The Bedouin desert camp to Petra.

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Today we made our way from our Bedouin desert camp to Petra. The night in the desert was not the most comfortable, but it wasn't bad. Mike was afraid That scorpions would get in our tent (apparently 1 girl in our group saw a scorpion in the camp).   The tent that we were sleeping in wasn't super hot in the morning (the desert gets much cooler- about 25 degrees- at night) when we were rudely awaken by some Jordanian girl scouts having breakfast at 6am. We slept in a mosquito net although the night was pretty windy so there weren't really any around. After breakfast we began the drive to Petra where we would spend the next 2 nights. The highways here are really nice, fast and smooth and every vehicle kept to its proper lane. This highway we drove was really nice because it wound it's way around mountains and canyons, and it kind of reminds me of something you would see in Monaco. The curviness of the highway was making people sick, so it was fortunate that I was feeling better today (but not 100%). We entered the town of Petra (not the archeological site but the town itself. It is a beautiful town situated on a few mountainsides and extended into the valley. Our hotel was at the top of one of the mountainsides and we had a great view of the city around and below us. 

Before settling into the hotel we headed to what they call little Petra (siq al-barid in Arabic). This small area was used as outpost for camel caravans visiting Petra. It served as an agricultural centre, trading suburb and resupply post- like a hotel for these ancient travelers. There were caves that the travelers could spend the night in, the ones with 3 beds were called triclinia (I think). These caves were carved into the sandstone much like those of the big Petra site. The main gist of this excursion was to see where the travelers in this region as they came though from Saudi arabia and other places. This area is very small and lies just behind the canyons that make up the main Petra archeological site, which was the real highlight of the area and we were to see it the next day. 

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