AQABA,JORDAN

Aqaba, Jordan

   If you look out the windows on the ship, all you see is blue water and pretty lights in the distance, but if you look on at the GPS map on your television, you see that the lights are in Eliat, Israel, the tall buildings to the south are in Saudi Arabia and you are in Aqaba Jordan. Aqaba is a duty free port in the southern tip of Jordan. From here tours leave for Petra or Wadi Rum. The city itself is like any other resort town. It was really nice to see paved streets and sidewalks, and families together. You would never know you were in the Middle East until you tried to read a sign, as they were all in Arabic. You also  encounter an occasional young man riding his camel on the sidewalk. I assumed they were Bedouins trying to make money from the tourists. The men never said anything. They waited for you to ask for a ride or a take a picture.

We have been here before in the November and took the fantastic trip to Petra. I was really tempted to go back, but Joe wanted to see Wadi Rum. It is about an hour to get to the visitor center from the ship. We went on one of the tours, but you could probably get there by taxi. The Arabian desert is right outside of the city. After a stop at the very nice visitor’s center, we climbed into the back of beat up pick up trucks 6 persons to a vehicle. The two hour ride through the Wadis <dried up river beds of long ago> with photo stops is very dusty and bumpy but a lot of fun. We saw a few bedouin camps, lots of camels and beautiful rock formations, somewhat like our Southwest only bigger. Before heading back to the ship, we had a final stop at a camp that actually was a motel. I use that word loosely. You can stay in these numbered tent like structures all in a row covered in wool blankets. There were mattresses on the floor and blankets. I bet it gets really cold out there at night. We were offered sweetened tea, sesame cookies and dates. The bathrooms were rundown modern with running water.

After our tour we took the shuttle bus in to town for lunch as I love this type of food. Joe wanted to eat at McDdonalds and use their free WIFI, but I balked. We eventually found an empty restaurant and had a great lunch, but did go back to the yellow arches so we could do some posts.

As of this writing we have now sailed about 25,500 nautical miles. My total estimate for this trip is 32,000 nautical miles. We have 22 more days to go.

Gina Wagg