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Published: December 13th 2010
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Relaxing poolisdeFirst of all, we wanted to thank all of you who are following our blog so far and who have sent us such heartfelt and encouraging messages and emails. Thank you & happy Monday!
Our next stop on our adventure was Jordan, and we arrived in Amman where we picked up our rental car and made our way to the Dead Sea. Driving in Jordan is fairly easy - the infrastructure is very good compared to Egypt and Morocco, and speed limits are strictly enforced by numerous radar toting police along the highways. Finding one's way is however a challenge as 'enterprising' politicians slap their 'vote for me' stickers all over traffic signs!
The Dead Sea is at the lowest point on earth (-400m) and derives its name from the fact that due to it's high saline concentration (33.4%), no animals or fish live in it. The salty water makes swimmers super buoyant and the fun part about it is that the only living beings in sea were tourists like us, giggling away like village idiots as we floated on our backs, bellies and 'standing up'. Next to the beach are containers of Dead Sea mud where you can give yourself
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Look Ma - no hands (or feet)! your own mud treatment. If you've never been, we would highly recommend a visit here!
After relaxing by the sea for a couple of days, it was time to get back to our travels and make our way south. We arrived Wadi Musa (Moses' Valley), the town around Petra, and that evening had our first visit to the ancient city on their "Petra at Night" tour (which runs only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays). On this day, we were battered but not beaten having both received a vicious bout of 'traveler's tummy'... from the 5 star resort at the Dead Sea no less; we were NOT happy. On the night tour, the group is guided down the Siq (the kilometer long gorge/canyon) to the Treasury. The sides of the path and forefront of the treasury were lined with candles. It was a great/easy first introduction of this amazing place. Many of you may recognize the Treasury (photos attached) from the Indiana Jones Last Crusade film. Petra has recently been voted as one of the 7 man made wonders of the world.
For those of you curious about this 'voting/ranking' as well as the other 6, please follow this link:
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Floating without effort in the Dead Sea known as the rose coloured city is literally carved out of rose coloured sandstone. It is a massive complex of tombs, caves and vicious climbs up and down the rock. The next day we spent the entire day exploring the area and were stunned when asked to each pay 50JD ($80) entrance fee... imagine paying this to go visit the Rockies for a day... no wonder there are photos of the SMILING king everywhere! This shock was nothing compared with the shock we felt climbing up hundreds of steps carved into the sides of cliffs. The vistas were stunning but the vertigo frightening! One could have hired donkeys to cart them up the cliffs however this seemed like an even sketchier prospect.
The next day we drove down to Wadi Rum. This vast valley connects Jordan to the Arabian peninsula. It is a very beautiful spot. We spent the day in the back of a very old Toyota Landcruiser with a Bedouin (natives of this area) guide bouncing around the desert visiting rock bridges, sand dunes and the spot where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed (they are very proud of this some 50 years later!).
Not sure if we're blogged
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Sunset on the Dead Sea (that's Israel on the other side) out, but we're going to leave it off here. Enjoy the photos and videos... as usual, they offer more than words!
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EUGENIA
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I love to see both of you having so much fun. love Eugenia