OMG! There is so much to say! I will start with just PETRA. It is a city referred to as the rose red desert. You walk forever probably about 3 miles downward thru 2 extraordinary towering wall of rocks 300 feet high with spectacular colors of red, pink, gold, black and sand colors. There are carved temples, burial chambers with indicators of how many are buried in the hole. There are houses with stairs, a roman theatre and the amazing treasury where supposedly their fortune is stored. There are many stories. It is written it was a tomb and a temple. The columns and carvings in rock are amazing and is done in a reddish rock. It took hours to climb down. I will try to load pictures.
Now I am not a wimp, but the thought of walking up the rocks, and sand it is far from even, I went back by donkey! My feet were tingling, my hips were sore, my back was so so. Apparently, I am not accustom to riding a donkey and provided humor for many on the way up. I was holding on for my life and when it sped up I was screaming slow down. If that wasn’t funny enough, my donkey decided he was hungry and grab a branch of green leaves sticking out between the rocks! Oh I screamed did you hear me? Providing more comedy!
It was a fabulous experience and would recommend it to anyone! My husband thought it rivaled the many Greek ruins we have seen during our travels.
We went to lunch in a fancy resort hotel where a buffet was set up for all the cruisers. It was so good. There was falafel, amazing creamy hummus, lentil salad,, Greek salad,fish curry, eggplant salad couscous and more oh warm pita bread!. My vegetarian friend would be thrilled
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- Now let me describe Aqaba and Jordan since we had a 2hour drive each way! The city is the only one on the Red Sea. Oh, by the way, it is a blue color not red. Because of this it is packed with homes. The homes appear to be cement and most of them do not complete the roofs so they can add additional floor later. There are some larger homes scattered among the crowd. They tend to hang out these fancy rugs on their balconies. They also do no appear to wear their shoes inside.You do not see many people about the street. The woman are fully clothed and their heads are covered. the strangest thing to see is an occasional woman covered up to her eyes. Older men in some cases wear long gowns, some are pure white.
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Now, I will describe outside the city. in a few words, rocks, sand, desert which goes on forever. Among these areas, there are people referred to as bedowins, wanders with goats, donkeys, camels, and sometimes a truck. they live in tents, made up of maybe a plastic tarp and plastics bags strung together for families to live. I have read about these people and seeing them, it is inconceivable to me that people live like this by choice. In fact, one of the Kings built small cement homes in a community that you see every once in a while. They appear to be runner down and unoccupied. These wanderers refused to live in these houses choosing to live in these tents where is nothing but rock, sand, desert
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We returned to the ship surprised to get a glimpse of the beach which was packed. However, hotels high rises abound, you name it, it was here including Burger King! We did not know if it was mostly tourists.
We went back to our room exhausted it was a 10 hour tour. We decide to skip the restaurant and go to the buffet; besides, my poor husband has a stuffed and cough. He needs to rest. I was surprised to find a Mediterranean buffet. It was yummo! There was lamb, hummus, tazeki, babaganush, Greek salad, and desert baklava which was amazing!
It was a great day!
Hope you enjoyed it!
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