June 3: List of things to do in my life #2 Ride camel.....Check

June 3, 2006
Hello all
Back from Petra. It was fabulous as I knew it would be. We travelled on a small university bus through northern Jordan which is hilly and curvy, then we came to the desert. The real desert. It was very barren, no trees, no bushes to speak of, no hills. If you had to go to the bathroom, you were out of luck. The only thing on that stretch of road was the occasional goat herd or camel herd.

Here is the desert...Here is the herd of sheep we almost ran over.

More desert....Here are the camels we had to stop for.

I totally saw a "Camel crossing sign"!!!!!

The wind was blowing very strongly as well and blowing sand around. As we neared Petra (5 hours away in southern Jordan) we began to see hills and trees again.

Our hotel was very nice and it had a swimming pool. We could take LONG showers without worrying about running out of water. And the water was HOT all times of the day. The area was very expensive though. Wednesday night we just looked about the small shops.

Thursday am we were up bright and early to beat the Japanese and German tourists. Actually, it was great because it was a light tourist day. Although we nearly sprinted down the siq to get a good photo of the treasury building just in case. I got several good shots. We (being 3 doctoral candidates, 1 masters, and couple of bachelors degrees) realized about 1/2 down the siq that it
was consistently going downhill and that coming out was not going to be downhill. It was a sobering thought.

The Siq

Check out the very first view of the Treasury

I also rode a camel TWICE. It was alot of fun. Although when they stand up, their boodies come up first leaving you holding on tight to a saddle horn trying not to fall over the camel's head. They are quite tall. They get down the same way.

Eric's camel ascent or is this the descent?

What a sweet camel face!

I learned to lean WAY back on take off and landing. They are really quite comfy to ride, but the first camel was a little smelly and looked like he wanted to spit at me. The other was quite civilized.

There were these poor donkeys everywhere with little kids badgering you to ride them here or there. I felt bad because they were pretty small and did not look very well taken care of. So I refused to ride them.

This is Solomon the Bedouin (or The Great, according to him) with his mule (not donkey! so he says).

Her name is Monica (the donkey). Amber is standing next to them.

He followed us all over Petra after we refused to ride Monica. He ended up giving us a tour of some of the tombs. Also got invited for tea with his family in a little tent close by. Only one glass for everyone. Could not be rude. Hope the water was boiled good to get rid of all the little germies.

We visited a temple site that is slowly being excavated and rebuild. There are some small frescos that have survived. Apparently an earthquake in the 3 or 4th century destroyed alot of stuff.

They also had a wonderful church that has lots of mosaics. I particularly like the razorback type mosaic!

Then we went to the monostary. A really long way up. 890 ish steps. Luckily it was not all at once. There were some flat parts, but it was all uphill. The donkeys were taking some people up the hill. Wimps! We trudged along.

At the top you see this resting area and not anything else. We were looking for the monostary. All of the sudden out of the corner of your eye you see this humongous thing looming around the bend. It was amazingly beautiful.

The acoustics inside (if you could climb into it) were fabulous. Eric sang Amazing Grace inside it and it was truly amazing. I will never forget that. It was my favorite (after the camel of course).
We then trudged up a little higher to see the view. Would not take my kids here, there are no fences and the drops are unbelievably high. Bought some cool stuff.


Then came the time to go back down. I may now need a knee replacement. It was sooo hard. All of our legs were wobbly. Then we got to trudge back out of the siq and uphill some more. That was the hardest walk I have ever done. It was awful.

The rock coloring is very interesting.

Gayle, got you your Petra rock. Other stuff as well. Got some sand too.

Friday am we went back out to the site. It was hotter and getting really crowded. We were so sore from the previous day that we just looked around some of the other tombs and the theater site and headed home. We came back that afternoon.

I went to the hijab store and bought some scarfs that will completely cover my hair. Tired of being stared at. I tried to wear the one that Diane gave me but it does not work well the way that they wear them here. I have to practice a little. Actually a whole lot, it is an art form.


Today in my tomb I found more leg bones in place. I excavated all around them and then we photographed them. Did not find much else, but bones are quite exciting.

Hope you like the pictures. bye for now