Category: Jordan

We are on our way home right now, which is quite a long process, but we do have some parting pictures to show.  On our last day we headed to the city of Jerash where we walked around the old town site.  It still has many impressive ruins from back when the Romans were in power.  Take a look:

So now we have come to the end of another vacation.  We will for sure be blogging again in March when DawnO goes to Guatemala, and then Spain.  There may be one between now and then, who knows.

We’re back to civilization! Wadi Rum was a pretty cool experience. It’s a red sand desert where Lawrence of Arabia became famous. The thing to do there is stay in a Bedouin tent camp and explore the desert via hiking, camel, and 4×4. 

 

The next day we were picked up for our day of desert experiences. We had lunch at a beautifully refreshing natural spring, then were picked up by camel. I didn’t think the camel ride was too bad, but I looked over at RobO about 10 minutes in and knew that his ride was 9 minutes too long at that point! Our jeep picked us up and took us to the red sand dunes, a canyon, and 2 rock bridges. A highlight was when our guide said something about women not being able to drive, so RobO called him out and I got to drive us back to camp!

That night there were 12 of us for dinner which was chicken and vegetables that had been cooked under the hot sand. This morning I got up to watch the sunrise before our long trip north.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re in a town called Ajloun and plan to explore around here for our last 2 days until we board our flight home. I anticipate we’ll do 1 last blog post…

We arrived in Wadi Musa two days ago and have had some time to explore the nearby wonder of the world known as the City of Petra.  I was first introduced to Petra on the big screen when Indiana Jones  went there to find the Holy Grail.  Ever since then I put it on my bucket list of places to see.

The above picture is known as the treasury and is one of many places carved out of the solid rock walls of this amazing place.  This rewarding view is revealed after you wind your way through a kilometer of twisting rock walls on either side of you (this pathway is called the Siq).  There are several spectacular places to see after the Treasury, including the Theatre, the Royal Tombs, Colonnaded Street, and the Ad-Deir (the Monestary).

In Jordan it tends to get a tad hot around this time of the year so we have had to go twice a day. We come back to our hotel during the hottest part of the day which is somewhere in the +40C range.  Going in the morning and evening has afforded us some pretty unique views of this ancient city.

Tonight we went to an event simply called Petra at Night.  Lanterns light the way from the visitor center, through the Siq and end in front of the Treasury.  DawnO and I completely nailed it by going really early and watching them set up.  We were fortunate enough to get some great photos with no people!  Once the crowd arrived we sat around the candles and listened to Bedouin artists play music, sing songs, and tell stories about Petra and their way of life.  

We are heading to Wadi Rum tomorrow and rumour has it that we may not have internet access for a couple of days.  So don’t panic, moms.  We are safe and alive and will send a message when we can.

Last evening we arrived in Jordan. We spent one night in the capital city of Amman. We were pretty much asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows, but this morning we were up early to beat the crowds to one of the main sites – the Roman Theatre. 

 

 

 

 

We then started our journey south, stopping along the way at a few places. The first was Madaba, a town that is famous for mosaics. In one of the churches they discovered the oldest map in Palestine, crafted from mosaic stones in AD 560.

 

Next we checked out Mount Nebo, where Moses is said to have seen the Promised Land.

 

We followed the road down to the lowest point on earth – the Dead Sea. We floated in the bath temperature water then exfoliated our bodies with Dead Sea mud. I could have soaked for longer, but robO had some cuts that were burning from the salt. At one point I licked my finger and it was honestly the saltiest thing I’ve ever tasted in my life. RobO also accidentally got some water in his eye and I can’t repeat what he said due to the G rating of this blog.

 

 

We are now in Wadi Musa, which is the small town outside of Petra. We’re gearing up to go to Petra tomorrow morning for sunrise.

Cue the Indiana Jones theme song.