Petra Day 2 - Bonus Points for Jack's surgeon and physical therapist

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We were scheduled for an early pick-up and did out best to comply, but we had a hard time getting going. First, we couldn’t find the Petra tickets that we were supposed to have. After we gave up and left the hotel, it took about 15 minutes for us to realize that we’d forgotten our passports. When we got back to the hotel, they told us they’d found them within 2 minutes of our departure, but had no way to contact us.

We had planned a hike to the Monastery, one of the major buildings in Petra for this day. Ali met us near the entrance to Petra and we boarded a beat-up four-wheel drive and headed off up the mountains. The four-wheel drive had several problems, the most significant being that the exhaust leaked into the car. My window had no crank but Jack could open his so we got some fresh air. The road, if you could call it a road, covered rugged terrain and most of the time we traveled at less than 5 miles/hour. The scenery was spectacular. Eventually, we got to a plateau where the sign said, “It is illegal to enter Petra through this route, you must enter through the Visitor Center” and we were off. Initially, the climb was mostly stairs. Up stairs and down stairs that meant you then had even more up stairs to climb. By the time we hit 1,100 feet, the stairs gave way to rock and sand. I doubt that a random tourist could find there way since the trail was It was hard but, doable for me until we got to a point were we had to walk along narrow ledges at the top of high precipices. As long as I didn’t look down and Ali had a strong hand to offer, I crept along. Jack was OK and for most of the climb. I suggested he send a picture to his surgeon and physical therapist. Before the surgery., he couldn’t have done a climb like this, in fact he couldn’t have walked 10% of the 5 miles we covered even if it had been flat rather than 60% of it climbing, 20% a gradual uphill and 20% flat. After about 2 ½ hours, Ali announced that we should forget about seeing the Monastery, and a minute later it came into view. It was truly spectacular, much larger than the Treasury and well preserved because the walls on either side and a facing mountain protected if from the wind.



In front of the Monastery was a “restaurant/shop” with shade where we stopped for a break. Sitting near us were 3 young people. One woman was from a nonprofit based in DC working on water projects in Amman. The young man in the couple was wearing a Stanford t-shirt. I eavesdropped on their conversation in which the young woman from the nonprofit, said she had worked in multiple developing countries but even from Amman she hadn’t gone to Israel because she heard security was so tight that it was hard to travel around the country. Her level of misinformation staggered me. The couple explained that the only real hindrance to traveling around Israel for a new visitor was having a car. After she left, Jack asked about the Stanford t-shirt and found that he was wearing it because his parents went to Stanford. He had been born in the US, but like his Israeli parents was living in Israel. They were in Haifa and he was moving from Tel Aviv to Haifa because he couldn’t deal with the intensity of Tel Aviv. From the Monetary it is 650 steps down to the main part of Petra. Many people ride donkeys up and walking down, we had to be careful to step aside for the drivers who came charging down the steps to pick up new people to take them up the steps.

In Petra you can’t avoid the poverty that exists in Jordan. Children as young as six are in your face trying to sell you postcard for 1 dinar ($1.50), young men selling cheap bracelets and men and women of all ages sitting in makeshift stalls all selling the same souvenirs. I bought “rocks” (yes, rocks) from two little girls who might have been 6 or 7. One was so young she didn’t seem to understand what she was doing. School in Jordan is not mandatory. Along the way we passed a mother and 8 year-old son screaming at one another. Ali said the mother was angry because the son wouldn’t go to school. The poverty made a sufficiently big impression on me (as it has done in other poor countries) that I’ve written about it twice.



Ali left us about noon and given the lousy lunch we’d had the day before we opted for Eisberg ice cream cones for lunch. Suleiman picked us up about 2 and we headed to the Israeli crossing at Eilat. When you enter Jordan from Israel, they say, “Hi”; when you enter Israel from Jordan, they say “Hi….let me ask you some questions and open your luggage to check for bombs.” We were early for our flight and wanted some real food. One of the security people at the airport directed us to the nearby mall and we got great salads amidst the tumult and noise of a busy mall. The Eilat airport was Israel at it’s noisiest, at least that’s what I though until I got on the plant. Thankfully the flight is only 35 minutes. When we landed, Jack commented that even Israelis could only disembark by row. He was wrong…Israelis get off a plane in the same chaotic, assertive (aggressive) way they do everything. The rest of the evening involved waiting in lines at car rental booths and driving to Jerusalem. Luckily for us, the Dan Jerusalem was pretty empty so we were once again upgraded to an Executive room. Comfy beds and apples.

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Photos

In a cave at Petra
This photo give you a sense of the scale and beauty of the stone. This was one of the larger caves and there were 6 alcoves about the same size as the one I'm sitting in.