Traveling Adventures Hi! Welcome to my travel journal. I created this so friends and family can keep track of me on my adventures. I'll update this when I can.

well, i'm able to check off another thing on my list of places to go.  we left wadi rum on the morning of the 6th for petra.  before arriving in the village, we stopped at a fruit stand for some last minute snacks and bought Washington apples.  yes they imported apples from home and we bought them in jordan.  after checking into the hotel, we headed into petra.  petra was built by the nabataeans, an aramaic-speaking culture, in the 1st century bc.  it was a prosperous city as it was along important trade routes from central asia.  petra was eventually annexed by the roman empire and declined as trade routes shifted and tectonic activity picked up (there were several earthquakes as late as 555AD). we entered petra via the ancient entrance to the city, the As-Siq, which is a 1200m long slot canyon formed by a tectonic shift in the sandstone bedrock.  the sandstone was gorgeous and the canyone was also dotted with fig and poplar trees.  for all the tourists who cant or dont want to walk, there are these rickety horse carts you can take through the siq.  they would come careening around the canyon corners literally on two or three wheels, with the horses tripping or slipping on the cobble stones sometimes with a few terrified tourists hanging on for dear life and trying to minimize the jiggling (most of the passengers were very very obese italians).  finally you come around a corner and can see some columns and arches through the canyon walls.  the siq empties out into a wider siq and the treasury or Al-Khazneh (the most famous and most photographed building in petra) is right there in front of you.  it is carved entirely out of one sandstone cliff- you bricks or blocks, just straight out of the rock.  it is an orangey-rose color because of the sandstone.  there are six massive corinthian (i think) columns right in the front with statues and leaf and flower designs.  the building appears to be two stories tall with some more places for statues on the second floor.  the pyramids and the sphinx were alot smaller than i was expecting, but this was way bigger than i expected (it is 30m wide and 40 m high).  it was originally named the treasury because locals believed that an egytian pharaoh had hidden treasure in it, but it was actually a tomb for a nabataean king.  you guys will just have to wait for picture i guess because i cant really do it justice in writing.  after the treasury you head through another short siq and out into the open area of petra with more tombs, cave dwellings, temples and a theater.  this is known as the street of facades.  the theater could seat up to 7000 spectators.  the sandstone in this part was like nothing i have ever seen- it was in layers sort of like ripples with red, white, brown, purple.  it almost looked like mother of pearl in some places (again you'll have to wait for photos i suppose).  at this point we parted with our guide and the four of us headed up to the ad-deir monastery about a 45 min walk up into the mountains.  when we got to the top i saw some sort of cave dwelling shelters and old rock walls and thought ok that's cool i guess, but then you go around a corner of rock and there's a huge building similar to the treasury.  it was huge!  and right out of the rock just like the treasury building.  just past this you can hike to the edge of the mountain and look out over the desert.  as you head up, there is a junction with about 6 or 7 signs put up by shop owners trying to convince you that their shop has the better view.  we chose to follow the least obnoxious sign and had a great view out over the desert.  as we were coming down from the viewpoint we heard a shout by the monastery building and looked up to see someone climbing on the very top of the building.  the guy just scrambled right up there and was jumping from roof to roof.  this building is 130 ft tall and freakin old and breaking and this guy is jumping and climbing around.  idiot.  we left after that because it was stressing mon and i out to watch him (we would have been obligated to help him if he fell).  we left petra and ate at mystic pizza (haha) for dinner.  we also tried to watch indiana jones and the last crusade because petra is in it, but the pirated dvd the restaurant had was working so we failed.  the next morning we headed back into petra for a hike to Aaron's tomb (Moses' brother).  it was a great hike because none of the rich touristy types would dare wander off the paved path into the desert so it was pretty much us, the bedouin, somes camels and some goats.  part of the trail was just a jeep road and we were walking up this and saw some donkeys coming on down the road.  no big deal because donkeys are a really common form of transport.  then we noticed the donkey was dragging something.  when they got close enough we realized they were dragging a dead donkey.  the owners had tied up its legs and tied them to the back of the live donkeys and they were dragging it down the road, through the sand, gravel and rocks in its rigor mortus (spelling?) state.  it was quite a sight and smelled like death.  we followed donkey drag marks for awhile up the road.  we were hoping they would drag it right through the main petra area (we could just see the faces the tourists would make if they saw that).  we made it up to the tomb at lunch time and sat in the sun on the roof of the little mosque at the top.  there was a guardian guy who came up there to talk to us and spy on other tourists struggling up the mountain through his binoculars.  this ended up being a 10-11 mile day so we were really happy.  we ate at mystic pizza again for dinner.