Day Four - Touring Petra!

Have you ever had a bad start to a day? lol

Well this morning, Nathan and I, umm...ahem...overslept. lol We woke up at 10:02am local time. We were supposed to be ON the bus at 10:00am. Sigh. lol (To our credit, we had both been up till about 4:30am working on our blogs to keep you folks at home updated...so technically, it was your fault! lol) The entire tour group gave us a hard time about it all day. The reason it was so funny is that he and I are two of the main ones who make sure everybody gets back to the bus, etc... :)
We have a great group of people, and we are all having a blast. The people are friendly, the weather has been absolutely perfect (60 degrees and gorgeous sunshine), and our tour guide is wonderful.
After the whole group (ahem) made it to the bus, we drove to the entrance of Petra.
I will tell you right up front: Petra is amazing. And my words, descriptions, and pictures will never do it justice. You'll just have to come see it. :)
For those who don't know what Petra is, read this real quick:
                                                                                                             
"Petra (Greek "πέτρα", meaning rock) is a historic and archaeological city in the Jordanian governorate of Ma'an that has rock cut architecture and water conduits system. Established sometime around the 6th century BC, it is a symbol of Jordan as well as its most visited tourism attraction. It lies on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. Petra was chosen as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007. Petra was chosen by the BBC as one of "the 40 places you have to see before you die".

This is an amazing city located in within cliffs that look similar to the Grand Canyon. The entrance is a 3/4 mile long stretch with a hundred foot high rock wall on both sides... (Left to right: Sarah, Danae, Randy)

The signature landmark of Petra is a large stone edifice carved into the side of one of the rock walls. It is way over a hundred feet tall, and was not constructed but carved; it is all solid rock; all carved into the mountain by hand almost two thousand years ago.

There are tons of tombs, monuments, houses, caves, niches, and even a theater carved into the mountains...

Sarah and I; standing on the ancient ruins of one of the major temples in the city of Petra. In the background you can see some of the smaller tombs and caves carved out of the side of the mountain.

One of the highlights of the day... riding a camel! It's extremely tall, and extremely bumpy ride! I always pictured them slowly trudging along in the desert... don't be fooled! These animals can move! lol And when they do...you better be hanging on! (Left to right: Nathan, Sarah, Randy, Gloria, Josh, Danae)

I also raced down a mountain on a horse today at 105 mph ...but that's a story I don't have time for... :)

We have lots of stories and hundreds of pictures...these are a terribly small sample...but we just don't have time to post all of them! Sorry!

Experiencing these foreign lands and people is amazing. Touring the other side of the world like this is so eye-opening. We are enjoying every minute of it! Thanks to all of you who are following the blog; and thanks for all the emails and comments.

I'll leave you with a picture taken this evening from my hotel balcony... the middle-eastern sun setting across the mountains on the rocky outline of Israel's eastern border...