Forks in the Trail: Jordan

April: We were sad to leave Egypt, but also excited to embark on a new adventure in Jordan. We arrived in Aqaba, Jordan, via a ferry, in the afternoon. You could immediately tell that Jordan had more Western influence and was a cleaner and more organized country than Egypt. We took a taxi into town and stopped by a bank machine. It was being problematic, but thankfully, there was a Jordanian man there to help us. Captain Saber guided us to another bankomat and in the process of chatting, he invited us to stay at his flat. We declined at first, but he was really insisting that we have dinner with him and stay. So we did the smart thing and went with him...Remember, we were on an adventure! Once at his flat, he invited his friend of 20 years over for dinner too. Captain Saber and Captain Amer were both kind and generous. We ended up laughing, mostly about Captain Saber's luck with women, and talking until 2:00 am, and were absolutely exhausted the next morning.

The next morning we caught a cab into town, rented a car, and headed to the City of Petra. We were lucky to catch an evening candlelit tour the night we arrived. The moon was full, which made it exceptionally cool as we walked through the mile long siq. We hiked around the ancient city for 2 additional days, exploring all it had to offer. We climbed up to the Ministry building, up above the Treasury building, and all around the city centrum. It is hard to describe how awesome all the carved sandstone buildings and dwellings were. Thankfully, we got some incredible pictures.

We ended up driving back to Aqaba, where we wanted to scuba dive. At the Al Cazar hotel, we easily got hooked up with their diving center and were out in the ocean the next morning. We met up with a group of British and Canadian ex-pats working in Jordan, and went on 5 amazing dives with them, one of which was in a large shipwreck. We also enjoyed a party thrown for one of the guys who was leaving. We laughed and partied on a rooftop bar, and enjoyed the view of Aqaba at night.

After our stay in Aqaba, we headed to the Wadi Rum desert. We took a brief tour of the desert, got into an argument with the driver regarding where he agreed to take us, and then left. I have to say it was not as impressive as the New White Desert in Egypt. The night we left Wadi Rum, we stayed at the Dana Nature Reserve. It has simple accommodations, which sit high on the cliffs and offer spectacular views. They also serve a terrific dinner!

The next day we ventured up towards Amman, where the bombings had just occurred. We stopped and swam (floated really) in the Dead Sea, gave ourselves salt rubs, and then headed for the border. The border we tried to cross was closed, so we had to take a taxi to the next border crossing. We struggled, but finally made it across into Israel.

Captain Saber and I in his bachelor pad