This morning seems like so long ago. We spent the morning at a dive center snorkeling and warming up in the sun. That was my first time seeing a coral reef in person. We saw all we could in about half an hour and then we started to get goosebumps. There were some neat fish. But we really need to go to Hawaii to see the good stuff.
I’ve felt uncomfortable on this trip because of the language barrier. For some reason it’s been harder to deal with than in Switzerland. At lunch today, Elisa was asking the waiter, “How do people that live here say the name Jordan?” She asked it a dozen different ways. The waiter called a different waiter over to help him understand. The second waiter answered, “Two months, three months.” Another waiter said, “But I’m from Egypt. We’re all from Egypt.” Then they called a manager over to help them understand some more.
We took a cab to the Jordan/Israeli border. Then we walked across a no-man’s land with our luggage. We got some cool passport stamps. Then another cab on the other side picked us up and brought us to Eilat.
Now we’re staying the night next to the Dead Sea. On our bus ride here we passed the Fountain of Youth and Lot’s wife. We almost rode the bus all the way up to Jerusalem because the driver didn’t stop anywhere in town. He didn’t think anyone wanted to get off. As he was pulling out onto the highway, I asked him where he stops for the town En Bokek. He asked what we needed En Bokek for. (Well, what did he think?) After asking that same question a few times, he pulled over to the side of the road. We got our luggage out and he drove away. Elisa and I had to walk ourselves back into the town and to our hotel. Luckily it’s pretty small so it wasn’t so bad.