Petra

 Sept 19

Happy birthday to Wendy.

Today we are off to Petra, what we were looking the most forward to. Well us and about 50 tour busses are in the parking lot! I think we may have missed the best years at Petra, but we will make the most of it.

Our guide is fantastic, before we got there he told us to ignore everything he tells us as we walk by the vendors, everything is fake. Jewelery is fake, old coins are fake, buy from us to feed 25 families is fake, but he must point them all out to us as we walk by and say it is a good place to buy. It was comical walking by the vendors and him pointing out everything and all of us just walking by. So many vendors lining the pathways, it really takes away some of the magic of the spot.

Petra itself wow. You walk about 1KM slightly downhill through an amazing narrow gorge with beautiful sandstone of many colors passing by tombs, caves, water cisterns. Amazing water channels built along the side for transportation of water. At the end of this gorge you come out at the Treasury, if you have seen a picture of Petra this is probably what you have seen. 40 meters high, lots of decorations. You can no longer enter, we heard too much graffiti was being done so they stopped everyone from entering. By now we are 2KM from the parking lot, along with hundreds of other people and dozens of camels that you can pay to sit on top of for pictures. Plus there are a couple of view points that enterprising locals have taken fences down and charge you to go up to the view point, long past the age of needing Instagram shots we pass on this.

From here as a group we walk another 2 KM downhill past the Royal Tombs, a 4000 seat Roman Theatre which is the only Theatre carved into rocks, and part of the original Roman Road. Everything amazing. At the 4KM mark from the parking lot we stop for lunch at one of the restaurants and from here we are left on our own with a few options given of what we can do for the next 5 hours until our bus was leaving.

The second most famous spot in Petra is the Monastery, so of course that is where we head. I knew it was up, but in my research I somehow missed 900 stairs up, off we go. Only 2 KM up, but it seemed to take forever. I had many stops, but there were kittens to play with, vendors to chat with, others taking breaks in the shade as well. Finally reach the Monastery, there is a nice coffee shop to stop and admire the amazing view. The Treasury is carved into the stone, the Monastery is out of the stone. Both are so impressive. From the Monastery we walked about another km to some view points over the Rift Valley behind, so impressive. After Andre managed to find an ice cream (I am not asking what he paid for that) we decide we better set off. So much quicker going down! I gave lots of encouragement to those that were struggling on the way up. Forgot to mention the donkeys. You have an option to rent a donkey to take you up or down if you don't want to climb. Our guide had told us about this option, I assumed they had a donkey road somewhere, NO, they take the same steps that we are all using on foot. So every now and then you hear a donkey coming from behind or towards you and you move out of the way. So besides trudging along to get up those stairs you also have to watch for donkey poo!

Safely made it down the stairs, had a rest for a bit at the 4 km away from parking lot mark, and then decided time to keep moving on. Back at the Treasury and there are so many fewer people there, time for more pictures, plus the sun is in a much better spot now for pictures.

We stopped at the frankincense and myrrh shop where we had seen a demo on the way down to purchase a little for our creche at Christmas. Another shop that we had seen a demo was sand art in bottles, this was really nice except really heavy to bring back home. Andre walked up to see a large Roman Temple, I even passed on walking up to look. The Great Temple complex covered 7000 Sq. Meters, I wish I had more energy, and Andre didn't even explore, it was huge.

So what was a gentle slope on the way first thing this morning somehow turned into what I felt like was a huge incline. I was done, but I made it. I didn't take the $50 golf cart ride up, nor did I get on the free horse ride that came with our ticket for the last 800m. Plus we saw camels running by, probably could have hitch hiked one of those. Quick trip through the museum by the parking lot for some air conditioning, and then onto the bus and back to our crazy hotel for 1 more night.

First check at the hotel is does our toilet flush, yes, excited about that, plus we have wifi now which was only in the lobby yesterday so excited about that too. Things are good for us, but other rooms are still a mess.

Petra parking lot, a small sample of the many many bus tours

Horse ride included in your ticket for 800m, up or down

Impressive caves even at the very entrance!

So many people entering the gorge, it is not even high season for another month

Pictures do not do these gorges justice

If you look closely on top you can see they are trying to protect this from falling

Water cistern 

See the elephant

Getting narrower, our trusty guide with his little flag pole, here you really had to keep an eye on him

Golf carts were an expensive option if you could not walk

First glimpse of the Treasury

The Treasury

Sand art, very impressive watching them make these bottles

Roman Theatre

Colors were amazing

Burning Frankincense and Myrrh

Royal Tombs

Frankincense and Myrrh

Donkeys being lead to work

Entrance Gate

The temple from 50AD, survived because there was wood in the structure and survived the earthquakes and did not crumble like the other buildings.  26 marble steps to approach, used by goats in this picture

Interesting parking spots in the shade

Beginning of our 900 step climb

Make way for donkeys on the way up the steps

Little shops set up along the way on the climb up the steps

Amazing views on the way up

Lots of kittens/cats to play with on my breaks from steps

Finally reach the Monestary, which dates to 2nd century AD.  Much fewer people here than at the Treasury

Lookout over the Rift Valley

Yes, ice cream even here

This donkey took a little coaxing to go up the steps

The man on the donkey had to duck to get through this archway

Original roman road

Great Temple Complex

Back at the treasury, not nearly as many people in the late afternoon

One last look back at the Treasury

Much welcome visit to the little museum/information center for air conditioning before we get on the bus