November 5th, 2013: Petra, Jordan

Today we went to Petra and it was breath taking! I have to admit it was hard to wake up at 5:30 AM to leave the hotel by 6:30 on foot to Petra. Luckily the site was right around the corner, who would have known. By the way I accidentally dipped my toothbrush in the hotel water, so I may just get travelers’ diarrhea....Wish me well! The Al Khzneh Treasury site of Petra didn't only include the Treasury used in the Indiana Jones movie but tons of other neat things! At first we walked in and there were huge red colorful mountains of sand with the path cut out to walk in-between. It looked similar to Lake Powell, but better because we are in Jordan and they are huge! There was also many Bedouin shacks set up along the sides to sell jewelry, trinkets, and bottles of sand. At one alcove we stopped and our tour guide sang a song in Arabic which sounded really cool! I couldn't understand anything and it seems like they are just making sounds instead of singing, but it still sounded really good! We then sang "How Firm a Foundation" and can I just say again for the millionth time that I love singing; it just welcomes such a sweet spirit to any activity (with the appropriate music of course!).   Finally we made it to the Treasury and I don't know what I was expecting, but this building cut out of the front of a red sand stone was AMAZING!!! It really did take my breath away, with that and the camels I didn't hear anything the tour guide was saying. We also got to ride a camel around in a circle which was fun! It kinda surprised me to have the camels get up and down while I was on, but I’m glad I didn't have to climb up when they were standing-They are so tall! I was lucky and got the one with all the colorful blankets, and Lauren took pictures of my adventure!

Here is the Treasury!

Ross and I riding camels in front of the Treasury!!! 

                After that our guide let our class have free time from like 7 AM to 2:30 PM to wander around and explore this amazing place! Hopefully my map of Petra is still around because that explains why we needed so long to visit all 34 sites, I just wish it included how many steps! I went with a group to the High Place of Sacrifice which was the highest rock and had a beautiful view. I swear there were probably 1,000 steps and I felt like giving up so many times. The sun was beating down on us already, there was very little shade, and lots of uneven steps. Also I have been having difficulty walking lately; I've tripped a few times so I was also afraid of falling and rolling down the hillside! I felt so accomplished to finally reach the top red faced and all! It was so fun to look how far we had made it and also just to see all the carvings in the red stone surrounding us. We ran into Brother and Sister Seely on the top, who have visited quite a few times so they said they would lead us to the Ad-Deir Monastery. We wanted to get the most experiences out of our trek so we went back an alternative way. It was such a cool path with so many cool tombs and carvings, but really long thank goodness it was downhill! It was also cool to see all the different colors in the stones. It was explained to us that they were dyed by the minerals in the ocean water years ago. The blue was from cobalt, red from iron, yellow from calcium, black from magnesium, and white from phosphorus. I was just fascinated that the ocean provided the colors, the wind and flash floods provided the shape of the stones and then the people were able to get so high and detailed with their carvings.

 Luckily I found a slow buddy who would rather take it slow and not die and still get good pictures, it was Sheridan. I just love Sheri, she is such a sweet redhead who has spunk and energy most the time when we aren't dying from the walk. We also ended up with Sister Seely who was fun and made us feel a little better with our speed. I was kinda holding a grudge to the center who wouldn't allow us to take the donkeys which they were offering for $5 up to the monastery, because honestly that looked so fun and a lot less work. Once we got to a certain point all the shops were saying "You're half way" which obviously wasn't the truth when you hear it for the next 4 corners. Finally after putting on some motivational music and leaving Sister Seely with Brother Seely getting a drink, we made it up to the top! The Monastery was amazing! The Treasury was still probably my favorite but this building was worth the hike! 

The Monastery

On our way to the bus I met the cutest Beduoin girl ever! The children here are required by law to go to school up to 15 years old or something, yet the parents keep them home in hopes they will sell more at their shops. There was this one girl walking around barefoot who was probably 10 years old. She was selling postcards for 1 dinar ($1.50= 1 dinar) She was so cute I just wanted to buy one, even though we were told not to support the parents in their decision. We ended up taking the cutest pictures together tho and I love it! I've realized once I go home I'm not going to have very many pictures of the people here. I love seeing the sights but the times I cherish the most have to do with hospital patients where we can't take pictures. This little Beduoin looked like my first cancer patient tho so I was really happy!

She was so excited to take a picture with someone, even if I didn't have change to buy some post cards. After our funny picture she wanted to take some of the hills around us, if I hadn't kept a hold of the safety loop I would have lost my camera. Oh how I miss little kids!