Aqaba, Jordan - May 13

hitting the town

Petra`s Treasury

Last night Chris and I hit the town. We went into the town of Aqaba hoping to find dinner and a shisha. We found a shisha, but decided against dinner. It was nice to be out on our own away from the ship for a while doing something a bit different.


After 5 very relaxing days at sea we are back to getting up early and onto tour buses. We are visiting Petra (an ancient Jordanian city from the 6th century BC) which is a 2 hour drive through the mountains and deserts of Jordan from Aqaba. The landscape is very similar to the landscapes of our last few ports. It is still mountainous desert with little if any vegetation, but it is still quite beautiful. The mountains seem to layer on top of each other one behind the other, and when the sun hits some of them and not others some appear light when others are darker – this is lovely.

Urn Temple

approaching the Treasury

As soon as we boarded the bus our guide told us that because Petra was 900 metres above the sea that the high temperature for today was only going to be 20/22 degrees. AMEN!!! This is music to my ears! I couldn’t have dreamt a better forecast. As it turned out he knew what he was talking about. The low temperatures were even more welcome as the walk around the Petra site was quite strenuous as compared to those we typically have and a hot and humid day would have been ugly.

are we there yet?

gorge

There is a whole lot more to the Petra site than the ‘treasury’ that I was familiar with from travel shows. The entire site is huge and the visit only covers a small amount of it. For me the multi-coloured rock formations are more impressive than what is carved. The view along the walk to the treasury through narrow passages takes about 40 minutes over huge cobblestones and is stunning. The cobblestones make the walk a bit treacherous so, a lot of the time is spent looking down hoping more to take a spill rather than looking up.

Apparently the slumping economy coupled with the fact that today is Friday is responsible for the small crowds at Petra – this is a treat. Petra is at the same time huge and tiny. The passageways are relatively narrow at some parts, considering that there are carriages and camels in the mix. The extra space is welcome.

After the guided part of the tour Chris and I head out on our own. We are able to see a bit more of the site and get a bit more walking in. We have sadly had very little chance to get out and walk for the last month, so this was nice.

We ate a lunch of both western and Arabic food at a hotel. I could have eaten pita and the variety of dips all day.