Today is a "Chill" day in Amann, the capital of Jordan.  Yes, we are back in a BIG city for the first time since Cairo - 2 million people, so everything is available - yet tourists here pay a lot for almost everything.  Wadi Musa (the town next to Petra) was VERY expensive as it is a tourist town but we just HAD to stay 3 days to REALLY see all of that "Wonder of the World" - one of the "Modern 7 Wonders of the World."

I expect that I will get time to go back and blog more with pictures in the near future but for now, I just wish to let you know where we are!!!

The internet was down (as well as ATMs) one day in Wadi Musa so many travelers were "freaking out" as they couldn't get money or email!!!  Laughing out loud!!  Thankful I haven't such issues - there's always a way!

Tomorrow we will travel on to Syria so I will blog from there soon and the ups and downs of THAT trip but for now a little about yesterday!

First, we decided to order a bus for 6:30 am - one of the great things about having a group of 16 is that we can order a bus and fill it with NO problems!!  Laughing!  The 6:30 am time was necessary as we wanted to see so many things on our way to Amann that we HAD to leave that early!!  First, a two hour bus ride to Karak ...

Karak is the home of a excellently restored Crusader Castle - the site was amazing as none of us would have ever thought of scaling the heights in battle (of course many would scale the heights NOW - we have some extreme climbers in the group, after all the group IS from Mesa State's OUTDOOR PROGRAM - "THE O.P.")!  There were layers upon layers of castle walls with differing construction from various time periods.  The lower level halls and dungeons were available to us (unlike most Western castles which block them off) and we ran out of time trying to investigate even a portion of them!!  All for only 1 JD (Jordanian Dinar).

Next we took an hour bus ride to the Dead Sea highway - DOWN that is!  We traveled down to the lowest place on earth - lower than 1400 feet BELOW sea level.  Those of us that SCUBA dive have never been down that low as 40 meters is the maximum dive before technical limits are met.

Along the Dead Sea there are many outlets of rivers, most of which have little, if any, water.  However, the Nature Reserve at Wadi Al Mujib DOES have water and a HUGE canyon - so we went canyoneering in Jordan!!!  Felt JUST like being in Zion National Park - the walls of the canyon were HUGE and Massive with little distance between the walls.  The water was fairly low so that traveling upstream was fairly easy most of the time - MOST of the time!  Of course, there were the areas we needed to climb over boulders and sometimes "damns" with rushing water flowing all around us while we climbed.  YES, QUITE A FEW SCRAPES came with the climbs!  (More about that in a minute.)  For about 2 hours we hiked, climbed and struggled upstream - laughing, whooping and hollering the whole time.  Oooh, ONE MAJOR difference from Zion - the water was BATH temperature!!!  (In Zion we MUST use wetsuits as the water can be extremely cold, even on Labor Day during the hottest time of the year!) The water was CRAZY warm (we were just like kids with a new toy) - no sun, like in Zion - so we just played!  All the way up to the waterfall!  The water pelted on us as we strove to get behind the falls - a massage, shower and play all in one!!!  Laughing ...  Then we floated (mostly) all the way back down.  Quite a wonderful 3 hour side trip - OP style!

After that we took about a 15 minute bus ride up the Dead Sea highway to Amann Beach on the Dead Sea.  Swimming in the Dead Sea was always on the agenda of some in the group!!  Now WHY did we need to go to an established beach?  Well ... we needed to be able to wash off the salt ASAP (As SOON As POSSIBLE!!!).  BELIEVE ME - SOME DID SO IMMEDIATELY!!!

WHY?

Because the salt BURNS, BURNS, BURNS!!!  Every single little cut (remember the canyoneering scrapes and cuts - yes, you bet!) - YEEOOOWWCH!!!  Laughing - quite hilarious!

Those of us who could stand it just floated in the water - it was CRAZY!!  You could go out deep enough that you couldn't touch the bottom at all and our heads and shoulders were TOTALLY above water!!!  Doing a bicycle peddle with your feet was fun and didn't get you ANYWHERE!!!  Then our feet just floated up to the surface and we were calmly "lying" in the water with feet, hands and head totally out of the water, without movement - relaxing.  One could even just float this way across to the West Bank, we thought!  WIld.

Then there was the mud - black mud from the Dead Sea - some people pay GOOD money to spread this mud all over their bodies!!  We did so for FREE!!!  Laughing!!!  (OK, we paid 7 JD for the showers but we USED them!!!)  Pictures galore, no doubt you'll see at least one here sometime soon!

So we cleaned off the mud, salt and more salt - got back in the bus and it was too late to go to Mount Nebo or Madala ... maybe another time?!!?  Laughing - traveled to Amann, got our lodging and wonderful food ... again in a big city!!