BYU Jerusalem: Jordan Field Trip Day 2: Petra

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October 30

Today was Petra Day!!!!!! We woke up really early and walked from the hotel. It was a five minute walk to the opening of the canyon and along the way we had Jordanian men shouting at us to take a horse ride down. The canyon was sweet! It gradually went downhill and the canyon was long, probably a little less than half a kilometer. The canyon walls were really high and at the base of them the ancient Nabataeans carved a rain gutter like device that collected the rain that ran down the canyon walls. This rain gutter went the whole way down the canyon. This is the same canyon from “Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade” if you are into that. We then came to the end; through the canyon looking out the end you can see the face of the Treasury. It was breath taking! This massive Tomb structure carved in the cliff face still stands today with surprisingly minor erosion. Our guide informed us that this preservation is due to the direction it faces and the wind that keeps the rain from causing damage. We took some pictures then I rode a camel. As I put my leg over to get on the camel I ripped my pants while the camel turned its head and growled and me with its mouth open. This happened three times, it hated me. His mouth was nasty and his teeth were gross and sharp. There is a classic picture of this moment below. I eventually got on and had a short ride, mainly for the photo opp, but it was a fun little ride. We then walked down the canyon into the valley, all along the cliff sides were tombs carved into the cliff faces, this place is amazing. We were determined to do the two hikes before lunch. The first hike is called “the high place” which was not comforting to me at all. I learned later that this hike had over 700 steps. It was hard but we did it quick in the cool morning shade of the cliffs. The smell was not very pleasant, there were a lot of donkeys there taking people up the hikes, we were forbidden to partake in such luxuries. In fact, we got to dodge and smell the waste of the luxuries in which we were prohibited to use. Eric and I naturally made it to the back of the group, we were the two FGB members and I taught him the ways of the ten and rest. Ten stairs = a rest. We took pictures of the beautiful panoramic view. I did my bird call a half a dozen times because it echoed through the canyons for a long distance, which was amusing to me. We hiked down then crossed the long valley about half a Kilometer to the other side, the whole time we were looking around at the massive Tombs carved into the faces of the cliffs. I halfway rolled my ankles 4 times in Petra, too many rocks and not enough ankle support (both naturally and in my footwear). We then hiked the Monastery hike which I learned later consisted of 837 steps up to the top of these huge cliffs. This was a challenge after just hiking the “high place” with the sun now out beating on us and the smell still lingering. The whole time we hiked up there were Bedouin men and women selling souvenirs and as we passed they would say, “Good price! 1 dinar! Happy Hour!” I don’t know who taught them about Happy Hour but they beat that phrase to the ground, which was humorous to me. We got to the top eventually and man was it worth it! The Monastery was sooooo sick! It was much like the Treasury, but bigger! We climbed into the inside and sang some songs because of the great acoustics. After tons of pictures I hiked to this little peak across the way and a few peeps caught up and hiked with me. It was a great view of the Monastery and the wilderness. The geography was reminiscent of New Mexico and Southern Utah, But with really high cliff mountains. The way down, like always was easier and faster, I hiked down with Eric and Emily M. At a few points we had to jump out of the way for a Jordanian guy booking it down the mountain on a horse with a couple of donkeys following. I felt bad for the horse and donkeys because it is an uneven, rocky, steep and windy trail down with other donkey groups and people coming up it. We made it down and then ate lunch at the restaurant there. After lunch we explored more tombs in the cliff faces then made our way back to the busses. Once outside of the canyon I got to ride a horse for about half a Kilometer, which increased the rip in my pants quite a bit ha ha. I was dead tired and super sweaty, but man what an experience. Petra was phenomenal. On our bus ride to Amman we stopped and took a picture of Shobak Castle which is a sweet Crusader castle, but we didn’t get to explore it. We had a long drive to Amman in which a majority of us slept. We got to our hotel which was super nice, my room was a suite. After dinner Liddy, Rachel Hughes and I went out into the city. We went to Rainbow St and cruised around. We stopped and watched some local kids who were dancing. They were very good dancers, entertaining and funny. Rachel started talking to a few of them and we all ended up surrounded by these kids speaking broken Arabic while they spoke broken English. It was super funny because Rachel was on fire with the little Arabic she knew and they were all in love with her. One kid had a skateboard and I asked if I could try. I did an Ollie, 180, and got close to landing a kick flip as they all started yelling and high fiving me. The guy who owned the skateboard came up to me and said, “I just started skating 3 days ago, the guy who sold it to me said I was too fat to learn, but you give me hope” (he spoke the best English). I was so happy to hear those words. This is the essence of the FGB. We continued to hang out and eventually I had to drag Rachel away from all her new boyfriends. It was an awesome night.