On our way to Amman, we opted to take the mountainous and slower King’s Highway vs. the speedy Desert Highway.  This allowed us to visit one more castle ruin – Karak, and stop in Madaba before an evening arrival in the capital city.  The journey was longer than anticipated, as we slowed for traffic through every village, and had to pass the Wadi Mujib Canyon, which involved a tedious switchback road both down and up and out.  I was in charge of navigation, not as straight forward a feat without a gps or detailed maps, and Dan had the stressful job of actually driving in a country that scoffs at the rules of the road.  We almost gave up on both of our stops, as we had to backtrack through hellish traffic to eventually find our desired destinations.

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Just when you thought Wadi Rum was the zenith point in your Jordan trip, enters Petra, and your mind is blown.

Wow.  How can I put in words the mystery of Petra, and how the deeper you explore, the more intense the reward?  I’ve been awed by photos of this famous prehistoric Nabataean caravan-city, a UNESCO site, for years; perhaps, starting with Hollywood exposure of the “treasury” in Indiana Jones.  My imagination tried to flesh out what the vision would look like in its’ live entirety.  I read multiple descriptions of an entry via a narrow canyon and learned that the area and its’ cave ruins were far greater than the popular poster images, but none of this could prepare me for reality.

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If you ask me what my favorite classic movie is, my vote is always split.  The two old movies that had the greatest impact on my psyche are “Gone With The Wind” and “Lawrence of Arabia”. “Lawrence of Arabia” specifically ignited the nomad in me, the adventurer, the explorer in search of the exotic, and a deep fascination with the desert.  Much of the movie and the real life of T.E. Lawrence… takes place in what is now Jordan, and was specifically filmed in the Wadi Rum desert (as was The Martian!).  Knowing the above, made a visit to this part of the world a dream of mine.  Thus, I channeled my inner bedouin and entered a land of sand…

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Although it took us three hours from when we left Abraham’s Hostel in Jerusalem, until we finally crossed the Allenby Bridge (less than 50 km. total) and went through immigration to enter Jordan, it was relatively straight forward.  Our car rental was waiting for us at the border, and we took off to the Dead Sea.  This stop ended up being everything we needed it to.  We were staying at the Holiday Inn Resort (much more luxurious than the Holiday Inn’s of the States), and the kids were gleeful over the spacious lobby with intricate floral arrangements, our comfy room, and three separate infinity pools.  We didn’t leave the hotel for 24 hours, dining at the buffet restaurants, and trading off between beach and pool.  It was incredibly hot and humid, but both the Dead Sea and the pool water were refreshing.  It was a long walk to the seas’ receding, rocky shoreline.  We tentatively entered and immediately felt how much thicker, almost oily, the high saline water was.  We were warned that any cuts would sting and to avoid getting even a drop of water in your eyes.  We took advantage of the pots of mineral-rich mud collected by the hotel, and covered our skin, in the hopes of bodily rejuvenation.  It was a special place indeed to float buoyantly, as the sun dipped behind the mountains of Israel in the distance.

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