Aqaba, Jordan--Feb 25-29

the Red Sea from Bernice Beach Club

The Red Sea sparkles a beautiful combination of blues and greens, and although we'd love to swim, it is pretty chilly, so we decide to wade.  We are at a South Beach club complete with 3 swimming pools, restaurant, and beach area.  The beach in downtown Aqaba is surrounded by an industrial port and not the best for swimming.  Everybody goes to the South Beach area, so we do, too.  But the sand here is actually rocky, and, although we can see coral reefs from the dock and Russian tourists are in the water, we figure that they are more desperate for warm weather and swimming than we are.  We enjoy ourselves in the sun and count ourselves among the fortunate to have the opportunity to get out of winter coats.  Our first day
in Jordan is a success.

at the red dunes

Today we can see the sandstorm approaching, red like the hills around us, but keeping below the horizon so that the sky remains a bright blue.  We are in Wadi Rum, the Bedouin desert area of Lawrence of Arabia fame.  Our Jeep approaches a tent where we stop for a cup of tea (delicious with sage and cardamom) and yet another opportunity to purchase some handmade item.  We do.  Then it's into our vehicle and 15 more minutes of spinning in deep sand.  Our guide Sroe makes 3 attempts to climb up a particularly softsand hill and after backing down, gets a running start in 4 wheel drive, guns the motor, and makes it over and down the other side.  He explains that it's extremely soft because the sandstorm has just dropped light and loose sand as it passed over the area.  He halts on the edge of a beautiful, red sand dune where climbers clambor up the side and run lickity-split down again.  We don't (but it looks like fun).





Back into the Jeep again and this time we dismount at a narrow mountain canyon where we climb through to the back and out again, enjoying some fascinating petroglyphs along the way.  The mountain itself is solid rock, but the face of it looks like it has been melted and is dripping down like candle wax.  It's a vivid red, something that keeps calling you back to look again.  Another Bedouin tent with items to buy looms up at the base, this time with camels out front.  They are pretty cute with feet like leather-covered jelly which allows them to demurely step in the soft sand. 

camel herd with babies

After several times in and out of the Jeep to see some pretty amazing petroglyphs and rock formations, we are back at the Bedouin village where we started.  Our guide explains that this tribe, like most, were tenting people who moved around, and now they are settled in a specific area with real houses of cement.  As we drive through the village, we see boys playing soccer or leading camels, but we don't see any girls or women.  They keep themselves pretty scarce.  On our way out, we spot a woman tending sheep in the field and start to take a photo, but our taxi driver tells us that once a passenger took a photo of a woman and had stones thrown at his vehicle.  So, we don't.

It's a short stay in Aqaba, mostly to enjoy the Red Sea and to experience Wadi Rum.  We plan our next stop: Petra and hope to avoid the stormy weather we hear is coming.  It could even snow!!