Trip to Petra

We're back. After a month off from writing its time to get you up to date. On December 22, my cousin Lara visited us from San Francisco for about ten days and we decided to take a trip to the mysterious Jordanian city of Petra. The journey began as we started to drive out of Jerusalem towards Eilat where we had planned to stay the night before crossing the border. Getting out of Jerusalem is tricky since the city is not a grid like LA or San Francisco. It is very easy to get lost while driving and we did just that. As we ended up on the other side of the security fence...in the Palestinian territory we knew something was wrong. All of a sudden every sign was only in Arabic, we could hear the call to prayer outside our windows and there were muslims praying on the side of the road. We quickly made an illegal u-turn and had to wait in a long line at the checkpoint. When we got to the Israeli border guard we told her that we had gotten lost and ended up on the wrong side of the fence. She said "are you joking? Get out of here NOW!" She then waved up to the other guard to let us through and back into Israel. It was so easy to drive into the Palestinian territory but so difficult to get back into Israel. There should be signs informing drivers that "you are about to leave Israel and enter another country. Are you sure you want to proceed?"
We finally got on the highway and enjoyed a beautiful 4 1/2 hour drive down the eastern border of Israel through the Judean desert. We arrived in Eilat in the evening and had an awesome dinner at a Yodveta (a kibbutz known for amazing dairy products) restaurant. The next morning we were picked up and driven to the border where we met our Petra native guide, Ashraf. After the border crossing we took a van ride a few hours until we reached the city of Petra. To enter the ancient city of Petra we had to walk through a narrow ravine carved out of sandstone and all of a sudden we saw the famous treasury. Watch the opening scene to Indian Jones and the Last Crusade and you will know how awesome that first sight is. Petra has an interesting history and one that can be explained much better at http://www.ancientroute.com/cities/Petra.htm
All of the structures were built directly out of the mountains. The builders were extremely talented and this is a place that is worth a trip. Enjoy the pictures.