Petra

Friends that had been to Jordan before us, suggested that we prepare for little food along the way.  That was good advice.  Jordan was surprisingly expensive and food was hard to come by.  We ate at convenience stores a lot - pringles and candy bars kept us alive.  I also brought a bunch of food with us.  Crackers, cookies, nuts, etc.  It was a good thing I brought so much food with us - it saved our bacon several times. Our first hotel was a nice resort and the breakfasts were pretty good, although standard Middle Eastern food.  Almost always; flat breads with soft cheeses, roasted tomatoes and mushrooms, chicken sausage, dahl and foul (lentils and beans), breads with zaatar, less than yummy croissant things, omlets to order, and cold cereal with warm milk.  The other hotels were, shall we say, ....yikes?  Clean and safe is my only criteria.  In the less nice hotels, the food is the same, but usually pretty gross.  They also smell like smoke and are very bare minimum.  But we are always up for an adventure, including where we stay.

Anyway, after a less than yummy breakfast, we headed into Petra just as it opened, we were some of the first in. Oh. My. Goodness.  Petra was amazing!  Seriously, everything I imagined, only so much more!  Words cannot describe how cool that place is!  After winding through the slot canyon for quite some time (20 min?), it opens up into the ancient building facades carved out of the rocks.  Every one of us were enchanted with that place from the first moment.

We knew we wanted to head directly to the Treasury, which is the hardest to get to and the furthest place from the opening.  So we hired five donkeys, and off we went.  We put a kid on each donkey, some young Jordanian kids told us how much they wanted and slapped the donkey's on the bum - and we were off.  Peter and I trotted along side the crew, and up we went.  I think it's about 1/2 a mile on the sand then 900 steps to the top.  The kids rode the donkey's the whole way - except Simon, who got freaked out and walked up most of the way.  I don't blame him.  It froke me out just watching it!

Jordan is 'run' by bedoiun whose families have lived there for..., well, forever. I say run, because they have little stalls along the way where they are trying to sell you things.  And of course they know everything about the place. They are kind of the keepers.  Up until the 1980's these people actually lived in the park itself.  But after the government decided to develop it for the tourism industry, they built rows of houses for the people to move into.  They had lived in caves for generations.  You can still see some of this along the way.  They built kind of cave like houses, but had running water and stoves.  I'm sure their lives have changed a lot since moving out of the park, but they still work their every day of their lives.  They are all related in one way or another, and work together and for each other.  Everyone loved our kids and were so nice.  Several people asked if Gid and Sol wanted to stay with them.  One kid (16 yr old) asked if Solomon wanted stay and learn how to take care of the donkey's for two weeks.  Live like a bedoiun.  I'm sure he would like to, but I wouldn't like him to.

Up at the top of the Treasury, it was quiet and we had the place to ourselves most of the time.  We climbed up and had a couple guys from Europe take our family picture.  We wandered up there for a long time enjoying the stretching views across the beautiful desert.  The kids climbed and climbed and climbed - did I say climbed? - all over the rocks.  What a great trip for kids!

We made our way down and enjoyed seeing all the people who had since come into the park.  There is a lot to see and hikes to take.  We just had one very long day, but it was enough for us.  I had taken tons of snacks into the park with us, of course, including fruit.  I happened to have someone's banana peel in the backpack I was carrying.  Just near me I heard a donkey going crazy.  hee haw hee haw hee haw!!!!  The next thing I see, this donkey isn't tethered, and he is now starting to follow me.  And getting closer.  Now he is going crazy hee hawing and he and trying to bite my bag. Out of nowhere a bedoiun lady appears, puts her hand in my bag and hands the the donkey the banana peel.  After freaking out, I laughed and laughed.  Donkey - crazy.

Jordan - Kings Highway

It's terrible that my family is seeing the world, I and can't seem to find the time up write about these amazing adventures.  I have got to at least record a little...

I started telling about our trip to Jordan - a year ago!

After the Dead Sea and the baptism sight, we went on a little hike up what is believed to be Mt. Nebo - where Moses saw in a vision where to take the children of Israel.  It was beautiful.  We went up at dusk and watched the sun set.  It was quite rocky with a little grass here and there.  Goats are everywhere in Jordan, always with their shepherds.  On Mt. Nebo we didn't see goats that night, but lots of signs they had been there.  (goat poop)  The kids hiked far away until we could hardly see them, then came back to be together for the sun set.  You could see far into Israel and into Egypt as well, it was so pretty.

The next day we drove up into the higher area, called the Kings Highway.  Man, that place was beautiful.  We stopped in Madaba to see a beautiful old mosaic in a church called St. George's.  They say it is the most accurate account (map) of ancient Jerusalem.  We ate some local shwarma and enjoyed bit of local Jordanian culture.  This was en route on our way south to Petra.  The Kings Highway, in the spring, is green and full of life.  Lots of farmers fields, people working, and families picnicking.  One thing we really enjoyed seeing was Jordanians living!  So many of the Arabs we live with do not work.  Their culture is run by low paid men from south east Asian.  And in Jordan, the local people actually work and take pride in their land.  Along the way we also saw many many Bedouin camps.  Far more than we see here.  People out caring for their camels, horses and sheep. Lot's of tents had unicef labels on them.  Jordan has taken in millions of Syrian refugees since their civil war, and now with ISIS invading.  It is really sad and disheartening.  But in regards to the tents, we were told these were not in fact refugees, but that you could buy a big huge tent for just a couple of dollars. So much of the country was benefiting from the aid.

The road was VERY winding.  So much so, that I can hardly remember really driving on that crazy of a road.  It it was up and down hills and valleys.  Most impressive was what reminded me of a smaller version of the Grand Canyon.  I couldn't believe something so similar was on this side of the world.  It was SO cool.  As we explored the southern half of Jordan, we commented over and over how much it looked like southern Utah.  So I guess the Grand Canyon fits right in, huh?

We stopped at a great old Crusaders castle called Karak Castle.  Really cool!  We're getting so spoiled with things like castles, it's getting harder and harder to impress us.  This did!  From the stories of throwing people over the 7 story walls with boxes on their heads (so they would last a little longer and suffer more) to seeing the amazing ruins of working areas of the castle (the foundry, horse stables, leather works, bakery) - we really loved it.  We had a great guide who took so great family pictures for us.

We arrived in Wadi Musa, or Petra in the evening.  Ready for bed before our early morning trek into the park.