Whew. I am finally able to get to internet cafe and blog-on after a nice restup following day two at Petra, Jordan. We have been charging it since we left Amman 4 days ago with very little downtime aside from eating and sleeping. So today's planned several hours of R and R were much appreciated. The following post is going to read like a hitlist, but without trying to solely proclaim our exploits (something I have tried to maintain on the blog) here it goes...
Day 1 4-5: We jump into a shared taxi with two others from the hotel on a 'tour', but really it is just a driver the hotel organized to take us to various sites with the ultimate destination of Petra. After seeing some amazing 2nd century Christian mosaics in Madaba, we paid a visit to Mt. Nebo. It is written that this is the location where Moses climbed to view the promised land. Views here include the lower Jordan River valley (Christ's batisim location), Jerico and the Dead Sea. Pretty awesome 270deg views of places I have only read or heard about. This is also the location of Moses burial (never scientifically confirmed). We then dropped over 3000' down to the Dead Sea Valley to an elevation of almost 1400' below sea level and the lowest place on earth. The air was thick and warm for sure. Bleak, but also very beautiful landscape, punctuated by incised watercourses and interesting geology. We just happened to be driving by a small village when a helicopter was coming in for landing. School kids were running around and super excited. We pulled over and caught a very quick glimpse of the King and Queen of Jordan get out of the helicopter. While it was interesting to see the royalty, it was equally cool to see how excited the hundreds of kids were. Unfortunatly the rest of the day went downhill from this point. In summary, the group wanted to go swimming in the Dead Sea at a different location then where the driver wanted to take us (we theorize he would get a small comission at his choosen location). There was a disagreement and while no one fully lost there cool it wasn't really that of cool of a 'tour'. We got dropped off at our choosen location of Dana Nature Perserve that afternoon (part of tour).
Day 2, 4-6: We wake in Dana Nature Perserve Village (pronounced Daw-naw but we called it Dana for my mum). A small 600 year old mud brick town perched at the rim of a amazing 2500'vertical deep redrock sandstone canyon. We stayed the night in one of the 3 little hotels. There isn't much more in town. It was great to finally get out of the city, away from the cars and honking horns and into a quiet peaceful place that actually didn't have the scars of human development tattoed all over it. That morning we got an early start and hiked down the canyon, out and back for probably a total of at least 12 miles with the vertical. We were beat upon return. Too many highlights to list but mine included the sweet sounds of a distant bedouin flute being carried downcanyon in the early morning breeze. It almost sounded like he was playing along with the corus of birds calls. That sound just seemed to fit the landscape so well. We did not see the legendary (and extremely endangered) black horned gazelle-like ibex, but we had our eyes peeled. This was one of the highlites of the whole trip up to this point. That later afternoon we hitched a taxi and limped the 40km into Wadi Musa, home to Petra.
Day 3, 4-7: Thank god we found a place here because it is busy season and this place is busy an hotels are full up. Prices are way higher than in the guidebook because they can charge it. We got a nice little backpacker friendly hotel and slept in just a little to rest our weary bodies from the day before. Upon entry into Petra we were shocked to see that prices had increased to almost 20$ more per person as the guide book had listed. This price is further set to rise 15$ in Nov of this year. So now it is about 45$ per person to go into Petra for one day (about 55$ for two days, our choice). We are disappointed to see the government charge these exorbanant rates just because they know tourists will pay it. That is as much to get into anyplace, anywhere in the world.
Well again, not to go into to many details but this place is truely amazing. Combine the southern Utah red rock standstone canyons with, carved ancient architectural masterpieces in the sandstone, and you have Petra. Everything dates from a 400 year time period, between 200BC and 200BC. Old shit. This was historically at the crossroads of major caravan routes both from north to south and east to west. But our highlite may have been disappearing from the crowds in taking an alternative route to the main siq (canyon). We entered a sweet canyon of probably 2 miles, that at times narrowed down to 4' wide. There were several boulders we had to lower ourselves down and even some water we had to 'body bridge' over. This siq is high on my list of the best canyons I have traversed in anywhere including Utah. Quality. We explored the greater Petra site for about 8 hours yesterday.
Day 4, Today: We got up early to get our postcard picture of Petra's gem, the library (made famous by Indian Jones). While we didn't get to the entrance gate quite as early as we wanted to (7:30), we goosed our aching legs along at a good clip to pass as many people as possible. It paid off and we did get some 'tourist free' pictures of this awe-inspiring mounument. We then hiked on for another 7 hours visiting the sites we intentially missed the day before. It is just amazing to see the amount of labor that went into building the great cities of this time period. Everything at Petra is free standing, carved out of the rock, including a 7000 seat theatre, tombs with imense indoor spaces and exterior ornate details. These things could only have been done by somebody with a uncomprehensible combination of skills including artistry, strength, patience and spritual enlightment. One can just imagine the caravans laiden with spices and silks arriving here from weeks or months in the desert, and seeing the waterworks of fountains, buildings and associated infastructure. What a good feeling that would have been!
Our good feeling came when we got a nap this afternoon. What a feeling it was! We are now preparing for a trip out to the Wadi Rum desert tomorrow for a 4x4 tour in Larence of Arabia country. We will then camp out in bedioun tent and do the whole bit. I have heard they are getting a bit touristy but it is just about getting out into the desert and feeling the sand between your toes. We are looking forward to it.
Things are getting more touristy here and will probably continue in Egypt. Our tentative plan however is to try and go to Jerusalem first, in a few days for few days. We feel that we can't come all the way to this region and not go to the epicenter of it.
Okay, if you read all this, well "good on ya" (Kiwi saying).
Jordan is awesome. You should come here, see Petra, see the Dead Sea, meet the people. Then you can go home and tell somebody else how great it is and that they should come here too. -CB
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