Salaam Aleikum,
After our beach time we took the ferry to Aqaba, Jordan. The first day we went on a desert camping safari to Wadi Rum. Each of the deserts we have been to seem to have their unique characteristics. Wadi Rum was a red sand desert with lots of rock outcroppings and seemed more like Arizona. (It is known for Lawrence of Arabia’s travels) Again, we enjoyed the solitude of the desert. From there we headed to Petra. Jordan is a really small country so we enjoyed having a maximum bus journey of a couple hours. Petra is an ancient city that was at its height from 100 bc to 100 ad. It is carved into the cliff faces of a valley. The entrance to the city is through a long narrow canyon, it is a pretty impressive entrance (Chad wants one like it for our house, keep dreamin’. You can see it in the final sequence of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.) That same day we took a taxi to the Dead Sea. We found a bathing spot where all the Jordanians seem to go. Of course, that really means Jordanian men, since the women are at home. Chad had to give Heidi his shirt to wear to cover her from the gawking eyes. Arab men have a tendency to be not so subtle when they see an unveiled western woman. We were entertained by our bouyancy(sp?) in the really salty water. We had fun reading our book while floating in the water. On the shore we gave our dry damaged skin a much needed mud mask. It was a good day.
Back to Aqaba and our hotel room with a refrigerator and TV. Now that we had seen all the sights we wanted to see it was time for a little America. We’ve spent the last week relaxing in our hotel rooms, drinking beer (we have yet to see a restaurant in the Middle East that offers it), watching American movies and World Cup Football/Soccer (our only sports outlet), and eating American food (including 1 meal at Chili’s!). We even found a theatre showing Star Wars in Cairo, which we enjoyed very much last night. Outside of Americana we spent two unsuccessful days hoping to see the dolphins again and spent today with King Tuts treasures at the Egyptian museum. Tonight we fly to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where we will spend our last ~2 months in East Africa (Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya).
Also worth mentioning….
In Jordan we spent some time with an exceptionally adventurous family from Washington. The Nolans. They are both teachers travelling with their three children, ages 11, 14, & 16, and have been on the road for 11 months. They also will return home in August, ending a 14 month around the world tour. We have seen so few Americans on our trip we were impressed that the most adventurous people we have met so far are our fellow countrymen. They were a very cool group of people and we are convinced that the 11 year old is much more mature than us. If you are interested, they have a website….http://nolansworldtour.tripod.com

Chad & Heidi