An Amazing Weekend in Petra and Dana

We've been planning on getting down to Petra for months, and we were finally able to do it last weekend.  

We were blessed in so many ways.  First, we were able to plan to meet up with a couple we met when we visited Greece in December.  David and Hannah are from the DC area and currently living in Israel; however, they needed to leave the country to get David’s visa renewed, so they came to Jordan to see Petra.  Second, a coworker was going to be out of town for the weekend, so she let us borrow her car.  Woohoo, no rental cost!  And, because we are officially residents in Jordan, entry fees into Petra are only 1JD.  Of course, there were many other wonderful moments throughout the weekend.

David and Hannah

We left Amman with the volunteers really early and arrived at Petra at about 6:30 am.  We made our final preparations and took our packs in at 7.  Then we hiked around for 10 hours, enjoying the great views and the wonderful company along the way.  That evening, after a lovely meal, we said goodbye to David and Hannah and drove an hour north to the Dana Nature Reserve.  The stars were so clear that we pulled over on our way there just to stare. 

We arrived in Dana after dark, so we were surprised the next morning to see the beautiful view from our hotel.  We had a leisurely morning, then prepared for a hike.  We were starting to go down into the canyon when we came around a corner and saw some baby goats.  Upon closer inspection, we realized that they were brand new, just minutes old: still gooey and struggling to stand up!  There were some shepherds there, so we told them mabrook (congratulations) and they invited us for tea and a donkey ride.  After we left them, we made our way down to the bottom of the canyon and found a shady spot for lunch and church services.  What a great day!

Hiking out and driving back to Amman were uneventful, but we will remember our weekend for a long time to come!

The Egypt Post!

After vowing over 4 years ago not to leave the Middle East without first seeing the pyramids, Amber finally got her way!  Over midwinter break, we were able to take a 5-day trip to Egypt.

We made arrangements to have a car pick us up at the airport and drive us around Cairo for the day.  He came highly recommended, and we were glad to have him.  First stop was the train station in order to pick up tickets to Luxor.  After getting tickets, our second stop was the Cairo Museum.  The collection was amazing: hundreds of thousands of artifacts.  The facilities were terrible: bad lighting, confusing layout,  poor labeling.  And, sadly, no cameras allowed inside...  Still, it was pretty cool, and the mummy room was really neat, even if you have to pay more to get into it than to get into the museum itself.

After leaving the museum, we left for Giza.  Driving down the highway, we got our first glimpse of the massive pyramids, despite the light drizzle:

Of course you know they're big, but nothing really prepares you for just how big they are.  

We spent a couple hours on the Giza plateau: looked at the three pyramids, got a lot of photos, saw the sphinx.

Afterwards, we got dropped off in Coptic Cairo to wander around for an hour or so.  This is the old, Christian part of the city.  It has some neat old churches (including one made from an old Roman tower) and Egypt's oldest synagogue.

That night we took a train to Luxor, and let's just say that when they tell you it'll take 10 hours, it's really 13!

Next morning, Luxor!  So much to do, so much to see.  After finding our hotel and checking in, we went to the Karnak Temple complex.  The largest temple complex in Egypt, Karnak was added to by several generations of ancient Egyptian royalty.  This place was so big we didn't even see it all.

Our goal for the next day was to tour the West Bank, where all the tombs are.  After taking the ferry across the river, we got a taxi out to the Valley of the Kings.  The valley itself is nothing special: it's what's hidden in the ground that's amazing.  Dozens of tombs of pharaohs, queens, and other nobles are there, many quite well-preserved.  You get to go into 3 with your basic ticket, and the last one we entered was off the beaten track, making us the only people inside, so the guard let us take a few photos.

Our Lonely Planet guide said you could hike over the ridge to Hatshepsut's temple, so we decided to try.  After talking to an American there on a dig (who told us exactly how to get there, even though it was technically not allowed anymore because of possible security concerns), we took to a trail and went up and over.  Great views along the way and no incidents!

Hatshepsut's temple is one of the most well-preserved places on the West Bank, and we spent another hour or two checking it out.

Next up was the Ramesseum...

...and then the Habu temple.

Luxor was so nice that we decided to stay an extra night there instead of going back to Cairo!  The third day in Luxor was the most relaxing,  We went to the Luxor temple, right down the road from our hotel, then the Luxor museum, then took a felucca ride on the river.

That night we got on a bus back for Cairo (the train being sold out).  Again, when they say 9 hours, count on 11!

On our second day in Cairo, the first stop was the pyramids, which we accomplished by a mix of using the subway and a taxi.  This time we actually went into one of the small pyramids and one of the big ones.

A taxi ride, a subway ride, and a bus ride later we were at the airport, ready to return with one less item on the Bucket List.