Le Meridien Eilat

... guy, but to call it a tour rather than a drive is a bit of an exaggeration.
It was funny when he would say things like, “You can explore the Siq for up to 150m without a guide,” and then after 20m come to a 5m high wall which most people couldn't pass.
We saw some of the sights like Laurence's House which was a brick wall in the middle of the desert and that was it.
The night out under the stars was magnificent. Every ...

... the water, which was comfortable, but surprisingly a little cooler than we expected. It's been 30 years since I snorkeled (at Sharm el-Sheikh at the southernmost point of Sinai), so I was a little rusty. Not to mention, in the interim, I seem to have lost some of my youthful adventurousness or developed some middle-age anxieties. Anyway, the first attempt wasn't too much fun: water in the mask (thanks to the moustache causing a less-than-tight seal) and the breathing tube ...

... as well. Right now I am sitting in a Bedouin tent made of wool blankets waiting to be served dinner and my only company is a little purring cat and her three kits, who lives in one of the most remote places in the world. And guess what we are in a desert where it only rains one month a year and its RAINING I am almost soaked through and swell like wet dog. GOOD NIGHT, OR SHOULD I SAY I CAN'T WAIT TILL MORNING! Esther

What a day I have had I am absolutely shattered at the moment. I will start from the begging for you. I woke up at around 6 or 7 and dozed for around an hour until about 8 when my alarm clock woke me up. I had really bad stomach cramps not really sure from what but maybe to much bread and getting use to all the new food I am having to eat. I set off in a shared mini bus with some Aussies to the ferry port after having a breakfast of salad, cheese and omlett not ideal ...

... climb, we walked past the theatre and we also got to walk up to some of the caves and see the different colours running through the stone. While the rest of the group kept climbing, we shopped. In Petra there is a NZ woman who married one of the Bedouins. She then wrote a very good book about it and now sells the book from Petra and signs each copy. Her husband died a few years ago but she now works at the site with her son Raami who we also met and speaks ...

This past weekend I went with the Language Center on a trip to Wadi Rum and Aqaba. The group left Friday morning at 8:30 am. There were probably about 65 students total. 15 of these students were from Miami. There were two buses, both looking pretty questionable in their ability to get us to and from our destinations safely. Thankfully though, the bus I was on was air-conditioned. The bus ride down to Wadi Rum took about 4.5 hrs. We made a few stops along the way. The first one ...

... in the pool is just the right temperature for a quick cool down and the dry heat is surprisingly tolerable for a hasty walk between the air conditioned buildings. This is one of the few Kibbutzim in Israel which have stuck to the original communal ethos. It is also home to the Arava institute of Environmental studies which have some very interesting projects going on. I'll talk more about all of this (and hopefully post some photos) in my next posting.

... to ourselves for quite a long time. A family joins us and they have been on a full day camel trek and talking about how much fun it was. Since I read the book "Tracks", about a woman who took a camel trek from Alice Springs to the west coast of Australia, I have had this fantasy of being on a camel. I didn't want a get up on a camel, take a photo and get off experience. I know, it's childish, but I have dreams of being on a camel a bit longer. That's ...

... kept buying drinks) at which point we convinced them to put the game on the big screen tv outside so we could watch the end. Needless to say, we proceeded to convince the bartenders, owner and staff to sit outside with us in the freezing cold until 5:30am when the game ended in OT with a HUGE Giants victory! Definitely going to be a night that will be remembered forever!!!

... been sitting on this message for ages now, partly because that taxi driver made me so ****** off I couldn't write about him without seeing red and ranting for ten pages. He got up my nose in a big way. Embarrassingly it has taken me 3 months to recover! Perhaps I could use some anger management therapy or something. But also because in one day, that region and its people managed to trigger a kaleidoscope of strong, sharp feelings in me, from bliss to tenacity, rage to mirth. It was and still is very confusing.