Sun Shining Aqaba

Somehow Chris and I managed to get ourselves up and out Matt's door by 7 am sharp. Kind of a shame because a thick fog covered the ground and, in addition to being ungodly cold, we couldn't see too much in front of our bikes.

Foggy morning in Qrain


Chilly!

After a brief tea stop at the only market open in the next village we continued onwards, my hands wrapped in plastic bags to keep from freezing. Twenty km from the house we reached the pass, a long downhill that would take us into the deep, lower valley. We happily glided, not really aware of the temperature change (7 to 22 C) until stopping for a rest later (when I promptly and suddenly tore off my scarf and thermals).

Overlooking the Jordan Valley

Foggy mountain pass

The road south continues through the valley, cutting through karst and jagged mountains. On the left we passed Wadi Musa, an area of mountains with bedouin camps tourists can pay to sleep in. It's very nice but in my opinion Sedona is better and I'm not really interested in paying $50 for one night in the camps when we've been camping so often on this trip. We moved on, over 100 km to the port city of Aqaba. Mostly industrial, Aqaba has a large downtown area full of tourists, a few super fancy hotels, and American chain restaurants.

Movenpick decor


Swiss ice cream, yum

Not too overdeveloped though, I guess maybe the port and factories provide enough employment that people aren't desperate for tourism. We stayed two nights with Katrina and Francisco, two Americans employed through USAid to work in small business development. They have a nice house and comfortable enough salaries that even though they basically have Peace Corps roles and frustrations, life is not too stifling for them here.One afternoon Chris and I biked on the southern coast, toward the Saudi border to explore the beaches. We found an empty stretch of sand backed by mountains and facing Israel across the water.

Empty beaches along Aqaba's coast

Coastal road to Saudi

Eilat, the border town, looks like any other western city with a panorama of lights and sky scrapers. Both nights were very relaxing, eating healthy vegetarian food and watching some Al Jazeera with K and F. They have memberships to use the gym at the uber fancy hotel Mövenpick, which includes use of the spa, sauna, pool, and jacuzzi, which makes me very jealous. They go almost daily and thus are very fit, something I actually look forward to when I get back home.

Dinner with Katrina and Francisco

Our final night in Jordan! We are still torn on whether we should go through on a detour to visit our friend in Palestine tomorrow... Neither of us wants to go into Israel or back north into the cold, but it's really quite an opportunity not to be missed.