To The Beach!

the Red Sea! From this vantage point, across the sea is the coast of Egypt, and if I turned my head to the right from here, I could see the coast of Israel. Then about 2 kilometers the opposite direction you run in to Saudi Arabia. Pretty incredible

Our hostel! Not too shabby.

This past weekend was yet another filled with adventuring. This time my friends and I took off to the farthest south point of Jordan, to the port town of Aqaba. Aqaba is located on the coast of the Red Sea, and is a super important port city for the country, because Jordan imports basically ALL of their products. We booked 2 nights at a hostel right on the beach, and it was a fantastic decision.

a mosque in the downtown area of Aqaba

First off, Aqaba is a great tourist city. It's funny how quickly I was able to notice the difference, and how obvious it was that this town was geared towards tourists much more than Amman. The taxi drivers all were extremely talkative and friendly, and spoke more English in general than in Amman, which was nice. The downtown area of the city was lined with shops upon shops tempting me to buy gold camel statues, scarves, and bottles of sand. We chose a restaurant based off a recommendation of one of our host moms, and had a great night exploring the city. 

Our second day we spent the morning on the beach and then decided to try snorkeling in the afternoon. Now I am not exactly the most gung-ho about swimming, open water, fish... etc. I am actually quite terrified. Even in the Dead Sea, where I knew nothing could possibly live, I was irrationally terrified a shark was going to come grab me. So I was ready for a slightly scary adventure. We got set up with a wonderful old Beduoin guide named Shark who spoke some broken english. He asked if we could all swim, and I said shway-shway (a little) and he said he'd keep an eye on me. We headed off, and it was pretty great. I definitely was pretty scared, but just kept thinking "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" in my head. We swam for about 45 minutes or so, with Shark pointing out things to us along the way. There was only ONE rule he told us, which was "Don't touch the Fire Coral" which was a bright orange colored coral amongst the other sea life. Of course, with that being the only rule, at least one of us had to break it. I learned that as I'm not the best swimmer, I have essentially no control over where my body goes in the water. So naturally I bumped right into the forbidden fire coral. By the time we got out of the water, a number of fairly massive welts had developed on my left thigh... Leaving an obvious trace of exactly where my skin came into contact with the coral. As soon as Shark saw it, he ran off to pick an Aloe leaf off of a plant nearby, and rub it onto the welts. It was a pretty hilarious experience. 

tank! I wish this was me... but I was too chicken to go down that far.

In addition to breaking the one and only rule, we swam out to a point where Shark pointed for us to look below the water. Sitting on the ocean floor, not that far from the beach, was a tank from WWII. Just sitting there, covered in little sea life. But it was great. We could swim down and touch it (though I chose not to). That was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen. 

After our snorkeling escapades, Shark offered us tea (which was the absolute best I've ever had) and we talked with him for a little while. He's an amazing old man, just living his days taking groups out snorkeling and scuba diving into the Red Sea. Pretty great. He speaks snippets of numerous languages.

We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing on and around the beach and hostel. It was a fantastic getaway from the city for a couple of days!

underwater camera = one of my best investments yet

This is a Palestinian flag. Aqaba is flying it essentially as a sign of
solidarity right here because it is visible right across the way on the
coast of an Israeli town. 

fishies

Beach Day! 

This upcoming week is Eid Break for students in Jordan, so my friends and I will be travelling to Israel and Palestine for the week. I will essentially be MIA until the 19th, but will be certain to document the travels when I get back!