We are posting for two days, since we did not have access to a computer yesterday. We have packed so much in these last couple of days that Monday seems like a lifetime ago. We woke up Monday morning, loaded the bus and headed towards the Jordanian border. We took a quick side trip up to the Golan Heights that overlooks the Galilean valley. It is actually right on the border between Jordan and Israel and we even saw some old bunkers from the days before the 6 day war when Jordan possessed the mountain. From there we headed to the border where we had to do some elaborate transfers between buses at the borders. This process took about an hour, but soon we were loaded on our new bus with our Jordanian guide, Areef (again, I am slaughtering the spelling, although it is phonetically correct). I was a little shocked at the noticable difference in the towns we travelled through--not nearly as kept up as the little towns/villages we saw in Israel. We drove on up to Mt. Nebo, where Moses was able to look upon the promised land, but never permitted to enter. Off in the distance we could see the Dead Sea. There is a beautiful ancient church and ruins up on the top of the mountain, with very beautiful mosaic tiles. We had lunch in a city about 2 hours away, where there was another ancient church (St. George) with more mosaic tiles and incredible paintings. The mosaics were all made by local stone, and the variety of colors was immense. We then settled in for a long (3 hours) bus ride to Wadi Moses and stayed in a hotel just above Petra, where the ancient city is located. We had a relaxing evening and woke up at the leisurely time of 7 a.m., had breakfast and walked to the path the lead into Petra. We rode horses in for about a 1/2 mile and walked through narrow canyons (very similar to the narrows of Southern Utah) and then we turned the corner and BAM there was the most amazing facade of the Treasurey of Petra, carved out of the sandstone mountain. Many people think that this is all there is to Petra, but oh no, there is more. We could ride camels, donkeys or walk into a more open area where there were tons of caves, homes, and stuctures carved into the mountains. It took us most of the morning to get to the "end" (where we had lunch at a restaurant down in the valley of this site) and then some of us decided to hike up the "thousand steps" to a monastary at the top of the mountain. When we got to the top, there was an even bigger and better preserved facade carved into the mountain side--very much worth the climb! My words do not begin to do justice to this incredible site. On the way back out, Steve and I decided to hire a "taxi"--and we rode out on a camel. That was actually quite fun. After dropping me off at the hotel so that I could empty gallons of dirt out of my shoes, he went back down to barter with the shops and came home with an awesome sheik (or, should I say, chic) outfit. Thus, the title of this blog. I haven't stopped singing that song every since!
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