Jordan

For our winter vacation our family decided to go to a part of the wold that we had not seen in the past.  The Middle East can be very intimidating and we have been pretty reluctant to take 2 kids there for a visit.  This winter, though, we ran across a really great deal through Gate1 Travel.  They were doing an escorted tour through Jordan, including Dead Sea and Petra for a great price.  What better way to see the Middle East than with an escort?  While booking the trip it turned out that it was cheaper to book an open jaw flight (into Amman and out of Tel Aviv) than round trip to Jordan so we decided to add Israel into our itinerary as well.  Unfortunately, Gate1 tours were all sold out for Israel so we had to go it alone in that country.   That ended up turning out for the best, though, since it was all much safer than we initially anticipated and touring with just our family is much better than with a large group.

Launching our barges in the Dead Sea

We started out flying into Amman, Jordan, and our first stop was the Dead Sea.  This is the lowest place on Earth, approx 500 meters below sea level.  The banks are encrusted with salt, it is approx 33% salinity.  The ocean is 3% and the Great Salt Lake is between 5% and 27% depending on where you are in the lake.  We got to go out swimming/floating and it was really cool.  You could actually sit in the water and read a book without sinking.  Our family played a game called launching your barge and we sat in the water and floated around  until we realized that there was a current taking us out to the middle of the Sea.  Time to paddle back!

The next day we went to Petra.  I have always wanted to visit Petra.  Everyone knows about the Indiana Jones tie in and one of the Wonders of the World, etc, but I wasn't really prepared for how big the area actually is.  We only had half a day tour but we really could have spent at least one day and possibly 2 in order to see the whole thing.  Most of the parts that are carved out of the sandstone are actually the tombs.  The people enjoyed living amongst their dead.  Go figure.  The place was initially made by the Nabateans, these are pre Muslim Bedouins.  It was then taken over by the Romans and then after the fall of Rome it was forgotten about by the West until a British explorer disguised himself as a Muslim worshipper and tricked the Bedouins into taking him to the site.  We actually went back a few days later on our own, on our way to the Dead Sea, but it happened to be a rainy day and there was a flash flood.  They weren't letting anyone into the site that day.  We were disappointed, I mean, who would have thought that there would be that much rain in the desert?  Anyway, for future reference, plan at least an entire day to see Petra. 

The approach to Petra

The Treasury

Petra

We also went on a desert safari in Wadi Rum.  This is one of the most desolate deserts I have ever seen.  It is full of sand and absolutely no plants at all.  It was the setting for the movie the Martian.  We rode all over in the back of pick up trucks and got to watch to sun set over the rocks.  It was so much fun. 

Wadi Rum, no plants!

Wadi Rum

Site of Christ's baptism, River Jordan

We also got to see the site of Jesus's baptism on the river Jordan as well as the view of the Promised Land from the top of Mt Nebo, just like Moses saw before he died.  The kids were a little disappointed by the River Jordan.  In all the Primary pictures it is a large gushing river with plants all around.  Not in this day and age.  The river has been dammed upstream to maintain water supplies for Jerusalem and Amman.  This leaves a very small, muddy river flowing into the Dead Sea.  In fact, the Dead Sea has shrunk one meter per year for the past 25 years.  From our hotel you had a long walk to get to the shore of the Dead Sea.  Anyway, we tried to help the kids envision what it looked like during Christ's time, and it was still cool to dip your hands in the water where Christ was actually baptized. 

Main street in Jerash

Our escorted tour ended in Amman where we went to Jerash, a super well preserved ancient Roman city.  Since Jordan is essentially a 3rd world country they let  you run all over the ruins and really explore.  The kids loved it.  We really wanted to do some scuba diving in the Red Sea since it is supposed to have amazing corals and sealife.  In order to do this we had to strike out on our own with a rental car.  We drove nearly to the Saudi Arabian border and then visited the Red Sea.  We talked to the kids about Moses and the Israelites escaping from Egypt.  We also went snorkeling, unfortunately, it was a super cold snap so we didn't get to enjoy the amazing corals and anemones like we wanted.  We did see an anemone with it's own little clown fish, just like Nemo.  We also discovered that he Red Sea is called the Red Sea because the beach sand is all red.  Pretty cool.  After the Red Sea adventure we crossed the border into Israel. 

Jelly fish in the Red Sea