Day 15: Road Trip to Petra

Today I got up early and met my driver for my trip to Petra, which is about 4 hours south of Amman. The driver had planned to stop at a few places along the way, but it was pointless because the fog and rain was so bad. We went through a town called Madaba, which is home to a Greek Orthodox Church. Not sure of the significance; my driver spoke very little English. All he told me was "#1 church in Jordan," so I took it for what he said and snapped a couple photos. The city was flooding and completely covered in trash.

As we drove the the mountains, we could barely see 10ft ahead of us, cruising at around 15mph. I can only imagine how beautiful the mountains and valleys that surrounded us were, the fog and rain wouldn't let me see far, thank goodness for google images! The windy and steep roads reminded me of the many drives I took as a kid to my grandfather and his borther's mountain houses outside of Cashiers, North Carolina.

We made a slight detour from our trip to visit the Dead Sea. I would never forgive myself if I literally drove past it and didn't go in because of the weather. The view of the Dead Sea was absolutely amazing, and the Israeli coast looked like something out of a movie with its steeep mountainsides. The area that we went to for the Dead Sea was very touristy, but as you can imagine, no one was there. It was in the high 30's F and drizzling. My driver asked me if I wanted to eat before I swam, I told him that I need to wait at least 30 minutes after I eat before I can swim or I may drown (the "30 minute rule"), he didn't get the joke. As I got undressed down to my bathing suit I kept telling myself, "this is crazy!" while I was shivering my teeth away. If you don't know about the Dead Sea, it contains an extremely high amount of salt and you simply float in the water.

After my swim in the sea, we continued our journey to Petra. As we entered back up the mountains, the rain and fog began to pick back up. As we ascended higher the rain turned to snow and the roads to ice. The higher we got the worse it got. We encountered several wrecks and had to stop multiple times to help push others up the road. I had to get out three times to push us up the road.

Once we got out of the mountains and onto the Desert Highway, the snow was gone, but the high winds were still there. As we entered Petra, the snow picked back up, but as we descended into the lower part of Petra, the snow was gone. It was amazing to see the extreme weather changes as we ascended and descended the mountains.

The drive took us much longer than expected, so I just hunkered down in the hostel for the night. Of course the power cut off tonight, so it has been bitter cold in my room (around high 48 according to the thermostat on my watch). The power just cut back on, so I wanted to write this before I went to bed. I am 8 hours ahead of eastern standard time.

Tomorrow, I am waking up early to enjoy all the sights in Petra. With my ticket for entry to all the sights, I get a free horseback ride because we are in the tourist off season. Not going to complain with that!