Day 167 - Day 2 at Petra

Monday, December 17, 2018.

We woke up early and went downstairs to the common area with our breakfast. At first, I was a little bit embarrassed to bring the food but then, I saw another girl with her own food and realized that it was ok. We had bought milk the night before and we were carrying cereal. We made peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwiches for lunch and we were ready to go. This is the part of the trip that has been hard for me. I think it would have been easier to buy breakfast at the hotel ($7) as well as the lunch box for about $5 but when you multiply everything for four people, I guess it gets expensive and Gregory keeps reminding me that we are on a budget. I breathe and move on.

Everything was forgotten when we got to Petra and took an amazing hike. A guide at the visitor's center advised taking a different trail to make it to the monastery, instead of the main road that everyone takes. I’m glad we did because it was just amazing. I felt so alive and happy. I just need to keep reminding myself how much I love nature and how great exercise makes you feel. The trail we took led to the High Place of Sacrifice and along to the Qasr Al Bint.

[Gregory's note: as we mentioned before, there are souvenir stands every 100 meters or so. They all sell exactly the same things: bronze camels, cloth camels, camel bone necklaces, kerchiefs, and magnets. Some have tables, some have tents or hovels. Some with a tent offer you tea as you walk by, which is free, but sure makes you more likely to buy from them!]

On the way up, we met two sisters, Nur, and Amira. They were so friendly, they invited us to sit and have tea with them. Sunshine wasn't feeling great so I told her to accept the tea. At first, she didn’t want to but we all sat and had a nice time talking to them. Of course, we ended up buying a necklace (allegedly made of camel bone) for Sunshine. When we were leaving Nur gave me a little blue box and told me that she wanted to give me that as a present. I told her that I couldn’t accept it but she insisted. I was so happy and moved.

Afterward, Sunshine said, "I’m sure it's all planned and she says the same thing to everybody to get money." In any case, I told her, she needs more the money that we do. We probably overpaid for the necklace but I told her that it didn’t matter because it was special and now she had a good memory! So we paid for the experience, which is what we have decided to do.

We walked up and up, and saw the city from above. It was quite impressive. We saw very few people along the trail. We finally made it to the High Point of Sacrifice and who do we see? Felipe, the guy from Brazil. We sat down with him to have our snack while he gave us advice about India. I don’t believe in coincidences and I was so happy that we met because I needed to hear my lesson for this trip: just let it go!

[Gregory's note: the High Place of Sacrifice was probably the high point (no pun intended) of Petra. The hike up was peaceful if strenuous -- we only saw a handful of hikers, and the solitude was amazing. I wonder if it's like this in high season. There was a meditative feeling at the summit. The one Bedouin selling souvenirs here was helpful in explaining the layout of the site and pointing out the highlights of the view. In the distance was Aaron's tomb -- as in Aaron, brother of Moses. It was so quiet and beautiful as we sat on the ground and chatted with Felipe about India. Finally, a group of about 20 (maybe it was only 10) noisy hikers arrived and broke the spell and we moved on.]

After a few more hours of walking along a path that wasn't really marked, we finally crested a hill and looked down on the temple complex. Sunshine and I found a sunny spot to eat our lunch while Gregory and Daniel went back to the trail to look for Daniel’s cell phone -- oops! I said a little prayer but honestly, I considered the phone lost. We had walked so many miles and been on so many trails that who knew where he dropped it. He was devasted so I didn’t get mad at him. While we ate, we had all sorts of Bedouins trying to sell us a ride on donkey or camel to the monastery, our goal. It was tempting, considering the time we had left but come on! 10 JD to ride a donkey one way, that’s 14 dollars times four! [Gregory's note: actually, they were charging 15JD per person -- special price.]

Believe it or not, they found Daniel's phone. I told him that it was a miracle because, honestly, what are the chances? Apparently, the same guy I had to ask for directions before, the man driving a white pick up, had it. Gregory found him parked on the side on the road and said Daniel had lost his phone. The man reached into his car and pulled out the phone! Some people call that luck. I call it a miracle. The man could just have kept it and said he hadn't seen it. We were all happy but very tired. The hike had been great, but it was close to double what we had walked the day before!

By then, another hour had passed and we (more like I) were wondering if we had enough time to make it to the monastery. We were a half hour away [Gregory's note: actually, it's impossible to tell how long it would take since distances aren't marked and the Bedouin exaggerate so they can sell you a ride] and we still had to climb 850 stairs to make it to the top -- figure an hour, half an hour down, and another hour to go all the way back to the entrance, where our shuttle was going to pick us up!

If we had rushed, maybe, we could have made it but our legs were trembling so we all voted no, we are not making it. Instead, we walked to see the temple of the winged lions and then slowly back to the main entrance.

At a quarter to 4:00, I got anxious because we still had a long way to go. We were still getting pestered by Bedouins offering rides. We stopped to chat with an older man who offered us a free ride in exchange for my or Sunshine’s hand! I said, wait, I have a husband and then he said, how about her? I said, she is too little, she is only fifteen. The man stared at her breasts (grrrrr) and said that she was fine.

I said, no and then he offered 20 camels. Anyway, we said no and we walked faster just in case he was serious. By then, we really had to rush to make it to the shuttle stop. Our -- my -- legs couldn’t move faster, we had been walking since 8:00! Gregory and Daniel made it before us and were holding the shuttle. We made it and we were exhausted! Funny how things look on the second day, but I was actually looking forward to going to my ugly hotel and taking a hot shower, no matter the look. It felt good to have a place to stay. When we arrived, no one could climb one more stair so we hung around the lobby for a while, then finally I climbed the two floors to my room and took a shower.

When Gregory was ready, he and I went out looking for food. Dinner at the hotel was 7JD, around $10 per person but the previous night we spent 8JD to feed the entire family. We walked to the tiny town looking for a kebab place. Gregory found a small restaurant and he and I ate there, which was way more pleasant than eating at our hotel. I even had lentil soup and hot tea. After our meal, we walked to the grocery store to buy hummus for a snack tomorrow on our drive to Amman.

The kids were happy with their falafel and hummus sandwich and sodas ( a little pleasure I think they have earned). We went to bed early, we were exhausted. We decided to take a taxi instead of the bus since the only bus was a 4 hour ride leaving at 4:00pm and it cost around the same considering that we would have to take a taxi from the bus station to our Airbnb apartment. These are the little details that we often have to plan.