Semana Blanca: Jordan

The border between Israel and Jordan has very few transition points, one of which is at the very southern tip of Israel on the Red Sea, where one must walk across into Jordan since vehicles are not allowed to cross.  Never before have our passports been checked so many times by so many people in the span of about 100 yards.  Station after station, guard after guard, questions after questions, and finally we were through.  Our private driver was waiting for us, holding a crumpled handwritten sign with our names on it, and away we went.  The car was very nice, and we had a fun conversation on the way. 

Once in Petra, we met up with our Bedouin host. The Bedouins are tribe native to this area of Jordan. He grew up in the caves of Petra, and immediately took us to see some of them near where we would be sleeping. We then met up with our American friend Allison, who is getting her PhD in archaeology and is living in Petra for a year. Allison suggested that we take a cooking class called "Petra Kitchen" that evening, which we LOVED. We cooked with about 30 other tourists, learning the recipes along the way, then all sat down and ate together. It was a lot of fun getting to meet new people and enjoy delicious Jordanian food. They gave us all the recipes, so we hope to recreate them soon!

When our Bedouin host, Atallah, picked us up from the class, he asked if wanted to go to his house to meet his wife and two little daughters. Although neither his wife nor daughter spoke any English, we were greeted hospitably and offered juice. We played with his daughter for a good thirty minutes, which was hysterical, because she would talk and laugh nonstop, although she understood no English, and we understood no Arabic. It was very entertaining!  

The next day was the Petra with our friend Allison. Since Allison has been living and working there, she is a pro on everything about the site. Thankfully, she spent the whole day answering our endless questions about Petra and the history of what we were seeing.  We were so thankful for her guidance and information. She was wonderful company for the day, and as we walked and talked all day, it quickly felt like we had known each other for years! We hope to see her again in... who knows what country!

Now, Petra... there simply are no words to describe how awesome these structures are.  We learned that the majority of what we were seeing were actually tombs. In some areas, there was also an interesting mixture of Roman influence.  The city, which some guess has been only 2% excavated, had a complex water distribution system, and was at one point in history a major center of commerce and culture. Every step of our journey through Petra was incredible, and we learned so much about the Bedouin people and the history of this land.

The beautiful Treasury.

The Monastery was worth the hike to see.

You can see the remains of what was once carved into this rock - the feed of the camel and the man.

After a full day of exploring, we ran into an American who we had met at the Israeli boarder, and he had joined up with another American guy in Petra, so we decided that we should all meet up later in the evening. We went to our hosts house and built a fire in the stone hut across the way from our sleeping quarters, while he cooked us all dinner. Eggplants roasted right on the fire, potatoes and veggies slow cooked in a very large pan; it was amazing food. We hung out until late into the night exchanging travel stories, entertaining philosophical matters, and enjoying an amazing evening..

The next day, a storm was coming in, and both our host and driver had reservations about heading into it, but we had to get back to Israel so we decided to try it anyway. The taxis were not leaving Petra, so we invited our American friends to join us in the car we already hired so they could get back also. Our driver informed us that he has only driven in the snow once, which didn't make us feel great, given that within minutes it was total white out with fog and wind and lots of heavy snow.  We inched our way through the mountains, at several points being stopped by police road closures. We sat on the side of the road watching movies on our ipad until the police allowed us to pass through. What should have been a 1.5 hour drive took almost seven. There were moments so tense in the white out that we all just sat silently, not sure if we should laugh or cry. But we made it, alive. 

This is where we stayed, and we thought the snow was beautiful before we knew what kind of road conditions it was creating!

Cars backed up for miles. 

Once we crossed into Israel, we had missed all of the available transportation to Tel Aviv, so we all got a hotel together in the border town of Eilat. Due to it being Shabbat, almost everything was closed. We were desperate for food after sitting in the car all day with no food, so we eventually found some cheap Asian food by the Red Sea, and reveled in the fact that we were alive and back in Israel.