The last of Jordan

April 15, 2011
For the past 10 days since we've last posted, we've been making our way from the Dead Sea to Aqaba and the Red Sea in the south and then back again.

When I (Q) was 10 I first watched Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark with my family. The scene at the end of the movie is a shot of a horse and carriage running through a narrow canyon. I didn't know where that canyon was or what it was called, but from the second I saw that scene I was amazed and hoped that such a place actually existed. 

Finally, 19 years later we were standing at the mouth of a narrow slot canyon called the Siq which is the entry point in to the ancient Nabatean city of Petra.

We walked the 1.2 kms down the winding canyon, passing through section where the walls were no wider than 2m. We finally came to the last corner and caught a keyhole like look at the Treasury between the canyon walls. The head to toe chills of excitement stayed with me for the last 100m until we finally emerged from the canyon to stand at the base of it. The Treasury is quite a bit taller than I had imagined, nearly 45m tall and ~25m wide. Like most structures within  Petra the Treasury served as a tomb. It got it's name from a Bedouin story that a king had hid his treasure in the upper urn before going off to battle. The urn proved to hold no treasure but the name has since stuck.

That evening we bought tickets for Petra by Night, where the Siq and Treasury are lit up with 1500 candles. My friend Kelly had advised us not to rush in with the crowd but to hang back and you would have a much quieter experience. Rye and I stayed back and enjoyed the candle lit hike under a starry sky....a truly magical moment.

Our second last night we hiked to the top of a cliff to catch the sunset over the Petra valley when two Bedouins came around the corner on mules and asks us if we would like to join them for tea. We followed them to their home in a nearby cave were we enjoyed tea (mixed with about two cups of sugar, delicious!) and a warm fire. We had stayed well beyond sunset and were most likely the last ones to leave the park, which proved to be quite beneficial. Petra by Night was scheduled for later that night so the hike out was again lit by candles and this time we didn't run in to a single person....our own private Petra by Night!

The last morning I hiked back in to Petra to take everything in one last time... still getting a chill of excitement seeing the Treasury.

As we've mentioned before, the people in Jordan are incredibly friendly and helpful. Case in point happened our last day in Petra. We were sitting in our car about to leave the parking lot when a young lady approached us with 2 glasses of pepsi and welcomed us to Jordan. We went and spoke with her and her family and her father happened to be a GM of a hotel in town. He mentioned he had some contacts throughout Jordan and he insisted we join him for tea the following day so he could set us up with accommodation for the next few nights. Sure enough, he lined us up with a camp in Wadi Rum and a hotel in Aqaba each with substantial discounts. It was so appreciated!

We had wanted to stay in a traditional Bedouin camp, and Wadi Rum, a vast desert and the setting for the film 'Lawrence of Arabia', seemed to be the perfect opportunity. When our friend from Petra set us up with a camp, we just assumed we could find 4WD transportation at the visitor center. Finding the visitor center practically closed when we arrived and not having a vehicle or the necessary knowledge for desert touring, we stopped at a gas station to use a phone and call a different camp. By a crazy coincidence, the driver who was supposed to pick us up, unbenounced to us, happened to see the name of the camp written on a piece of paper we had sitting on the dash and was as surprised as we were to see us.
He drove us a short ways into the desert where there were tents made of sheeps wool, housing rugs and a queen sized bed.
We spent the evening sipping tea around the campfire and visiting with the Bedouins who run the camp, while a thunderstorm played on in the background.  

For day two in Wadi Rum, we organized a 4WD desert tour to cover off some of the grand sites (sand dunes, archways and plain old gorgeous scenery) in this enormous space. To cap off the day we got a camel ride back to camp. It had to be done, but they certainly aren't the most comfortable animals to ride. The saddle, essentially a box covered with a thin blanket, didn't help matters much and the hour long journey back to camp was the perfect amount of time. 
After a long day in the sun, we drove to Aqaba, a city which borders the Red Sea, and had a much needed shower to wash the sand from our hair. 

The Red Sea is world renowned for it's snorkeling and scuba diving. The coral reefs are beautiful and many sites are accessible by shore... That is if you don't have a fear of sharks and of drowning. We did see a beautiful reef, but another main attraction, a ship sunken off shore, was just barely out of reach. We started swimming for it, but as the sea floor got further away from the surface and the water got darker, my heart started beating faster and faster until my brain said "Are you f@*#ing crazy? Turn around before you die"! My husband being the wonderful man that he is, didn't want to abandon me to swim for shore on my own while the 'Jaws' theme song played on repeat in my head, so he missed out on seeing the sunken treasure as well. 
Since our tans have started to fade and it's not appropriate to wear a bathing suit at the public beaches in Jordan (unless you want to be the main attraction for all the young lads), we opted to hangout at the rooftop pool at our hotel for our second day. 

Having absorbed the rays, we left the heat the following day and ascended the mountains to the city of Karek. The attraction of this city is the ruins of a Crusader Castle which we toured (Q thinks it was featured in the film 'Kingdom of Heaven'). Its been excavated and areas restored allowing our imaginations to run wild and I forced Q to talk to me only in Elizabeathen tongue. Unfortunately our vocabulary from that era was lacking, only remembering "hither, thou shalt, wherefore, aye and nay". It was all fun and games until Q wanted me to address him as 'your worship' and him refer to me as 'wench', apparently meaning "common woman". Needless to say, hence forth, our conversation was further minimized ;)

After our stint role-playing Robin Hood, we rejoined the present era and adventurously tackled a 'wet hike' in Wadi Mujib. In a terracotta colored slot canyon we waded across a stream and scaled small waterfalls with the aid of fraying ropes tied to rocks... certainly a unique and exciting experience.
To ease our weary muscles we finished the day at the Ma'in Hot Springs. It was something we were looking forward to, but I think we would have appreciated the steamy waterfalls more had it not already been a sweltering afternoon. 

Our last two days in Jordan were spent doing one of my favorite things... Nothing at all. The only thing that makes 'nothing' better is when you are doing it at the Movenpick Resort on the Dead Sea, which is just what we did. 
Our flight to Morocco was cancelled and rescheduled, so much to our dismay (insert sarcasm here) we were stuck in Jordan for an extra day.