Diving, Floating, Hiking
Two days before our second visitor arrived we landed in Amman. Luck would have it that we actually knew someone who lives there. Janelle, who graciously provided four college kids a free place to stay in Manhattan for New Years Eve ten years ago, invited us to stay in her upstairs studio apartment for as long as we could make use of it in Amman too! Janelle and Mark and their two cute kids, Alexandra and Paul were very helpful giving us the ins and outs of the city and the greater Middle East area.
Our first day out we hopped in a taxi and saw some of the old city, mainly the Roman theater, and shopped in the market. Heather was super excited about the seeded watermelon. The next morning we made a trip to the US Embassy so Heather could get some more blank passport pages. The second half of the day was a bit more exciting since we got another visitor, Bridget! When she arrived we went over our plan of touring the country by car and off we went the next morning.
Our first stop was north of Amman in the small town of Jerash. We were able to see a Roman show in the old Hippodrome, complete with soldiers, gladiators, and a chariot race. The rest of the Roman city ruins were fairly well preserved and probably don’t get as many visitors as they deserve. We pointed the car south and stopped at Mount Nebo. This is the site where Moses finally saw the promise land and then died shortly thereafter. His burial site is apparently lost to antiquity.
We made it to Aqaba for the evening and Mike and Heather found a dive shop the next morning. The dive took us to a sunken (on purpose) ship, but most of the interesting fish were in swallow water. After the dive, we headed back north on the Dead Sea Highway to its namesake. We floated around the next morning and put on some healing mud. The bobbing feeling is quite unique and the water is actually slippery. After we rinsed off the salt water, we went down the water slide and splashed around in a real pool.
Finally we made it to the place you must see if you go to Jordan, Petra. We spent a whole day exploring lots of nooks and crannies and trying to stay out of the heat. Petra is steeped in layers of history, from the original Nabataeans, the Romans, the Byzantine era churches, and Bedouins. We did not find the Holy Grail, but had fun anyway. We also took a quick drive to Little Petra nearby where there a lot less visitors. In ancient times it served as a rest stop on the way to Petra. We rounded out the whole experience by having drinks in the Cave Bar. Some of the booths are actually ancient tombs, but we stayed away from those. Finding beer in a Muslim country is always a bit interesting.
On Bridget’s last day with us, we went to the Citadel on the hilltop in Amman. We also thought we’d beat the heat by going to a movie, but the brown outs cut the movie short after 20 minutes. After a half hour of waiting, we were given our money back and headed home. Bridget had a late flight to catch and we packed up in preparation for our journey to Jerusalem.