On Thursday morning we left Petra and rode in our comfortable bus to Tel Aviv, saying goodbye to dear Osama, who left us before the border crossing into Israel. Getting through customs was a lengthy series of sometimes non-understandable stations; it took our small group over two hours for everyone to process through, but finally we all made it and there was our new guide, Zvi, waiting for us. A quiet hour's ride in a very uncomfortable little van was the next step; I kept wishing for information about what we would see, where we were, personal stories, anything to distract us from the silent boredom of that comfortless ride, but there were still five people who had not yet joined our Jordan group, still flying into the country, so it seemed we had to wait
... read more
