The history behind the Egyptian pyramids

So according to the locals, the pyramids were not created by the Hebrews that were enslaved. They actually believe it was the Nubians who built them.

Nubians brought to you by google

Nubians brought to you by google

According to locals, Nubians are actually the indigenous Egyptians. Egypt has been invaded and conquered by almost all the nearby empires, ancient and recent. The average Egyptian has become a mixture of all these influences. I have met a few Nubians in Egypt. The Nubians, tend to look more like Sudanese. They have more darker features and skin color than the average Egyptian. From what I learned from the locals, Sudan is actually where the tradition of burrying the dead in pyramids started.

Map of Ancient Egypt brought to you by Google.

Map of sudan and Egypt being apart of ancient Egypt brought to you by google

As seen in the photos above, Sudan and Egypt were once one country. They eventually broke apart for political and culture differences.

Learning all this was so interesting to me. It’s similar to the native Americans in the USA. Many Nubians in Egypt tend to have thier own communities and customs. However, they play a part of the society and have been heavily influenced by arabization.

Nubian pyramids from the kush empire brought to you by google.

After doing some research on it, I found out that Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt. I know this sounds weird but, let me explain.

Now before ancient Egypt was at it’s full glory, there was an acient empire called Kush. The kush empire was along the Nile, as well. However, it was more south in what’s modern day Sudan. The Kush empire is home of the Nubians. Which are people of the Nubian desert. They had traditions of burrying their dead in pyramids. As seen in the picture above, these sites are the Nubian pyramids and have become a world heritage site.

A cover of a National Geographic magazine brought to you by google.

Eventually, the kush empire conquered Egypt. Which lead to 25 dynasties of having kushite kings as pharaohs. Although, I don’t agree with the title of the magazine as shown above, they did a good of covering this topic. Acient Egypt got it’s traditions of burrying thier dead in pyramids from the Nubians. Also, the pharaohs after the kushites were expelled were black too. They were just more mixed with the other conquerors.

Learning all this made truly made me interested in going back to Africa. It’s a continent with so much history. I truly wish there wasn’t so many issues with countries in Africa. Regardless, an African county should be on everybody’s bucket lists.

Hope one day to go Sudan, and show you all the Nubian pyramids.

Next week, will talk more about the Hebrew/jewish and other religious communities in modern day Egypt.

Thank you for reading. Much love and safe travels!

To start your own adventures, check out the link below.

Check out our latest e-book “How to Travel for Dirt Cheap” by Hugo Morel for ways to make your dreams of traveling come without breaking the bank: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M848M47?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420&fbclid=IwAR0_mRF-eE9tODIshljVr7CQ8h6vKT6hHn_8gZfJ94DySY1ylPO2Itu2Qe0

Finalmente Roma!

After all this time, we are finally in Rome!

Taken by Hugo Morel

The one thing that stood out to me was all the relics from Egypt. Like, how did they get them here? What ship can carry a pyramid? These are questions the world may never know.

Pyramid taken by Hugo Morel

The history running in this city is strong. You can feel the fall of the Egyptian empire and the others Rome conquered. Below is an Egyptian obelisk. The Roman empire really interested me as a kid. To be in it’s capital was a feeling hard to put in words.

Taken by Hugo Morel

Walking around the city was relaxing and interesting. I expected Rome for some reason to be made of gold and have fashion shows on every corner. Of course, I was wrong. It seemed like a typical historical city. It’s hard to be impressed, when you been to Prague. That was my mind set.

Trevi fountain taken by Hugo Morel

Eventually, we started to get to the tourist parts of rome. The Trevi fountain was truly beautiful. I didn’t expect Rome to be so charming after being disappointed with it’s appearance at first. This city is truly like a book. You can not judge it by it’s cover.

“Angels bridge” ponte sant’Angelo taken by Hugo Morel

Thank you for taking your time to read. Next week we will be exploring more of Rome.

Frozen lake and a bison buger

We just got invited to go to clear lake, Manitoba. We were excited to see the northern lights. Which was one of the reasons why we wanted to go to Canada. After about an hour and a half drive, we arrived at Clear lake.
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Clear lake is a very small town with a population a little over 2,000 people. Majority of the people that have property here, tend to come during vacations/summer. The place feels like a great community to raise a family. Never met such wonderful and down to earth people.
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As we drove deeper into this small community, we saw the frozen lake. This was the first time in my life to see a lake completely frozen. Being able to walk on the lake was mindblowing.

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The lake had at least a foot and a half of ice covering it. I jumped a few times to see, if it was real. Luckily, it was.
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One of our friends, who is a local, informed me about quinzees. A quinzee is a shelter made of out snow that is hallowed out. They are actually very warm. They were made from the indigenous people of Manitoba to survive the winters.
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Since coming to clear lake, people kept telling me about this creation called the bison burger. I was really interested by this. The locals kept telling me it was very similar to beef. I had to try it for myself.
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We finally found the place were they serve bison. To my surprise, it really did taste like beef. Bison is actually more healthier than beef. Makes you wonder, why beef is more common than bison. Probably, money is the root. Sadly, we did not see the northen lights as a group. I saw the northern lights at my host’s house, later that night.
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Thank you guys for taking your time to read this post. I love you all! You are all awesome!! Next week we go to NYC!!! Much love and stay healthy!!

Teaching English in Monterrey, crossing the usa/mexican border

After a few days of workshops in Dallas, it was finally time to go to Mexico. We were all excited to teach English and to get out of Dallas. For many of us, it was our first time to America’s Southern neighbor.

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mountain range in Monterrey, Mexico- Hugo Morel

As we got on the bus, we had no idea how long of a bus ride we were in for. Once about 8 hours passed by, we arrived in Brownsville, Texas. A border town with lots of social problems. The atmosphere completely changed, you could cut the air with a knife. The city looked very poor, broken houses everywhere. It was as if, we were in another country and not the USA. The people walking on the streets looked very tensed and scared. This was completely another world.

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border guards, Hugo Morel

Once at the border, the air became thicker. All the guards had semiautomatic guns. This was not a laughing matter. The border control made us get out of the bus and checked our bags on a white table, as shown in the picture above. As one of the guards was checking my bags, I looked him in the eye by accident. The other two were quick to put their hands on their guns. It was as if, I was some type of criminal. The lives these guards live, there is not much smiling. I didn’t felt love here and I only sensed hate mixed with fear.

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USA/Mexican border on Christmas day, Hugo Morel

After the scare from the border control, we passed through the border. On Christmas day, we were finally in Mexico. You can see the differences and it was heartbreaking. A lot of women showing off their bodies on street corners. There were a lot of men just sleeping on the floor with a look of despair. The hopelessness in people’s face, made us realize how lucky we are to be Americans. Seeing all this, made us want to teach even more.

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another shot of the Mexican mountain range , Hugo Morel

We finally arrived to where we were going to teach, the University of Tecmilenio. Unfortunately, they did not allow us to take photos of the school or the classroom. As the classes started, we saw the looks in the adults’ faces. Their faces expressed friendliness and warmth. As we taught more English, their faces lite up and English was finally clicking. This experience was so amazing. A lot of the adult students, invited us to their homes. The stories they gave us really touched our hearts. Many of them, have seen crimes unthinkable. Coming to the USA, for a lot of them, was their only way for a better life. The rest that will stay, learning English is needed to getting better jobs. This was one of the most memorable experiences on my travels.

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outside view of the school we taught, Hugo Morel

Thank you for taking you time to read this post. Drop a like and a follow. Much love!! Love you guys so much! Next we will be heading to Cambridge, Massachusetts for my friend’s graduation at Tuffs university and explore Boston!! Take care and stay healthy!!

Crossing the Brazilian border

Brazil home of the bikini, the Brazilian wax,  Capoeira and some of the best soccer players in the world. We were extremely excited to visit Brazil. We only wish it was easy for us to get there.  The crew went trough a lot of trials.

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brought to you by google

It all started in the Misiones province, Argentina. We used a bus company named CATA International. The company was awesome, they treated us well. We just took them on uncharted roads. The picture below is one of the buses getting stuck in the mud. It took us about an hour to get the bus out.

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published by Hugo morel

The Picture below is the Iguazu River. The river is connected to the Iguazu falls. Starts at the falls and flows into Argentina. The Iguazu falls is one of the new seven world wonders of nature.

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published by Hugo morel

Before going to Brazil, we stopped by the Iguazu falls on the Argentinian side. I was unable to take photos of the of the falls due to not wanting my camera getting wet. The pic below is brought to you by brazil bookers. We when were at the falls, we took a boat tour. It was amazing, unfortunately I had my mouth open. Ended up swallowing two mouth fulls of water. This was when I got sick.

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We crossed the border into Brazil after waiting for an hour. Once in Brazil, you can tell the difference in the soil. The Brazilian soil has a more Orange tone to it. The soil looked more fertile compared to Argentina’s. During our first day in Brazil, one of the buses’ battery died on a train track. The train was running at full speed, there was no time to get of the bus to evade the train. Luckily, the train’s conductor saw the bus and stop just in time. The picture shows the scene after the train stopped.

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published by Hugo morel

Once the whole train episode was settled, we went to change the battery of the bus. In the process, one of the bus drivers got acid into his eye. Unfortunately, he lost vision in that eye. I wish much fortune to this bus driver. This is why I highly recommend CATA international. They did so much for us and they went the extra mile.

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brought to you by google

Thank you for taking your time to read this. Drop a like and a follow. Next week we will be in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Much love!!

 

 

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