10/31/2022 0 Comments Petra-my second wonder of the world!Today we embark on our trip to the South of Jordan!! We are starting in Petra! We wake up early and head off on the 3 hour drive to Petra, luckily this trip we got the van so all of us had a nice amount of space. Each of us fell asleep during the drive, slowly waking up upon our arrival to Petra. We would only be here for the day to do the Petra trail, then leave to go to Aqqaba for our hotel the next few nights. To get to the Treasury/one of the Wonders of the World, you have to walk down a long, loooooooooooong, trail that was absolutely worth it! We did this exploration without a guide, which was fine because there was enough to see. Everything was so incredible to see, all of the rock formations and ways that people had carved into them to live here. We walked along the path for about 45 minutes until we made it to the Treasure, and oh man, it was just breathtaking!! Like what even this is so beautiful and incredible and how is this here?!?!?!! In the middle of the area were tons of camels for tourists to go up on and take a photo in front of the Treasury. There were also lots of men coming up to us trying to take us up to this spot overlooking the Treasury for apparently 'amazing' pictures, but we weren't falling for the tourist trap and amount of money they would ask of us. We enjoyed the view for awhile and took many photos, then continued on down the path. It's amazing how much archaeological findings there are here! Going down the path there were tons of little vendors with jewels and knick-knacks. Rounding a bend, the trail split where you could stay on the ground-level, or go to the right and climb up rocks and view the area from high up. We took the climbing trail, some with stairs some just finding solid rocks to step on haha. We got very high up, which was beautiful and terrifying if you thought too much about how high up we were. We took in the view for awhile, then continued along where high up here were caves and a church that you could enter. Following the theme of this post, it was all beautiful. I felt so privileged that I was able to see and do all of this. We eventually climbed down and continued on the path, walking up among another ruin where you could sit. A Bedouin woman came up to me to try to sell some of her scarves, and ended up sitting with me and we chatted for awhile. She lives in one of the caves in Petra, and it takes her an hour to get to where we were every day. She said she has 9 children, and was herself one of many children. She was very sweet and pointed out many of the different features to the ruins and rock formations (how one looked like a camel). A little further along was a major checkpoint area with cafes and restaurants, and bathrooms (which was necessary with all the water we had been drinking!). We hung out around here for a little bit, grabbing refreshments (I got a red gatorade which proved wise for the electrolytes), then went up another high path that takes you to a church ruin, with murals along the floor of Christian symbols/art. To get to this point took us about 2 and a half hours. If we wanted to go another 45 minutes, you could see another architectural ruin alike the Treasury, but we were all so tired. So we started to journey back through the winding path, appreciating the moment. Jona and Joseph walked ahead of Brittany and I, and we just chatted at about how much we couldn't believe that we were here and all of the beauty we had seen. The amount of history that was there, and just thinking of all the people that have gone through and will continue to over the centuries is crazy. With all of this appreciation however came deep soreness of all of the walking we had done over the past 4 hours. We finally made it back to the van, and all slept on our way to Aqqaba.
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