A Day in Jordan

There was no scheduled touring on the Monday we were in Eilat.  We arranged in advance to do a day trip to Petra in Jordan's Rif Valley.  I had spent three days in Petra last October (you can read the blog entries here....http://ronno1976.blogspot.com/2009/11/petra.html, http://ronno1976.blogspot.com/2009/11/jabal-al-najr-arabic-for-biting-off.html).  Since Kirsten did not go on that trip with me, I wanted her to have a chance to see Petra, so we arranged for this abbreviated day tour.

We started very early in the morning in Eilat.  We were picked up and taken to the Itzak Rabin Border Crossing.  Eilat sits right to the west of Aqaba, it's Jordanian counterpart on the Red Sea. Israel only has diplomatic relations with two countries in the Arab world: Jordan and Egypt.  Their was not much activity at the border.  Just a few tour groups waiting to cross.

Once on the Jordanian side, we waited mainly for our visas to be issued before we could begin our drive to Wadi Musa and Petra.  We waited in a gift shop where there was "no charge for looking" surrounded by kitties and flies.

Our guide was a man named Riyadh.  He didn't seem to have a lot of patience for our tour group, which was mostly comprised of American Jews, including a stoner named Danny.  He provided comic relief.

There isn't much going on in the Jordanian desert.  We saw a few Bedouin tents here and there, but for the most part, the scenery was very sparse.

When we arrived at Petra, I was immediately overcome with how incredibly hot it was.  When I was there in October, it was very mild, but it was hot as hell in late June.  I also noticed how few people were visiting the site compared to the October visit when the temperatures were more mild.

We began our 45 minute walk down the Siq into the ruins.  The Siq is the remains of a dried up riverbed.  It provided some shade in various spots, but our tour guide seemed to like to stop directly in the sun when he had important information to share.

We finally made our way down to the Treasury building, which is the main attraction at Petra.  We stopped here for a moment to get some photos, but we were on a tight agenda so our tour guide kept herding us along.

He finally let us free down by the Roman theatre and we had some time to venture off and do a little exploring of our own.

The Street of Facades, adjacent to the theater is also a rather impressive site because there are countless tombs carved out of the mountainside.  

We decided to visit the Byzantine Church ruins.  We had planned to do that last year, but Stu and Marty and I got lost during our visit to the Altar of High Sacrifice and by the time we made it back to civilization, we were spent.  We made our way up the stairs to the ruins, dating back to the 4th century.  Christianity was dominant in Petra from about 400 to 600 AD, before being replaced by Islam.

We had to be back to the bus by 3pm and we were told to plan for about an hour to get out of Petra and back up the Siq.  Once we were in the final stretch, I started to lose Kirsten to the sun and heat.  She insisted on stopping and sitting not in the shade, but right in direct sunlight.  I told her to avoid "the light".  Luckily we made it back to the Visitor Center with our lives intact.

The heat had drained all our energy so most people passed out and slept the whole way back to the border.  Our tour guide was very proud to point out that Aqaba had many international dining establishments like KFC, Mc Donalds, and Burger King.  I was hoping we would have some time to see Aqaba beyond it's fast food establishments, but we headed for the border.

After making our way to Eilat, we were driven back to our hotel.  Whereas Eilat had been rather pleasant the night before, it was hot and windy that evening.  We found a little bar near the ocean and had dinner and beers before turning in for the night.