Another curious adventure of Carlos the curious condor
Carlos makes a curious trip to Egypt.
Carlos the curious condor (a very large South American bird) lives high in the Andes Mountains in Peru, a country in South America
Carlos likes to fly around the top of the mountains with his friends, who are mainly other condors. But there are a few things that make Carlos different from other condors. One thing is he strange friendship with Pedro the paragliding Llama who he likes to go flying with, the other is that Carlos is very curious about anything and everything, the third thing that makes Carlos a very unusual condor is that to help satisfy his curiosity, Carlos has taught himself to read and often visits the library in the big Peruvian city of Lima.
One lovely sunny day (most days are sunny days in Peru), Carlos decided to fly down to Lima to visit the library to see if Senora Amaranta Sanchez (the librarian) has had any new and interesting books that he would be curious to read.
So with one big flap of his mighty wings Carlos set off into the air above the mountainside he was sat on. Carlos soared into the air and glided around for a few moments before heading off to Lima. As he was nearing the city he could see a large truck heading along the highway to the city. “Mm thought Carlos, “ that looks like my friend Manuel’s truck, I am very curious about what he is carrying in the back of the truck and where he is going” and dived down towards the truck.
It didn’t take long for Carlos to catch up with the truck and he hovered in the air for a few moments before landing, with a loud thud on top of the truck’s cab, once he got his balance Carlos leaned forward to look down through the windscreen.
Well the combination of the loud thud and seeing Carlos’s face looking in though the windscreen, gave Manuel quite a fright and he swerved across the road and had to fight hard with the steering wheel and breaks to bring the truck under control. As the truck skidded to a halt, Carlos lost his balance and was sent crashing to the floor.
Manuel opened the door and ran across to see if Carlos was all right. Carlos pulled himself to his feet and shook his head and his wings and told Manuel his was ok.
“You gave me a fright, Carlos!! You mustn’t land on my truck like that when I am driving, it is very dangerous” exclaimed Manuel
“Siento mucho” (I am very sorry) replied Carlos “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble, I am just very curious about what you have in your truck and where you are going”
Manuel laughed and said “Oh Carlos, you are curious about anything and everything!!”
Manuel then told Carlos that his truck was full of corn that he collected from some farms and he is taking them to a big distribution warehouse in town.
“I am off to the library to see if Senora Amaranta has any new curious books for me to read” said Carlos.
“Hop on top of the truck then and I will drop you off on the way” exclaimed Manuel
As Manuel drove through the City streets towards the library, everybody they passed pointed and laughed at the sight of a very large condor bird having a lift on the roof of the truck cab. But Carlos didn’t mind he was happy to get a lift and was just a bit curious about why so many people were out in the city streets and wondered where they are all going to.
Eventually they arrived at the library and Carlos leapt off the cabs roof shouting “goodbye Manuel that you for the lift” “No hay problema” (no problem) replied Manual “hope you find some nice books to read” and off he drove to deliver the corn to the warehouse
Carlos pushed the library door open and stepped up to counter and chirped “hola senora Amaranta, I have come to see if you have any books that might satisfy my curiosity.”
“Shh Carlos, this is a library” replied Senora Amaranta with a very stern look on her face
“lo siento” (Sorry) whispered Carlos.
Senora Amaranta passed Carlos two books and said “here you are, these came in today, I think you will like them they are all about Egypt” “wow” replied Carlos “I am very curious about Egypt”.
This made Senora Amaranta laugh, as she knows that Carlos is curious about anything and everything.
The more Carlos read about Egypt, about the River Nile, about Cairo (Egypt’s capital city) and of course about the ancient pyramids the more curious about Egypt he go and then he made a big decision.
“I will fly to Egypt to see this very curious country in person, well in condor actually”
“Well that’s a trip and a half” exclaimed Senora Amaranta “have a great time but take care you will be a long way from home”
“I will be fine I am used to flying long distances” laughed Carlos and he left the Library shouting a big “adios” (goodbye) as he went through the door.
“Shhhh” laughed Senora Amaranta and waved Carlos goodbye.
Once Carlos was outside the library he started to flap his mighty wings and soon he began to rise up into the sky above the houses, shops, factories and tower blocks of the city, he flew in a couple of circles above the city before shouting
“Adios Lima adios Peru, next stop Egypt” and headed off in an Eastern direction.
Soon Carlos found himself high above the Amazon basin with the huge rain forest and the mighty river below, he is a very fast flyer and it wasn’t long before he was gliding past the Brazilian beaches and out into the sky above the Atlantic Ocean
It was a very long and tiring flight across the Atlantic and although Carlos kept himself busy by thinking curious thoughts about what may be swimming the deep ocean he was delighted when he could see the West African coast appearing on the horizon.
Carlos was feeling very tired so he dropped down from the sky and landed on first beach he saw as he arrived on the coast of West Africa
“ Bonjour, bienvenue sur la Côte d'Ivoire” (Hello, welcome to the Ivory coast) said a voice coming from where the sand meets the trees and the African jungle starts.
Carlos looked up to see a small monkey standing on the sand. “Hola” he replied “I am Carlos, I am from Peru and I am on my way to Egypt”
“You have flown along way then and still have a long way to go “ replied the Monkey who then introduced himself as Monty the monkey.
Carlos and Monty then had a long chat, with Carlos asking Monty all about life in Africa and the Ivory Coast. “Wow” exclaimed Monty “you do ask a lot of questions, you must be a very curious bird”. “Yes replied Carlos I am curious about anything and everything” This made the Monty laugh.
After a while Carlos told Monty that he must say Adios and be on his way as he still has a long way to go.
“Au revoir, it was nice to meet you “shouted Monty as he ran to climb up one of the nearest trees.
Carlos flapped his mighty wings and took off into the skies and was soon flying high above the African Jungle, looking down he couldn’t help be curious about the different things living in the dense forest below. Eventually the trees below stared to thin out and give way to the sands that are the start of the giant Sahara desert.
For mile after mile Carlos flew on over the dessert with the hot African sun burning down on his back.
“My, this desert is as big as the ocean, I wonder if I will ever reach Egypt” Carlos thought to himself.
After many hours of flying Carlos saw something glistening in the sun light up ahead, “that looks like a city, I hope its Cairo “ thought Carlos and after a few more minutes flying Carlos reached the centre of Cairo (the capital city of Egypt.
After flying around the city for a while Carlos found a nice spot to land, a busy square near the centre of the city. As you can imagine such a large bird landing in the middle of a busy city like Cairo caused quite a commotion and soon Carlos found himself quite the centre of attention.
One young man stepped out of the crown and introduced himself as Zahur and asked Carlos what a South American Condor was doing landing in Tahrir Square in Cairo.
“Hola” replied Carlos and told Zahur about his long flight and how curious he as to find out about Egypt and especially the ancient pyramids
“You are in luck then” said Zahur “because I am a tourist guide for the great pyramids of Giza and I can take you there and tell you all about them”
“That would be wonderful” said Carlos.
So Carlos climbed in Zahur’s jeep and soon they were driving out of the city and on their way to Giza.
On the way Carlos listened intently as Zahur told him all bout Egypt’s ancient history with all its pharaohs (Egyptian kings) and how mighty its empire used to be.
“You seem very keen to learn about Egypt” said Zahur. “Yes” replied Carlos “I am very curious about your country, actually I am very curious about anything and everything!”
This made Zahur laugh loudly.
It was a long drive to Giza and along the way Zahur pulled into a rest area to take a break. At one end of the rest area stood a group of camels all excitingly talking to one camel who was strangely sat upon a quad bike.
“A camel riding a quad bike, how curious” exclaimed Carlos.
“Oh him” replied Zahur “that’s Quentin the Quad biking camel, he thinks he is so special”.
“I am very curious to meet him“said Carlos and hopped over to Quentin
“Hola my name is Carlos, I am from South America and I have never seen a quad biking camel before”
“Of course you haven’t” said Quentin rather snootily and then he looked down his hose at Carlos and exclaimed “I am the only Quad biking camel in the world”
“I am sure you are” replied Carlos and curiously asked “ does the quad bike go very fast”.
“Of course it does, it fact I am probably the fastest animal in the world” said Quentin rather grandly
“Except of course for that Motorcycling giraffe that beat you in a race” Laughed Zahur
“Huh Marty the motorcycling giraffe, don’t talk to me about him he just got lucky that’s all”
“Marty the motorcycling giraffe from Kenya?” questioned Carlos “he is my friend I met him when he came to Peru
“Huh! If you are a friend of that giraffe then you are no friend of mine” grumped Quentin and jumped on his quad bike and zoomed off down the road.
“Don’t worry about him” said Zahur to Carlos “he isn’t a very nice camel, come on let’s get back on the road to the pyramids.”
When they arrived at the great pyramids Carlos was amazed at how big they were, especially Cheops pyramid which is the biggest of the three. He was also very curious about the strange looking Sphinx statue.
Zahur showed Carlos around the site explaining that the sphinx has the head of a human and the body of a human and the great Sphinx of Giza’s head is thought to represent the Pharaoh Kharfru and that the Cheops pyramid was built to house the tomb of the great pharaoh Khufu.
Carlos had a fantastic time at Giza and when he had finally satisfied his curiously for Egypt he thanked Zahur for showing him around and being so kind and flapped his mighty wings and took off into the air shouting
“Adios Zahur adios”
Soon Carlos was flying high above the desert to make his long journey back to South America and he could help wondering what other curious places, people, animals and things there were in the word for him to find out about.
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