Dead Sea

On Sunday, our driver Isam, was there to pick us up bright and early (7 am).  We left Petra and headed up the King's Highway the most interesting and picturesque, to the village of Dana.  This little village overlooks the valley and Dana Nature Reserve.  The reserve is the largest in Jordan and is home to around 84 native animals which are protected in there.  No hunting is allowed and huge fines are given if you are caught.  Here in the reserve area the sandstone cliffs reach 1500 m near Dana and continues down to the Dead Sea.  Most of the reserve is only accessible by foot.  We did see a group of people making there way into the reserve.
We started our downward decent, much rugged terrain and many deep valleys along the way.  We passed through the village of Karak, which was more of a farming area, seeing many fields of tomatoes being harvested.  We stopped at the side of the road to pick some tomatoes to eat.  We asked if we could do that and Isam assured us we could.  Boy were they ever tasty. There were crates of tomatoes waiting to be loaded on trucks heading for Iraq.  The workers in the fields were Syrians.  It is really hard to believe they are able to grow anything on this hilly, stony, dry soil.  Fred thought he had stones on his fields, nothing even closes to this.
Driving along the Dead Sea (lowest point on the earth) we saw a salt processing plant, where they harvest the salt from the sea and process it in table salt and road salt.  The land in this area has such high salinity due to evaporation, that nothing can grow here.  Further down the road we made another stop at an important site to see the monument of Lot's wife who was turned into a pillar of salt.  This was located high on a mountain top over looking the Dead Sea. Isam then found a spot along side the road for a dip in the Dead Sea one of the must do experiences.  Betty, Fred and Sacha had a great time floating in the water.  It was very buoyant, even Fred was able to float here.
We left the Dead Sea going to Mt. Nebo where Moses is said to have seen the Promised Land.  It is also said that he returned here to the mountain to die and is buried supposed to be buried in Madaba about 9 kms from Mt. Nebo.  We also saw Moses' Spring where he was said to have stuck a rock and water sprang forth for the people.  So much history in these parts.
To end our day Isam took us to Hammamat Ma'in, a hot spring resort.  The water was very pleasant at about 45 deg.  The water tumbles over the cliffs creating a waterfall and collects in pools for  bathing.      The waterfall massaged our backs and the steamy water made for a very relaxing 2 hr. stay.  Awesome.  We headed back up the windy, steep road to Amman where we will spend the next few days.

Petra

Wow...Amazing, What can I say that would do Petra any justice.  Some archaeologists have ranked ancient Petra as the eighth wonder of the ancient world - truly a justifiable claim.  This remote dead city is one of the great archaeological treasures in the world.  It is the most important famous attraction in Jordan.  Much of Petra's appeal comes from its awesome multicoloured sandstone high mountains.  It is a secluded site of steep rocky slopes, towering craggy mountain tops and high cliffs into which tombs, facades, theatres and stairways are carved.

Just when you think you have seen all the wonderful sights in the Siq, you come upon the Treasury.  From there we continued on walking up flights of 500 steps cut into the rock to reach the top where we had a spectacular view of Petra down below.  The High Place of Sacrifice was the place for important religious ceremonies.

On our second day we went back through the Siq and Treasury to explore more tombs carved into the side of the mountains.  After about a  10 km walk passing and meeting donkeys, camels and carriages on narrow paths we made an 800 step climb to see the Monastery at the top of the world.  The view down was another very beautiful sight of the valley below.

An amazing site to see and you really need to see it to truly appreciate it.

Wadi Rum & Petra

Started off this morning by 7 am heading toward Wadi Rum.  Our taxi driver  pulled up to Toyota 4x4 and we were introduced to our driver and he helped us in to the box of the truck which had 2 benches for us to sit on.  We looked very cold so the driver gave Sacha his nice warm camel coat.  I snuggled up to her so that I didn't turn into a Popsicle and off went to explore.  Wadi means valley and Rum means high altitude.  That is exactly what we were seeing high messa and sand valleys.  The colors were spectacular, beige, orange and red.  The rock formations are formed by the wind and rain, unbelieveable sights to see.  We stopped for breakfast and before we knew it they had a fire going for tea and our bread was being warmed on the fire.  They had goat cheese and olive oil for us to dip our bread in, we couldn't believe how tasty it was.  Once we finished our tea we carried on seeing more sights.  We must have been running out or time because our drive back to the taxi was quite fast.  Had the feel of being in a sand storm.  Good fun many laughs.

We continued on heading to Petra on the old King's Highway.  We climbed to an altitude of 1400 m above sea level.  Couldn't believe they were farmi g up there.  Our driver told us they were farming wheat in the sand and rock.  Beautiful sights along the way.  We arrived and checked into our hotel. We headed down to check out the sights .  More details tomorrow.

Aqaba

Thursday was a restful day spent in Aqaba, Jordan.  We wondered around checking out the beach and the town.  We hired a guy with a glass bottom boat to take us out in the water to check the coral in the Bay of Aqaba.  Across the bay we were able to see Egypt and Israel and about 25 kms further down the bay would be Saudi Arabia.  Not sure what it is about boats and gas but here we were once again needing to get some gas before we carried on.  A very enjoyable hour spent on the water.  We found this town was very friendly.  They are also a duty free town because they are so close to the border and the government is trying to get people to go to Aqaba.  Jordanian people are very welcoming so was a nice place to spend some time there.

Travel Day - Boxing Day

We are on the move today, we left Jerusalem heading to Élan ,on the bus, so that we could cross the border into Jordan.  We felt totally safe as there was a plain clothes guard on our bus with an M16 standing right next to Fred most of the way which was about a 5 hour ride.  Totally no worries.  We have seen more security in the past few days than you could even imagine.

The road through Israel was very good, mostly a 2 lane highway.  I know the Reeve was checking out the road system as we went along.  The countryside is very rugged, on one side of the road was the Dead Sea and the other side were very rugged mountains.  In places along the way we would come upon a grove of palm trees and greenhouses.  Not sure what they were doing with that.

The crossing went smoothly and we were through before we knew it.  We walked into Jordan, caught a cab to Aqaba, Jordan to spend the next day here just hanging out.  We are able to see Egypt and Israel from here in Aqaba.  Aqaba is situated on the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea.  Quite a cool little town.  We are hoping to get a little  time at the sea tomorrow.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas...we hope Santa was good to you.

We awoke to church bells ringing how wonderful was that.  Nothing tradition about today at all.  We go our bus tickets for Petra tomorrow and will be leaving for our journey through Israel along the Dead Sea to the Jordan border.  Hopefully it will be an easier crossing then the crossing into Isreal.

We walked the wall around the Old City seeing things from above.  Jerusalem and also Bethlehem are very modern cities and quite affluent. After that we wondered through the streets of the Old City searching for those great souvenirs.  The shop keepers aren't as forward as in Egypt, they did understand 'No'.  They weren't always happy that we didn't want to check out their shop but they didn't follow us down the street trying to convince us to buy something.

Easy night tonight as we will be packing up.  Not sure what the WiFi will be like in Petra. We will blog as soon as we can once again.

Jerusalem

Monday, it's Christmas Eve but it didn't feel or look anything like what we are use to.  Everything is open, there are only a few places that are playing Chritmas carols.  We took a walking tour with a guide to see the Old City.  He was very informative about the 4 religious areas in the Old City.

After the tour we caught a bus to Bethlehem.  We had to show our passports on our way to Bethlehem, a lot of security here.  We had a great taxi driver who was able to get us up to the Church of the Nativity through the crowded streets and all the security.  We found out that the president was going to be visiting the church and that was why there was all the security.  We were almost at the church when the police started turning everyone back and not allowing anyone else in that area.  So we had to turn around not being able to see the church.  We were herded into the Manger Square but there were so many people there we found our driver and took some pictures before we left the area.  Nasser, our driver then took us to his uncle's olive wood shop.  What beautiful pieces of carvings.  We all bought Nativity sets, I can' t wait to set it up next year for Christmas.  We also stopped at the Shepherd's Fields, however it was getting dark so not able to see a lot.  We returned to Jerusalem by bus and hurried to the Church of Christ to take part in the musical performance.  We sat enjoying the beautiful Christmas carols for about 2 hours.  That felt more like Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone from all of us here in Jerusalem.

Israel

We just spent last night and most of today travelling.  We started out in Egypt, flew to Jordan and then crossed over by land into Israel.  Quite an intense border crossing, not sure how many times we showed our passports or went through a scan.  Anyway we did get through and we are now in Jerusalem.  Didn't have a lot of time before it got dark to check things out so can't wait till tomorrow. It is really hard to believe we are here.  We are staying in a cave.  Check out the pics of our room.

Aswan

Saturday was a day of relaxing.  Headed down to the water in the am to find a ride across the river to a Nubian Village.  We met Jimmy, King of the Nile who toured us down the river explaining things along the way.  He stopped at a Nubian Village to show us around.  We went to see a baby crocodile and then had tea in this family's home.  Once we were finished our tea we continued on through the village.  He told us there were 4  - 5 thousand people in that village, not sure where they all lived.  We returned to the boat to tour the other side of the island.  We found out that in some spots on the Nile it was 50 m deep and in some areas the rocks were showing up.  We had to cut our boat ride short as Jimmy, King of the Nile, ran out of gas.  No worries we got to shore.  From here we wondered around enjoying our last hours in Egypt.  We fly out this evening to Amman, Jordan.

Edfu - Temple of Horus, Temple of Kom Ombo, & Aswan

We carried on to the Temple of Kom Ombo where it stands on the Nile and in ancient times the sacred crocodiles basked in the sun on the riverbank.  This was a dedication to the local crocodile god Sobek  and Horus the Elder.

It was great to see these places as we had no people to really contend with as tourism is down by about 70%.  These people are suffering a lot and are really not happy with their government.  They feel the government is not doing anything for the people.

Aswan is a very relaxing little place with a wonderful Tourist Market.  We wondered around through the market looking and buying some souvenirs.  We stopped at a Cafe for tea and a felafel which was very good.  We continued on walking getting some comments.  We heard a lot of  Canada Dry when we would tell them where we were from.  This means Canada Dry no buy.  I guess we Canadians are cheap.  Fred was getting a lot of comments about his 3 wives and one person asked how many camels he would want.  I don' t think there was a trade deal yet.

Valley of the Kings & Al-Deit Al-baharu Temple

Thursday we visited the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank.  These magnificent temples were built for the pharaoh's by his priests and subjects for his body and worldly wealth and the bodies of his wives and children to be laid in the decorated hidden tombs in the hills.  We visited the tombs of Rames 111 & lV and Merenptah.  These tombs have suffered great damage from treasure hunters,  floods and mass tourism.  Cameras weren't allowed in the area so we didn't get any pictures of the tombs.

The Al-Bahari Temple was a man-made monument - Temple of Hatshepsut.  Rugged limestone cliffs hang over the temple rising above some 300 m above the desert plain.  The temple was vandalized by Tuthmosis lll, removing his step-mother's name in the tomb wherever he could so that it became his tomb.  Hard to believe that these beautiful structures were built so long ago and still remain today.

We ended our day with another horse and carriage ride though Luxor with Hamin.  He showed us around stopping at some shop for souvenirs getting us a good price.  Very nice man, feeling very sorry for all these people as tourism is down by a lot.  Hopefully things soon ten around for these people.  We had mint tea with Hamin before we left.  There is a picture of Hamin doing sheesha.