Thoughts On [insert religious topic(s) here]

Jac’line and I made sure we were well rested today because we both knew there would be a lot of walking at Petra. Apparently, Jac’line had forgotten just how much walking there is because we were both VERY surprised by how far we had to walk to get to some of the ruins.

We were eating breakfast by 7 AM. It was a huge buffet and we both filled up, taking doggie bags for later in the day. Since Petra was walking distance from our hotel, we were walking through the tiny siq-tunnel-into the ancient city by 8 AM.

The walk from our hotel to the actual ruins took a good hour, much longer then I would have expected. The sensation of walking through the tiny narrow pathway into the city was heightened by the fact that Jac’line kept building up the suspense till we got to the treasury.

Walking through the Siq at Petra

Before I go on, I want to give a brief synopsis of the significance of Petra. Built by the Nabetians some 2,000 years ago, Petra is a large compound consisting of many structures where these people lived and worshipped their gods and goddesses. They built an entire city into the mountains where they lived. Besides just the city, they also built two large structures: a treasury for keeping their valuable artifacts and statues as well as a monastery at the highest point to worship.

The sight of the ancient carved structures peeking through cracks in the siq was amazing!

My first sight of Petra

I seriously just stared up at the first building-the treasury-for about five minutes, taking it all in: the colors, the textures, the architecture, the shapes, the beauty. It was awesome. Since we were there so early, the place was practically empty. We walked around, seeing the treasury from many different angles, and deciding what we wanted to see next. Everywhere around us were Bedouin men with horses, camels, and donkeys offering people rides to different parts of the ruins.

Camels resting in front of the treasury at Petra

Since we weren’t sure where we were going next, we just excused ourselves and went up to a hill where two artists were painting the Treasury from a distance.

We walked further into Petra, past the cities and headed towards the monastery. When Jac’line had been here in 2001 she didn’t go to the monastery, so neither of us knew what to expect as we headed there. We probably should have paid attention to the Bedouin men offering us donkey rides up to the monastery for 5 dinari. They were saying that by foot it took 2 hours to get to the monastery but by donkey it only took 15 minutes. It seemed too exaggerated to be a truthful statement so we shrugged them off a kept going.

Along the way, who should we run into but Dave. He had been exploring since about 7 and was getting ready to head up to the monastery himself. All three of us started hiking our way up the mountain, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into. After about 30 minutes and 400 steps, we were all pretty exhausted and from what people said on their way down, we were only half way there. Jac’line buckled and got a donkey for 8 dinari to have a ride the rest of the way up and all the way back down. Dave and I were still being stubborn and continued walking the whole way.

Looking back and down about halfway up the hill to the monastery

Jacline rides a donkey up to the monastery at Petra

When we got to the top, we were rewarded with a wonderful view of the monastery. It was bigger than the treasury and in even better condition. It radiated a deep reddish orange color from the sun. We stopped to look for a moment and then the Bedouin who was helping Jac’line with the donkey told us to follow him. He took us to a cliff looking out over southern Jordan.

The monastery at Petra

Despite being so high up, I felt completely confident in my ability to stand on the edge of the cliff (with my toes over the edge) and stare out into the distance. I even took a picture with one of my feet out over the edge, balancing on one foot.

That is me standing on the very edge of a massive cliff

Call me stupid, but for me, it was freeing to be able to be confident in my balance to hang out over the edge like that. I even went over to another cliff, a little higher up and stood on the edge making the “Lion King” pose and Jac’line got a neat picture of that.

The Bedouin who was with us gave us some tea while we were on the top of the mountain. The tea was amazing; very sweet with a hint of mint flavor. He said it was “Bedouin Tea” so I’m assuming I’ll have plenty of that in two nights at the Bedouin camp.

After resting at the top for a half hour and looking at the monastery some more, we made our way back down the mountain. Jac’line was far ahead of us because she had the donkey so Dave and I hung back and chatted as we went down the mountain. It was very refreshing to have another guy to for a bit. I’m not tired of Jac’line or anything, but I was starting to miss hanging out with people around my age.

When we got to the base of the mountain, I mentioned the geo-caches in Petra to David and he and I went looking for one that was supposedly only 500 feet away from the base of the mountain. I forgot to check the elevation however, and when we got to the coordinates, we looked up and saw that we were under a cliff about 300 feet above us where the cache was actually located. We were both too exhausted from going down the mountain so we just let it be and moved on, looking for Jac’line.

When we found Jac’line we took a few pictures of each of us in front of the treasury because the light had gotten really good as the sun started setting over the mountains. We walked the long walk back out of the valley and to our hotel. David came along too so he could see where our hotel was. We invited him to have dinner with us that evening at the hotel since he was at a hostel further in town and we all knew how grungy hostel meals can be sometimes.

After getting back to the room, we showered and did a bit of laundry in the tub.

Our room at the Crowne Plaza

Our laundry room at the Crowne Plaza

When we finished, we headed down to the restaurant to have dinner with Dave at 6:30. We didn’t finish the meal until 9, taking time to share stories and offer Dave some advice because he was heading Jerusalem the next day. I even gave him my trusty map of Jerusalem that hadn’t left my side the four days that Jac’line and I were in the Old City. We marked all the must-see places in the Old City for him and helped him get comfortable with the layout of the city.

We said our goodbyes and went back to the room. We packed our dry laundry (yay synthetics) and I went to the lobby to blog and check the news. I’m shocked to see what is going on financially in the US. It’s a bit scary coming of age in such uncertain times, but hopefully things will change for the better soon.

Shalom,

Mat