PetraFABULOUS!

Petra. You ever heard of it? Think Indiana Jones, The last Crusade. Yeah. I totally went there. It was so dang cool! We woke up early in the morning (I really should stop writing that because we wake up early EVERY day) so that we could be the first ones in and have plenty of time to explore Petra. The walk in is pretty amazing and as soon as it opens up into the treasury you just want to take a million photos to prove you were really there. When we got to the treasury, there was hardly anybody else there, so we were able to take some good photos before moving further into the valley to see all of the other amazing things carved right into the face of the rocks around us. Because we were there so early in the morning and the sun wasn't high enough in the sky to peek into the canyon we were in, it was freezing! And by freezing, I mean, something like high 50's. I am becoming such a wuss to the cold. Idaho is going to be a blast! As we continued walking along, we saw massive tomb after tomb. The outsides were impressive, but inside it was just a large square room. The way the rocks formed and the scenery around us looked a lot like southern Utah. At the middle of our time there, we were set loose to explore where ever we wanted. Lots of people payed to ride a donkey up to a Monistary at the top of one of the cliffs. I decided to walk it and I was determined to beat the donkeys to the top. My friends Nathan and I hustled to the top and we beat everyone on the donkeys. It really wasn't that hard. I don't think the donkeys had eaten in a week and it was probably their fourth trip up the mountain. We got some great photos at the top, and then headed back down for lunch. Lunch was AMAZING! Fresh falafel, pasta, desserts up the wahzoo! After lunch a group of us ran up to what is called the cathedral. It looked pretty much like everything else in Petra. I did grab some dirt for Brittani from inside the cathedral. The sand was amazing. It is all different colors. I got Berto some purple sand. After the cathedral, I was planning on going up to the high place but the people I was with kept running the whole time, and let's face it, I did not want to run all the way up to the highest place in Petra. I joined up with my friend Sarah Jane instead and we checked out all of the jewelry being sold by the bedouins. Can you guess what caught my eye? Turquiose. It was dirt cheap. Apparently, the Queen had a program set up to help the Bedouins. In this program, she gets tons of silver and stones (like turquiose) imported and then she employs the women and men to make them into jewlery and then they sell them. I got a large strand of turquise for 10 dinar (about 13 dollars), a pair of earings for 4 dinar, and a beautiful pendent to put on a necklace. As if I don't own enough turquiose already...but I just love it! You can stick me in the Middle East, but I will still find a way to be South western. The time to head out of town came and a bunch of us girls started the walk back out. We had some extra time so we stepped off the beaten path and found some beautiful scenery. We loaded on the buses, drove to Aman where we would spend the next few days. The End.