We got up early this morning for a quick breakfast and a 10 minute cab ride to the Egyptian Border. We met our dive master, Corrina, there, and she helped us through the complexities of crossing a border as a pedestrian. The guards at either side were armed to the teeth, and looked like they meant business. It took about a ½ hour to finally cross and we found our dive center in the Taba Hilton, just outside the Egyptian border checkpoint. After getting our gear, we made our way to the dive boat. It was pretty luxurious, with a nice big upper deck, dive platform on the main deck as well as a nicely appointed salon, and a lower deck (I think for the crew). Diving was great- saw lots of neat fish up close and personal, lion fish, unicorn fish, clown fish in anemones, and moray eels. The snorkeling was not as good as Dave remembered from his previous trip in 1980, and the significant wave action made it hard to maneuver in the water. Bur all in all we had a good time between diving and playing charades during downtime on the boat. Getting back across the border was quicker, and though no one hassled us, we were very happy to be back in Israel.
For dinner, we walked along the promenade in Eilat to a restaurant recommended by Frommer’s. After several minutes of searching, Dave asked for directions (yes, a male that will ask for directions), and we found out they closed a few months ago. We continued to wander, hoping we would stumble upon some incredible find, a great Middle Eastern restaurant, but instead we had pizza. It was real good pizza, though.
Tomorrow, we hit the last of the Middle Eastern stops on this trip, the Kingdom of Jordan.
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