Elisa and I got up late today, and tired. I was woken up a few times during the night because our room got so hot! It had taken us a while to figure out where to set the thermostat, and so the room had already been heating up all evening. Then it turns out that the hot/cold switch is backwards from the label. It was past 3 am and the room felt like a dry sauna before I realized that might be the problem, and dared turn it towards Hot. 👿
Elisa and I have wanted to see Petra for a long time. After I heard Daniel was going to Petra last fall, I was insanely jealous. True. Petra had been on my list ever since I learned that the sandstone facade at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was a real place. 🙂
We walked through a pretty canyon that kept getting narrower and narrower. The scenery was similar to southern Utah. There were so many really interesting things to see, not only archaeologically, but the natural wonders were awesome. We probably hiked 8 km today–we weren’t expecting that. I can barely walk now. The hiking turned out to be one of my favorite parts. We hiked up to the Monastery, which was pretty steep and had a lot of stairs. The paths were pretty narrow at some points. You could ride a donkey up and down and that looked absolutely terrifying. The breeze was nice. The sun was hidden behind a little dust.
For the return hike, we got on camels for a ride. So fun! They are weird looking creatures, you have to admit. And they were fun to ride. One of the merchants shouted out to me while we were riding back about how we needed to steer closer to see his goods. Then he said something like,”Get something for the baby! You’re going to have a baby right?” I have been all self-conscious about just looking chubby. I am glad he got it right! 🙂 This was a real vacation day.