Sand storm

If I had to use one word to describe our trip to Massawa, it would be HOT. If I had to use one word to describe Massawa, it would be Bizarre.

Our adventure to Massawa started a little later than planned at 8:30 Saturday morning. When our taxi driver got there, we entered the cab with initial feelings that this cab was quite a bit better than those we had driven in through the city. It took us to the end of the trip to realize this may not have been true. The cab, which had over 500,000 miles on it had a cracked windshield, no speedometer, of course no AC which was not surprising, but it also had a near-flat tire towards the end of the trip, some raw wires sticking out of the drivers side panel that were smoking (and which our driver played with on the ride home), some serious exhaust fumes, and, my favorite, a pack of roaches that graced us with their presence when we made it to Massawa. I have realized that I have sort of a phobia when it comes to roaches, and Hannah can vouch for my fear of them. Luckily though we only saw them the once, and on our trip back to Asmara I doused myself, my stuff, Hannah, Hannah's stuff, and the interior of the cab in a plume of OFF. Our taxi driver did not really speak English, but he did enough for us to communicate on a very basic level.

So, we set out for Massawa, but not before we clarified that we wanted to go through Filfil on the way there, which is supposed to be the country's one and only opportunity to see forest and animals. With that, he made a U turn and then we were off. The drive to Filfil was very curvy. Actually, to say it is curvy by American standards is somewhat of an understatement. If I can describe, you go 100 yards in one direction on the edge/top of a mountain, and then you make a U turn and you go 100 yards in another direction. With Asmara being at over 7,000 feet, we had a long, long way to go to get down to sea level where we were going. There is no direct way to do that, so it is a series of U-turns back and forth gradually taking you down the mountain. The roads make the back roads of Arkansas look like a major interstate. Dramamine was an absolute must for me on this driving adventure, and I'm happy to say there was no carsickness.

We did stop for a photo-op at the top of the mountain where the view was quite incredible. The mountains are covered in a thin layer of trees, spaced apart so that you can see the dry rock beneath. We also stopped for a hot coke break at a place in the literal middle of nowhere that had a sitting area and apparently a hotel. How this place had electricity, running water, or really anything, I have absolutely NO idea being that it was situated half way up a mountain, a good hour and a half drive from Asmara.

As we travelled down the mountain, the temperature gradually increased so that the last 2 hours of our 4 hour trip was almost unbearable. I can't describe the heat with words. The best I can do is to say that when we had reached sea level and everything turned to dessert, the heat coming through the windows, which were open to help us keep breathing, was nauseating. I kept repeatedly checking my feet because they felt like they were getting burned in the sun, and each time that it turned out that the sun was not shining on them, I had to reassure myself that they were just burning from the heat in the cab. I have never, ever been that hot in my entire life. It was the sort of hot that absolutely sucked the life out of you. I can now understand more why the business model is to close during the hottest hours of the day. I would also like to comment and say that the Danakil area of Eritrea is apparently one of the hottest places on earth. And we were pretty far away from it. Why or how anyone could every go there is beyond me.

On our drive through the dessert, we passed people and animals living in places that I never would have thought possible. There were herds of goats, the occasional cow, and camels on the trip. Then there were villages made up of shacks constructed from pieces of metal where people obviously lived. Throughout the drive through the villages, people were herding goats and cattle. What struck me the most about this area we passed was that there was no water anywhere. Everywhere we saw what looked like a river or stream bed, it was completely bone dry. The only thing I could come up with was that they must have a well dug and that is why their villages are placed where they are because there is no obvious source of water that I could see.

Being in this heat, I was, of course, sweating profusely as I always do. I had to keep reminding myself to keep my mouth closed because even opening it for a few seconds caused it to dry out and I worried it would help make me even more dehydrated. Hannah and I failed to bring gadorade with us, so we we hydrating with only water. I'm sure we became hyponatremic (low sodium) on this short trip.

After having driven for nearly 4 hours, we finally made it into an area that appeared to be populated and looked sort of like a town and we found our hotel. This was lucky because right about the time we were driving up to our hotel, a pack of roaches came out from nowhere and started crawling all over our stuff and on the taxi driver. Although I was wearing a dress, I stood on my tip-toes in the back seat of the cab, waiting for it to stop so that I could get out. I had not yet taken note of the scenery of the city.

Inside the hotel felt like a sauna as we got checked in and made it to the third floor of the hotel where our room was. Thankfully, our room was cool and had an air conditioner. We took a moment to cool off before we got ready for the beach and made our way to the hotel lobby for lunch--the granola bars we brought, a cold coke, and a water. After lunch we decided to look next door to our hotel for the internet cafe that was apparently there. It was at this point, when we stepped outside, that we realized we weren't in Kansas anymore. The picture was basically that of Dessert storm, or Saudi Arabia, or a winter white-out. The city of Massawa could not be seen, and all we could see was the dessert that sat across from our hotel and the white sand blowing through. We chose to wear dresses to the beach, and they were being blown this way and that all the while, our skin was becoming absolutely caked with sand and dirt from being out in the sand storm. I would like to add that I am still finding areas of my body containing or caked with sand--particularly my ears--after this experience.

In a way, this introduction to Massawa was the most funny (though distressing at the time) part of the trip. The rest of it was notable as well, but the heat, sweat, and sand made us ask ourselves number one, how do people live here, and number two, how did we get there. There is too much to tell about the rest of the trip. That will have to be for tomorrow. Good night!