas if I had valid electronic visas. We decided to try our luck with another immigration agent and stood in line once again (on an even longer line than before). Once at the counter we greeted the agent and handed our documents again. He had no problem with our electronic visa, allowing us to continue and enter the country.
Buy the visa at the window in Cairo. The line was moving fast, you will pay in US dollars or Egyptian pounds and you can guarantee that the agents will recognize that visa document. We spent about an additional hour for the initial misunderstanding.
Once outside, we had arranged transportation to our hotel in Giza. We were able to text the driver and they were waiting for us outside the airport. After meeting the driver we started our journey to Giza to the Marvel Stone Hotel. Cairo was as expected, very busy with a lot of traffic, honking everywhere, and very fast driving. We were very happy to be in Egypt and had a great experience meeting the driver and talking to the service coordinator.
Finally arrived at our hotel around 11pm local time, said goodbye to the driver and checked in with the hotel staff.
Have small change for most services provided in Egypt, almost everyone expects “baksheesh” (small sum of money given a tip, or a bribe)
After dropping our bags in the room we had to go to the rooftop viewing area and take a peek at the amazing pyramids. Visibility was not great due to dust in the air but we got to see the pyramids. What a wonderful site!
Before retiring to our room, we decided to have a quick walk on the main street outside the hotel. We walked about three blocks from the hotel and got some local snacks and water for the night. The locals were outside the open stores enjoying some food and drinks. At this time the time of day was catching out with us, we decided to head back and get much needed rest. We were going to the pyramids the next day.