Dead Sea

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  Dead Sea Region, Israel
Wednesday, November 26, 2008

We are at the Dead Sea now for 3 days. It is very desolate but beautiful. The Dead Sea (DS) has no life in it at all, 33% salinity so you cannot drown or even sink (Bob tried and kept "bobbing up" - yuck, yuck). We took a 3 hour jeep trip off road driving through amazing wadis (small valleys) where the jeep touched the wall on each side - it was the most amazing off road tour i have ever had. There is an entire mountain of salt here - 8 miles long an 1 mile wide - we topped in one canyon of salt and broke off some of the wall to taste - it looks like a regular dirt mountain with greyish areas but that is only dirt on top of the salt underneath. Our jeeps stopped, and we had hot coffee or tea and some pastries. Beautiful. We passed by several bus loads of soldiers (all so young - everyone goes into the compulsary miltary after high school so they are all between 18 and 23 but many of them look much younger - it is a bit disconcerting to encounter a young man or woman who looks 15 but is toting a Uzi. The military was apparently doing aerial test drops in that particular valley so when we got on top of the ridge, we were able to watch a number of planes come in low and slow and then drop parachuted supplies below which the soldiers then went out to get. Fascinating.

Bob and I went down to our hotel's private beach for a dip in the salty water. I just waded in to my ankles but bob went out and floated around. There were blue chaise lounges and umbrellas right by the water, and it was delightful. Under the water, the ground was very hard and rocky so it was very difficult to walk, even if you had water shoes on. They actually have railings that go out about 20 feet out into the water for people to hold onto. Also, at the end of the railings there are large umbrellas sunk in the water so you can have shade even while in the water. Very sensible. This area has about 8 large high rise hotels right on the water with the cliffs directly behind - a beautiful setting. The water is so still that you can see reflections of the mountains, very beautiful.

Later, I went to the hotel spa for a mud wrap and massage. The mud and water are considered very therapeutic so many people come and spend weeks here getting treatments. One can go down to the sea and find mud to spread on your body but most go to spas and have it done. I had to try it once. You lie down on a plastic wrap and the attendant spreads handful of HOT mud all over your body. I almost jumped off the table when the lady first put the mud on because it was too hot - i kept telling her it was too hot but she just kept shushing me saying that it was OK and that was the way it was supposed to be (she only spoke a very little english) Finally i had had enough of being parboiled so tried to get up and she finally sort of laughed and said that OK if that was what i wanted she would not make the mud VERY, VERY COLD but that would not do me any good. Actually, when she came back, the mud was only slightly cooler so still very hot but i only got second degree burns instead of third degree (ha, ha). After the mud is all over you, you get wrapped up in blankets and lie there for about 20 minutes. It was relaxing once I cooled down but i dont think i will try it again. It took about 20 minutes in the shower to get all of the mud off. It must have been about 2 inches thick all over me and by that time was very sticky -our guide betty says that you have to have at least 2 weeks of daily mud treatments to have anything good come out of it.

We are probably some of the younger people here - there are not a lot of hard bodies here - the average age in our hotel is probably mid 60s and up. Like  i said before, most people come here for health reasons. We have seen quite a few blind people here also.

Bob said that the salt water stung some abrasions that he had so i did not even try to go in - i still have a lot of open biopsy sites on my arms and legs/ There is also an indoor salt water pool that bob said was very nice because the water was heated/

More later,  there is only one computer terminal here which you have to prepay for a certain amount of time but they cut you off on the second your time is up so i dont want to risk losing anything. More later.

Dead Sea Shirley

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